Protecting Sex Workers.

December 31, 2013 at 8:47 A.M. Sadly, on the last day of the year, I am required to state, yet again, that I face harassment in writing from my home. I cannot be sure of being able to return to these blogs in order to continue my work. 

For as long as I live I will continue to confront New Jersey's legal system with examples of the corruption and lies that define the state's courts. I continue to demand the truth to which I am legally entitled. I continue to point out the criminality and unethical conduct of judges and ethics officials.

That a lesbian with a fondness for very young women, Lourdes Santiago, who may have had sexual contact with Marilyn Straus while Ms. Straus was under hypnosis, who now admits lying about me and slandering me behind my back as well as stealing clients and fees from me, is listed as a judge or lawyer anywhere in the U.S. is a disgrace for the American legal system. Women exploiting sex workers are not "feminists."  

So much human suffering may be prevented or ameliorated -- something lawyers and judges are ethically obligated to do is to relieve the effects of injustice or unethical conduct by attorneys and all officials -- if New Jersey will simply tell the truth in my matters, finally ending the cover-ups, lies, and stone-walling. Shame on you Maureen Manteneo. ("Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?") 

Since I continue to experience obstructions when seeking to write on-line, I must point out that I may be prevented from writing further, against my will, at any time. Threats and other attacks should be directed against me, not my family members.   

Primary Sources:

Ian Austin, "Canadian Court Strikes Down Laws On Sex Trade," The New York Times, December 21, 2013, p. A4. 

Rich Shapiro, "Hard Times of 'El' Gal: Hooker Reveals Brutal Spitzer Tryst," Daily News, December 30, 2013, pp. 4-5. (Ms. Rebecca Woodard describes brutal Spitzer sex habits, also being made into a sex slave by prosecutors insisting that Ms. Woodard continue to work as a prostitute, gratuitously, while they targeted her madam. Is this prosecutorial conduct ethical?)

Jeanne MacIntosh, "'Spitzer Hooker' Also Blows Whistle [As It Were!] On Prosecutor," New York Post, December 30, 2013, pp. 4-5. (Prosecutors in New York decided that "boys would be boys" when the govenor at the time, Mr. Spitzer, was violating the law. The "hookers" and their "madam" were prosecuted.)

Alan Blinder, "Prosecutor Asking Again For Tougher Rape Sentence," The New York Times, December 22, 2013, p. A18. (Austen S. Clem will NOT go to prison for multiple rapes, including the brutal rape of a girl who was 13 years-old at the time of the incident. Mr. Clem is a politically-connected white male in America. Who is protecting Diana Lisa Riccioli? Terry Tuchin? John McGill, Esq.?)

Javier C. Hernandez & Michael M. Grynbaum, "De Blasio's Daughter Reveals Substance Abuse," The New York Times, December 21, 2013, p. A22. (Ms. Chiara De Blasio should be New York's mayor or senator, someday, and should realize that she is not alone in coping with the stresses of adolescence for young women.)

Peter J. Sampson, "Ex-Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking of Boy," The Record, December 20, 2013, p. L-3. (Edward M. De Sear, Esq., 67, former member of the N.J. Bar Association's Ethics Committee, allegedly, and prominent partner at an elite international law firm in New York and New Jersey, residing in Richard Nixon's old neighborhood in Saddle River, New Jersey -- only one of the prominent attorneys and, maybe, judges involved in a private network through which images of child pornography were distributed and trysts with boys and girls arranged -- pleaded guilty to federal sex trafficking charges in connection with the "purchase" of a young boy for sex slavery purposes. Mr. De Sear was acquainted with the Honorable Judge Ariel Rodriguez and Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, allegedly, as well as Senator Robert Menendez. Is this distinguished member of the bar, Mr. De Sear, my ethical "superior," Mr. Rabner? "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

Andy Newman, "Al Goldstein 1936-2013: A Publisher Whose Dirty Magazine Made No Pretense of Class," The New York Times, December 20, 2013, p. A1. (Al Goldstein may have been a First Amendment hero for telling the truth about national sexual practices rather than perpetuating America's lies about sex. The nation's Puritan legacy usually results in public condemnations of Americans' behavior that is indulged-in privately.)

Secondary Sources:

Angela Davis, An Autobiography (New York: International Pub., 1974).

Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (New York: Vintage, 1983).

Susan Estrich, Real Rape: How the Legal System Victimizes Women Who Say No (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1987).

Duncan Kennedy, Sexy Dressing Etc.: Essays on the Power and Politics of Cultural Identity (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1993).

Traci Lords, Traci Lords: Underneath It All (New York: Harper-Entertainment, 2003). 

Lois McNay, Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self (Boston: Northeastern U. Press, 1992).

Every society creates a demonized class of persons who are deemed fitting targets for abuse and exploitation, usually including sexual exploitation. 

The history of witchcraft is largely the story of this process directed against "dangerous" women over a period of centuries. A central strand in the history of our civilization and society has to do with the rape and enslavement of vulnerable persons, notably all women and most children. Efforts to protect persons in these groups are recent and faltering and still far from effective. ("What is Magic?") 

To engage in the common practice of rape and exploitation of any group of persons, mechanisms of dehumanization automatically kick-in: For example, women are both hyper-sexualized as well as blamed and/or ostracized for their sexuality; children are assigned to a category of the innocent and pre-sexual in popular culture in perpetuation of Victorian-Dickensian Romantic myths and in "denial" of Freudian allegations and/or discoveries about the pervasiveness of sexuality ("latency periods" not withstanding) even as children are also targeted for abuse; members of despised minority groups are classified as "pseudo-intellectuals" and bogus scientific terms designate persons as "intellectually" or otherwise "inferior" as compared with others in the inside group, who are often far worse human beings, as well as intellectually inferior in practice, but who are deemed "superior" in law and practice. ("Not One More Victim!")

Accordingly, in America, African-Americans and Latinos as well as a few others are privately described as "sub-human" even if public rhetoric requires that "sub-humans" be legally equal.

Perhaps nowhere in our culture is sanctioned victimization more welcome and acceptable to most people than when it comes to sex-workers and prostitutes (not always the same category) who may be raped or beaten with impunity, it seems, by criminals in America, sometimes by criminals holding elective office or a judgeship. ("Ape and Essence.") 

As the symbolic representatives of America's contradictions on the subjects of sex and the status of women, or the "feminine" in relation to the "masculine" (a point which is not gender-specific), there is no way that prostitutes, especially women, could escape the witch-like label of "unspeakable and evil outsider" even as they set the standard sought by most women when it comes to sexual power or desirableness. ("Judith Butler and Gender Theory.")

Young girls, consciously, dress like the very women our society literally "demonizes," even as all women seek through thousands of books and films created for the purpose, to be "whores" in the bedroom and "successful" in the boardroom. 

Needless to say, this dual ambition is a prescription for schizophrenia for many -- often very young -- women trapped in America's absurd paradoxes and hypocrisies and, thus, made targets for sadists and abusers of all varieties. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison!" then "Marilyn Straus Was Right!" and "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

My observation on this issue is borne out by decades of social science research which has led civilized societies to legislate or enact protections for prostitutes with severe sanctions for rapists as well as sexual abusers of every variety, together with destigmatizing and legalizing the sale of sexual services, while providing access to health care, counselling, education, alternative employment options, and assistance (when necessary) to ensure the safety of women and many men who are employed as sex-workers. 

I am sure that Mr. Spitzer -- who prosecuted women for prostitution as he was making use of their services -- would approve of these reforms. ("John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.") 

"OTTAWA -- Citing a Constitutional right of prostitutes to security, the Supreme Court of Canada voted unanimously on Friday to strike down the country's laws governing the sex trade."

In speaking for the court, the Canadian Chief Justice, Beverly McLachlin, stated:

"Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and LIVES of prostitutes." (emphasis added!)

Criminalizing prostitution is an example of punishing the victim rather than dealing with the social structures that construct or create women and many men as "whores," usually through viciously brutal and violent rapes and beatings early in life. ("Foucault, Rose, Davis and the Meanings of Prison" and "Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")

As with the drug trade and pornography, demand has something to do with the thriving "success" of these industries. Prominent officials (Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Menendez, recently, along with many others) make use of the services of prostitutes while publicly deploring the industry that provides those services and insulting its professionals. ("Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks" and "Is Senator Menendez 'For' Human Rights?")

Prostitution, pornography, drugs are multibillion dollar industries because, aside from all the hypocrisy and lies, they have become as mainstream and middle-class in America as Diet Coke-Cola and Disneyworld. ("Nihilists in Disneyworld.") 

It follows from all of this that physical abuse and rape of women is also as American as "apple pie" or "burgers and fries," or even "racism." ("America's Holocaust" and "The FBI Wants Assata Shakur.")

Rape and physical abuse are feminizing activities in our society. These are ways of making persons into "females." There is no way that any of these gender concepts can be understood apart from our notions of power. Similarly, our ingenious society has found ways to make persons into "negros" regardless of what their skin-color may be. ("Is Western Philosophy Racist?" and "Carlos Fuentes and Multiculturalism.")

These categories of sub-human "others" have become Derridean "free-floating signifiers" applied to designated outcast groups, like Muslims, depending on society's needs at any given time. ("Jacques Derrida's Philosophy as Jazz" and "Michel Foucault and the Authorship Question" then "Not One More Victim!")

Along with Canada's Supreme Court and many legal academics, I cannot avoid the feminist conclusion:

" ... of the eroticization of domination. This is the notion that the regime of patriarchy constructs male and female sexuality so that both men and women are [aroused] by experiences and images of male domination of women [females] ... Abuse plays a central rather than peripheral role in our mode of sexuality. Sexuality plays a central rather than peripheral role in male domination." (Kennedy, p. 122, emphasis added.)

This aspect of American culture may be seen in areas which we assume are non-sexual -- like our politics and in court proceedings -- as in government "shut downs" led by "angry white males" and "torture" policies at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Domination and sexual delight in wielding power (or in cruelty) run very deep in us. ("American Doctors and Torture" and "Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?")

" ... The question then is whether it is possible for straight men and women to be sexual, to experience pleasure within the regime, without collaborating in oppression." (Kennedy, p. 122.)

The jury is still out on this issue. "Denial" will not help, New Jersey. Three laws were overturned in Canada that are largely identical to American statutory prohibitions concerning the sex trade:

" ... the first prohibited the operation of a bawdy house or brothel, usually interpreted to include a prostitute's residence. The second banned 'living on the [earnings] of prostitutes,' a prohibition aimed at pimping [Diana Lisa Riccioli?] but that also prevented prostitutes from hiring security guards. The third made soliciting or communicating to [sic.] clients illegal." (Times, p. A4.) ("Wedding Bells Ring For Menendez!")

Similar cases challenging prostitution laws exist today in America, laws allowing for the criminal punishment of young women when their clients, often older and more powerful men -- like Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Menendez -- walk away without any criminal penalties. It is this disparity, hypocrisy, and lie that must be ended if women are to be protected in America or anywhere. 

"At the extreme, the legal system's role in the abuse of prostitutes by johns, pimps, and police seems to be more than mere toleration. The system generates the conditions for the abuses that it tolerates by criminalizing prostitution without trying to abolish it. Legalization might make it easier for prostitutes to use the legal system against rape, battery, and sexual enslavement. Legalization might also lead to a great increase in the amount of the activity and to a proliferation of its forms, including forms little better than what we have now. But it remains [true] that the abuse of prostitutes is a direct consequence of the particular balance the society has chosen, rather than of 'human nature' or the 'limits of social control.' ...[Hence, society is responsible for the damage done to women through criminalizing the sex trade.]" (Kennedy, p. 137, emphasis added.)

C.I.A. Torture and Secrecy.

December 30, 2013 at 8:00 P.M. I was obstructed in efforts to access my dashboard from my home laptop, again, by N.J.-based hackers making use of government computers. I will struggle to write from public computers during the week. ("How censorship works in America.")

December 23, 2013 at 6:55 P.M. I am required to visit New Jersey, briefly, during the holidays. Please do not approach me as a "friend" -- or even speak to me -- if you have cooperated with my enemies. 

Any communication with me will be posted online. I will remain silent if questioned about any matters pertaining to my writings. 

Any alleged "tape recording" of a conversation with me during these holidays will be a fabrication -- "fabrication of evidence" is nothing new for New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics. 

I wonder whether Miles Feinstein, Esq. has visited my sites? I wish Mr. Feinstein luck with his troubles. I do not envy Mr. Feinstein.   

Mark Mazetti, "Senate Asks C.I.A. to Share Study On Detentions," The New York Times, December 18, 2013, p. A1. (Will the C.I.A. "stone-wall" the U.S. Senate? "'Elysium': A Movie Review.")

Simon Romero, "Snowden Offers Help to Brazil in Spy Case," The New York Times, December 18, 2013, p. A6. ("Thank you, Ed Snowden.")

Adam Liptak, "After Ruling Critical of N.S.A., Uncertain Terrain for Appeal," The New York Times, December 18, 2013, p. A16. (Judge Richard J. Leon is "almost certainly" going to face reprisals for his anti-N.S.A. ruling. Are N.J. judges intimidated in my matters? "Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")

David E. Sanger & Charlie Savage, "Obama Is Urged to Sharply Curb N.S.A. Data Mining," The New York Times, December 19, 2013, p. A1. (Maybe the N.S.A. will curb Obama. Was the handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro a response to intelligence shared between Cuba and Mr. Obama?)

"Turn Off the Data Vacuum," (Editorial) The New York Times, December 19, 2013, p. A38. (End the massive data collection.)

James Glanz, "Documents Say Phones Outside U.S. Are Tracked: N.S.A. Program In Snowden Papers," The New York Times, December 5, 2013, p. A28. (Still spying on foreign corporations and individuals, often on behalf of private U.S. interests?)

Mark Mazetti & Justin Eliott, "Spies Infiltrate a Fantasy Realm of Online Games," The New York Times, December 10, 2013, p. A1. (Spying on "gaming" online? Or stealing Japanese corporate secrets for their American competitors?)

Kate Zernike, "Christie Shrugs as Aids Quit In Bridge Row," The New York Times, December 14, 2013, p. A1. (Would Christie order traffick snarls to pressure opponents? Or would someone order those blockages, ostensibly on the governor's behalf, but really to humiliate Christie in a future presidential election?)

"Bad Times For Big Brother: A Judge and a Presidential Panel Slam the N.S.A. Snooping as a Mass Invasion of Privacy," (Editorial) The New York Times, Sunday Review, December 22, 2013, p. 10. (Will any of this make the slightest difference to the N.S.A.?)

Ian Austin, "Canadian Court Strikes Down Laws On Sex Trade," The New York Times, December 21, 2013, p. A4. (Protection for sex workers' rights. I will be writing a full essay on this topic, which is now global, of legally protecting men and women who work as prostitutes. Similar cases are being brought in America where abusers of women will be going to prison for a very long time.)

"WASHINGTON -- The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked the CIA for an internal study done by the agency that lawmakers believe is broadly critical of the CIA's detention and interrogation program but was withheld from Congressional oversight committees." (emphasis added!)

When so-called "regulators" of the intelligence community cannot receive the compliance of the very government operatives they seek to regulate, the issue arises of whether the CIA regulates the Senate and other officials, or whether such officials -- or, indeed, the rule of law! -- operates as a constraint on the actions taken, secretly, by the CIA? 

I suspect that the CIA -- and other intelligence and quasi-military entities -- have become out-of-control, self-governing power centers that are disdainful of President Obama and other elected officials, officials who are often intimidated in efforts to control the military-industrial-intelligence complex best seen in the N.S.A.'s and CIA's secrecy. ("N.S.A. Spying is Illegal" and "America's Drone Murders.")

Perhaps Mr. Rabner and New Jersey's judiciary faced a similar dilemma with the OAE and state police in connection with my matters? ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

The psychological torture of persons developed by the CIA and "others" dates from the sixties at least: 1). the "Bluebird" program; 2). the FBI's "Countel-Pro" methods; and 3). post-9/11 "Enhanced" or alternative interrogation techniques -- including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, hostile and aggressive violations of privacy and autonomy, isolation, ostracism, sexual and other assaults have been common tactics used to control inmates in U.S. prisons that have been surreptitiously exported to the society at large. Terry Tuchin is a specialist in these methods. ("American Doctors and Torture" and "Obama Says Torture is a Secret.") 

The targets of these socially used "touchless torture" tactics have been almost exclusively minority group members and many women, usually persons who are politically active for radical causes. Lynne F. Stewart? Marilyn Straus? ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" and "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal" then "The FBI Wants Assata Shakur" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

The CIA is intensely secretive, by definition, and like most intelligence agencies, fears the discovery of its methods and crimes by others who may use them against the agency. Secrets are best kept in the house. 

There is also a legitimate concern on the part of the agency that disclosures of the ugly truth -- including any manipulations of distinguished Americans unaware that they have been "played" -- will reveal lies and identities of agents, often "disinformation" provided under oath by lawyers and operatives working for the agency. 

Disclosure of CIA sins would allow victims from all over the world (who are still living) to pursue their legal remedies, which would be a terrible thing for the CIA and a wonderful result for the victims. 

No doubt similar thinking applies at New Jersey's OAE that is seeking to protect "CIA psychiatrist" Terry Tuchin and lesbian "therapist" Diana Lisa Riccioli. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption" then "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")

"According to people who have read [the Senate's secret study of this matter,] it is unsparing in its criticism of the now-defunct [I doubt it!] program and presents a chronicle of CIA officials' repeatedly misleading [LYING TO] the White House, Congress and the public about the value of the brutal methods that in the end, produce little valuable intelligence." ("Nihilists in Disneyworld.")

This sounds very much like the OAE. ("No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!" and "What did you know, Mr. Rabner, and when did you know it?")

The CIA wishes to continue to torture people, especially to use psychological methods and manipulations, and for those methods not to be widely known to the public. Ideally, the "dirty laundry" can be washed at home. 

This, again, sounds similar to the OAE's tactics in my matters, where the Trenton agency violates its own ethics rules and statutory law to deny the truth to victims of heinous tortures, while intimidating lawyers, judges, cops as well as politicians in the Garden State who may demand the truth. ("Marilyn Straus Was Right!" and "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison.")

The Senate's report is still classified and has been read by few people as well as costing (so far) $40 MILLION of the people's money. 

Probably even the minimal Senate efforts to curb CIA abuses of privacy by way of hypnosis-based manipulations and drugging, along with classic psychological torture techniques, will come to nothing, especially if they are mostly ignored in the media. ("Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?" and "Legal Ethics Today" then "American Doctors and Torture.")

Whether I will receive a response from Trenton to my requests for the truth is uncertain at this time:

I do not know the whereabouts of Marilyn Straus, d.o.b. May 24, 1959, formerly of Roselle, New Jersey, and Executive Producer at Univision, Miami, Florida. Many women have, apparently, assumed her identity at some point during recent years. I cannot say whether she is alive. I am told that Ms. Straus is incarcerated. I am concerned that Ms. Straus may "disappear" -- like several women in the Dominican Republic recently -- women who are associated with Mr. Menendez and/or Alicia Mucci and/or Diana Lisa Riccioli. ("Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes" and "Web Site Denies Link to Menendez Case.")

"President Obama ended the detention program as one of his first acts in the Oval Office, and has repeatedly denounced the CIA's interrogation program. During a speech in May, he said that the United States had 'compromised our basic values by using torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that ran counter to the rule of law.' ... "

The American people are entitled to know the truth in order to control the CIA's extra-legal behavior or any government criminality. 

Amnesty International has suggested that CIA tactics are designed to delay efforts to gather the truth so that the agency can escape liability. The same accusation is made against New Jersey's absurdly named Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE). (Again: "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?" and "Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy.")

Please end the continued human suffering caused by cover-ups, lies, obstructions of justice, tampering with witnesses, and other OAE actions aimed at protecting guilty lawyers and those who cooperated with them, Mr. Rabner. An agency that, allegedly, has paid for false testimony is hardly competent to judge the ethics of attorneys in your state. ("John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption" and "Marilyn Straus Was Right!" then "Diana's Friend Goes to Prison" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")

Is this massive and criminal cover-up an example of New Jersey's legal ethics, Mr. Rabner? 

Reality and the Theory of Everything.

December 20, 2013 at 9:22 A.M. Yesterday obstructions to my home Internet connection prevented further work on this text. I will try to complete my typing of this essay today. It may be that some persons responsible for my unpleasant experiences at Strand Books were also behind the plagiarism of my work in The New York Review of Books. ("What is it like to be plagiarized?" and "'Brideshead Revisited': A Movie Review.")

I was surprised to see Congressman Gerald Nadler carrying and holding up what appeared to be a legal file on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, December 20, 2013. I am sure this was merely a coincidence. Happy holidays, Mr. Nadler!

Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinov, "The (Elusive) Theory of Everything," Scientific American, August 13, 2013, p. 90.

Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinov, The Grand Design (New York: Bantam, 2010).

Leonard Mlodinov, "It All Adds Up: A mathematician says that his subject directs the flow of the universe," The New York Times Book Review, October 27, 2013, p. 15.

Edward Frenkel, Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality (New York: Basic Books, 2013).

Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World (New York: Penguin, 1995).

Nathan Salmon, "The Limits of Human Mathematics," Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), pp. 243-265. 

For analogous discussions and debates, see:

Richard Rorty, "Is natural science a natural kind?," Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 46-63.

Jennifer Hornsby, "Descartes, Rorty and the Mind-Body Fiction," in Alan Malachowski, ed., Reading Rorty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 41-58.

Roy Bashkar, "Rorty, Realism and the Idea of Freedom," in Reading Rorty, pp. 198-233. 

I.

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinov summarize their thinking concerning science as "map and territory":

"How do we know that the reality we perceive is true? The gold fish is seeing a version of reality that is different from ours, but can we be sure that it is any less real? For all we know, we, too, may spend our entire lives staring out at the world through a distorting lens." (p. 90.)

"Irremovable spectacles," perhaps? I will explain, briefly, the intellectual journey traced by these authors from a classical or Newtonian model of "reality" to a post-quantum, pluralist and hermeneutic theory of what the authors describe as "model-dependent-realism." 

Analogies to the "dialectical-critical-realism" of Professor Roy Bashkar and to phenomenological-hermeneutics of a Gadamerian variety will be become evident during my analysis and discussion.

In fact, this latest position concerning the philosophy of science that is defended by Professors Hawking and Mlodinov is classified by philosophers as a kind of scientific phenomenological-hermeneutics with a strong -- if unrecognized -- aesthetic component reminiscent of Brian Greene's "elegant universe" hypothesis.

This tentative theoretical statement seems to give up on the search for a single theory of everything because, wisely, the authors accept the lessons of the previous century that "everything" is a much more protean and complex (or ambiguous) concept that we once thought, or that the universe contains a "participatory" element, or that we live in a "multiverse." 

There is no rejection of truth in this essay, since to do so -- to reject the concept of truth -- would render the essay itself neither true nor false. Scientists rarely reject the possibility of being either right or wrong in their work. ("John Finnis and Ethical Cognitivism.")

Perhaps the greatest confusion resulting from the knowledge developed recently in the sciences, mathematics, and philosophy is the so-called "relativist blunder" or confusion of truth (epistemology) with reality (ontology). ("Why I am not an ethical relativist.")

Loss of truth is to abandon the scientific project of understanding the universe. Worse, loss of the ideal or hope for truth, genuine acceptance of the (to me) nonsensical proposition that any and all statements may be both true and false (because there is no difference between truth and falsehood) may amount to abandoning sanity and reality. ("Richard Rorty's Ethical Skepticism.") 

To complicate or enrich our understanding of truth, however, is far from abandoning truth, but rather an acknowledgement that we need new concepts of truth, reality, meaning and sound reasoning more than ever because our world is seen as more subtle in its meanings to the extent that it is also more complex than we once thought in its workings. It is not, fortunately, "all relative." ("Dialectics, Entanglements, and Special Relativity" and "Robert Brandom's 'Reason in Philosophy'.")

"Most people believe that there is an objective reality out there," Hawking and Mlodinov write, "and that our senses and our science directly convey information about the material world. Classical science is based on the belief that an external world exists whose properties are definite and independent of the observer who perceives them. In philosophy, that belief is called realism." (p. 90.)

This doctrine has been undermined by several centuries of scholarship in the hard sciences and humanities demonstrating, since the pioneering work of Immanuel Kant, the impossibility of removing the knower from the known without establishing -- or even seeking to establish -- the nature of the existent in totality, independently of agents apprehending existents in thought. 

" ... the world we know is constructed by the human mind employing sensory data as its raw material and is shaped by the interpretive structure of our brain. This viewpoint may be hard to accept, but it is not difficult to understand. There is no way to remove the observer -- us -- from our perceptions of the world." (p. 90.)

II. 

This amounts to the victory of Kant's Critical Theory and all subsequent mediated or synthesized forms of realism/antirealism in addressing ultimate metaphysical questions formerly trapped between realism and antirealism. 

There is indeed an objective, external reality "out there," and what we know of it, the reality that we can experience, or discuss (including discuss scientifically), cannot be separated from the persons or knowing agents doing the discussing and understanding. ("G.E. Moore's Critique of Idealism" and "David Stove and the Critique of Idealism.")

Nothing has been more powerful in driving home this truth about our world or the current state of knowledge than the quantum revolution and allied developments in mathematics, biology, linguistics, systems- or networks-theory, and a number of other areas seemingly distant from these fields of learning -- such as our theorizing with regard to human cultures or social forms, notably concerning gender, identity, law, art or economic activity. ("Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")

Knowledge and understandings that flow from new constructions of knowledge-fields (science) cannot affect all of the understandings that we must live as knowing agents (philosophy). ("Judith Butler and Gender Theory" then "Jacques Derrida's Philosophy As Jazz.")

"The reality of quantum theory is a radical departure from that of classical physics. In the framework of quantum theory, particles have neither definite positions nor definite velocities unless and until an observer measures those qualities. In some cases, individual objects do not have an independent existence but rather exist only as part of an ensemble of many. [entanglement, community?] Quantum physics also has important implications for our concept of the past. [Memory?] In classical physics, the past is assumed to exist as a definite series of events, but according to quantum physics, the past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. Even the universe as a whole has no single past or history." (p. 92.) ("'In Time': A Movie Review" and "'Inception': A Movie Review" then "'The Adjustment Bureau': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review" finally, "What is Memory?")

Hermeneutic theory has sought to capture this variable quality of our universe and ourselves by celebrating rather than denying the diversity and infinite number of possibilities (meanings) in culture, as an aesthetic hypothesis, and postulating the human interpretive capacity as essential to our selves as "freedoms in the world." (Gadamer, Ricoeur.) 

I argued for this view in a long essay on the "hermeneutics of freedom." Professors Hawking and Mlodinov set forth a parallel position, again, one that is analogous to Professor Roy Bashkar's "Dialectical Critical Realism" which they call "Model-Dependent Realism" aligning perfectly with what I have called the "hermeneutics of freedom" in Continental theory:

"In our view, there is no picture- or theory-independent concept of reality. Instead we adopt a view that we call model-dependent realism: the idea that a physical theory or world picture is a model (generally of a mathematical nature) and a set of rules that connect the elements of the model to observations. According to model-dependent realism, it is pointless to ask whether a model is real, only whether it agrees with observations, neither one can be considered more real than the other. A person can use whichever model is more convenient in the situation under consideration." (p. 92.) ("Donald Davidson's Anomalous Monism" and "John Searle and David Chalmers On Consciousness.") ("Is the universe only a numbers game?")

III. 

It turns out that the "theory of everything" will probably be either a set of theories that are mutually consistent, or a flexible and/or evolutionary algorithm to describe a Rubik's Cube-like model that shifts and changes, depending on the aspects of reality(ies) that we wish to encompass in our theories/thinking. 

This is to suggest that the plasticity of our thinking mirrors the Protean universe/multiverse we inhabit. As for the language of this Brave New World, a language that resolves the potential self-referential paradox problems (Is model-dependent realism merely another "model-dependent" solution?), it will be necessary to fuse our mathematics with aesthetics, logic with epistemology, linguistics with metaphysics, "is" with "ought," facts with values, by recognizing that disciplinary or conceptual divisions are merely useful tools or devices that we may discard when they are no longer needed. ("A Philosophical Investigation of Ludwig Wittgenstein.")

If knowledge must be limited to what is "representable," then ultimate reality or total knowledge of existence may always be beyond representation. (Salmon, pp. 243-265.) ("Michel Foucault and the Authorship Question" then "Metaphor is Mystery" and "Conversation On a Train.")

This is Professor Hawking's so-called "Americanism" -- despite his British identity -- or pragmatism, derived (perhaps) from collaboration with Professor Mlodinov. ("Stephen Hawking's Free Will is Determined" and "Stephen Hawking is Right On Time.")

There is an ...

" ... effort in mathematics called the Langlands Program, a 'grand unified theory of mathematics,' which proposes that the hard questions in number theory can be answered by employing the methods of a seemingly unconnected field called harmonic analysis. [There are no unconnected fields.] That sounds very technical, but Frenkel aims to make it understandable, even beautiful."

Notice the conclusion here:

" ... Symmetries like this form a mathematical structure -- like the 'Galois Group' of the polynomial equation -- that plays a key role in this book. ... REPRESENTATIONS of the Galois Group form ... the source group of the number field [a revolving door?] carrying all essential information about numbers." (Mlodinov, p. 15.) ("Mind and Machine" and "Consciousness and Computers.")

These results, as predicted in earlier essays at these blogs, provide a new "model" for resolving problems in number theory. (Again: "Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")

Most importantly -- analogously with Andrew Wiles resolution of Fermat's Final Theorem -- the approach reveals "deep and fundamental connections between vastly different fields of mathematics." (Mlodinov, Penrose.) 

This makes sense as well as suggesting a language for capturing the symmetries emerging across many subject areas reflecting "entanglements" we are only beginning to understand:

"Since psyche and matter [mind and body] are contained in one and the same world and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendent factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing." (Goswami, p. 127.) ("Whatever.")  

Taking My Business Elsewhere.

December 16, 2013 at 2:02 P.M. My laptop was turned off -- it just went black -- as I was drafting the essay appearing below from my home. I will attempt to revise and complete this text at the Morningside Heights branch of the library. 

I am told that my laptop (or I) will be destroyed if I continue to write online. Funny noises are intended as a warning, I guess, and further threats must be expected as well as more plumbing problems.

I plan to continue writing by making use of multiple computers, private and public, and will refocus on New Jersey corruption soon.  

Please contact the Partisan Defense Committee, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., (212) 406-4252 to contribute to efforts to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and Lynne F. Stewart, Esq., as well as so many others imprisoned, unjustly, for political reasons in America. http://www.partisandefense@earthlink.net

No hot water for a second day. I am told that repairing a "washer" or comparable matter in my shower will require a plumber's visit tomorrow. This means that no shower will be available, nor hot water anywhere in my home, for another 24 hours at least. I will continue to write. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Wedding Bells Ring For Menendez!")  

"The American Jew, if I may say so -- and I say so with love, whether or not you believe me -- makes the error of believing that his Holocaust ends in the new world, where mine begins. My diaspora continues, the end is not in sight, and I certainly cannot depend on the morality of this panic-stricken consumer society to bring me out of -- Egypt."

James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket (1985).

Chris Francescani and Curtis Skinner, "New York Protesters Target Barneys After Black Shoppers Claim Bias," http://www.reuters.com 
Cornel West, "On Black Jewish Relations," Race Matters (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), pp. 69-81.
Cornel West, "Forging New Jewish and Islamic Democratic Identities," Democracy Matters (New York & London: Penguin, 2004), pp. 107-145.

Charlie Savage, "Judge Questions Legality of N.S.A. Phone Records," The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A1. (Finally, a judicial response to "spygate.")

David E. Sanger, "U.S.-Germany Intelligence Partnership Falters Over Spying," The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A16. (Is the NSA making us more secure?)

Jess Bidgood, "Prison for Rhode Island Lawyer In Tale of Insurance and Death," The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A18. (Joseph Caramadre, Esq. is "connected" to Bergen County, New Jersey "interests," Alicia Mucci perhaps? "Wedding Bells Ring For Menendez.")

Charlie Savage, "Two Saudi Prisoners Sent Home From Guantanamo," The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A20. (No apologies. No compensation. No conviction for anything after 10 years of torture and imprisonment.)

Michael Powell, "Cornered by Accusations, Christie Parries With Jokes and Stonewalls With Snarls," The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A24. (N.J. mafia-Democrat efforts to embarrass Christie are unsuccessful; Christie's efforts to embarrass Christie are more successful.)

"A Powerful Rebuke of Mass Surveillance," (Editorial) The New York Times, December 17, 2013, p. A28. (I concur.)

Mark Mazetti, "Senate Asks C.I.A. to Share Study On Detentions," The New York Times, December 18, 2013, p. A1. (Brutality, torture, hypnosis in interrogation faulted as "counterproductive," but the issue of violating human rights or committing crimes against humanity through interrogational torture has not been discussed very extensively.)

Please see: http://www.ThankYouEdSnowden.org (Links are blocked at these blogs. No images can be posted by me. All access to my email accounts is denied to me. My writings continue to be plagiarized in U.S. media. I have never been charged with a crime.) 

We live in a city where profound divisions linger under the surface of our powerful and carefully constructed collective identity. We wish to see ourselves as Americans and New Yorkers, or as human beings -- whatever our ethnicities -- rather than to fall into sectarian or tribal hatreds and divisions. 

This society and perhaps the entire human species cannot survive, nor is there any hope of overcoming the great challenges that we face, without creating a genuine community in New York and in the world. 

New York -- with all occasional exceptions granted -- is one of the places where America's "melting pot" can and does work. However, even in this city, there are always forces seeking to destroy the cohesiveness of our social bond for partisan political reasons, or other tribal reasons, while failing to realize just how dangerous such a tactic can be. 

The danger is only increased when the tactics come from outside the city. 

Yesterday my shower exploded and nearly caused very ugly burns to a young lady, a guest in my home, who was about to take a shower. This person knows nothing of me or my opinions. Perhaps such a fate was prepared for me or my family members. I will continue to write. ("How censorship works in America" then "What is it like to be plagiarized?" and "'Brideshead Revisited': A Movie Review.")

I recently visited what was always one of my favorite bookstores in the city, Strand Books. I have patronized this establishment for nearly 40 years. During those years, I am sure that I have spent many thousands of dollars at the store, often persuading others to do the same. I have written a story that is about to be more widely published set in the famous New York bookstore. That story has been read by persons in many countries who may wish to visit the store or make a purchase online.

I always thought of Strand Books as an oasis of peace and civilization in an otherwise hectic and frequently stressful city. As a result, I made it a point to donate books to the store for resale and have seen these books on their shelves, even first editions with pricey signatures have been given by me for resale, and I was planning on leaving a number of books signed by authors worth hundreds of dollars each to the store. 

On a recent visit where I made a number of purchases and brought fine books to give to the store, I found myself insulted by a person who purported to be a store employee. Perhaps it was only someone who "appeared" to be an employee with the necessary tag. I was told (prior to anyone looking at them) that the books would be thrown away. "Sheldon"?

Considering that some of these books are collectors' items worth good money, and that I am someone spending even more good money in the store, this seems to me like an absurd and idiotic response to my gesture that must have been designed to offend rather than a casual error. ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

Perhaps this "gesture" was arranged by New Jersey officials with some connection to this establishment. Maybe much the same is true of the building where I live and its plumbing problems. These "games" are dangerous to many persons and violate legal rights of all victims. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli" and "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?") 

Given the anger in New York that is directed at Barney's and Macy's, I find it bizarre that anyone -- much less a public official in any state -- would wish to increase tensions along racial or ethnic lines, or to have them focused on any commercial establishment, or identifiable group of people. The level of anger in the streets of this city in difficult economic times is palpable. People are not as stupid as some officials may imagine.

After my experience of plagiarism at The New York Review of Books, the objective for some persons in New Jersey may be to generate intemperate or antisemitic remarks from me, possibly accompanied by a distressing display of political incorrectness. Antisemitism is not possible for me. Happily, being "politically incorrect" is always possible and welcome. ("Drawing Room Comedy: A Philosophical Essay in the Form of a Film Script.")

I will rely on the example of Dr. King and rise to higher ground. Passionate and, potentially, violent or hostile reactions to such experiences of denigration on the part of young African-Americans and Latinos -- many of whom are coping with a great deal already -- must be expected: 22,000 children are homeless in this city; 58,000 more persons will be added to the ranks of the poor in New York in 2014, often persons who are treated as sub-humans, denied (let us say) the opportunity to shower on a daily basis despite paying substantial rents to say nothing of far worse deprivations that are ignored in the media. 

Shutting off my computer as I am writing an essay will not make these realities disappear nor will the corruption, incompetence, lies and cover-ups no longer exist in New Jersey if you silence me. ("New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

Some things should be above or beyond politics; some aspects of human beings merit respect that transcends political differences; some means of extracting acceptance of oppression are themselves oppressive and evil. Human dignity requires respect for every person living peacefully in this city regardless of what you think of his or her opinions. 

New York is not -- and must not become -- New Jersey. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.")

Americans will spend $900,000,000,000 (nine hundred billion dollars) on "defense" in 2014. Much of this money will be stolen or wasted. This is about 42% of all the money in the society's economy, not just the government budget. 

These absurd military expenditures are financed by the middle class and poor people who will be cut off from food stamp programs, emergency assistance, tuition assistance, and many other services in ridiculous numbers. 

Inequality will increase, more prisons will be filled as we criminalize poverty and stigmatize as well as insult middle class people, let alone the poor. 

Does this madness not create a security issue? I think so. 

In light of these realities it is unsurprising that millions of young people live on the knife-edge of hatred and deal with violence as a daily feature of their lives. An explosion from such persons is expected and, perhaps, desired by those creating such conditions because it helps to confirm some stereotypes and racism. 

I will not play your game, New Jersey. I will not behave as you wish me to behave, despite all provocations, in order to confirm your racism. Others may not have the same level of self-control. 

I will do the opposite of responding in anger. I will say, sweetly, business persons will lose many thousands of dollars in profits and it will cost you more in lost good will to continue to abuse persons who will resist the effects of all insults by struggling for what we all should receive without struggle: dignity, respect, equal rights and our unique as well as unobstructed pursuit of happiness. People will take their business elsewhere. ("Marilyn Straus Was Right!") 

"You know that as a female I am particularly attached to her -- I feel more than a mother's fondness and anxiety." Mary Wollstonecraft writes of her first daughter, Fanny: "when I reflect on the dependent and oppressed state of her sex. I dread lest she should be forced to sacrifice her heart to her principles, or principles to her heart. With trembling hand I shall cultivate sensibility and cherish delicacy of sentiment, lest, whilst I lend fresh blushes to the rose, I sharpen the thorns that wound the breast I would fein to guard -- I dread to unfold her mind, lest it should render her unfit for the world she is to inhabit -- Hapless woman! what fate is thine!"

Janet Todd, Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life (London: St. Martin's, 2000), p. 327 (emphasis added).  

Wedding Bells Ring For Menendez!

December 15, 2013 at 9:14 A.M. Unfortunately, a strange alteration of the plumbing in my bathroom has caused the hot water to explode, uncontrollably, from the shower causing a danger of third degree burns for users. I hope this emergency can be dealt with promptly. I will continue to write.

December 13, 2013 at 12:15 P.M. Yesterday, as I walked on the Upper-West Side of Manhattan, I noticed a lady who is a friend, a former mental patient and homeless woman, who is among the kindest people to be seen in this city, wrapped in a blanket and sleeping on the sidewalk. 

Many persons like this poor woman have been discovered frozen to death in this city after a night when temperatures plunge well below freezing, often to the indifference of many of their fellow citizens. 

Something has gone terribly wrong in our community at this holiday season when such heartlessness is taken for granted as "normal." This is not "O.K." We must do better than this, not by compulsion, but through reaching out to such unfortunate persons, with "compassion and love," to quote Pope Francis.

Politics should not only be about middle class lawyers and civil servants getting rich from public contracts going to their grateful friends. Real politics in the tradition of Senator Robert Kennedy and former Governor Mario Cuomo (maybe also our current Governor Andrew Cuomo) is about helping people who are suffering, hungry, cold and endangered. 

Say what you like about Reverend Al Sharpton, I have seen him helping such homeless people and feeding hungry New Yorkers, even when cameras are not around.

Michael D. Shear, "Obama Reaches Out to Cuba's Leader, but the Meaning May Elude Grasp," The New York Times, December 11, 2013, p. A6. (President Obama braves the Miami/Union City tempest to reach a peaceful shore by shaking the hand of President Raul Castro and, thus, of the Cuban people.)

S. Gay Stolberg & Allison Kopicki, "Obama Sees a Rebound in His Approval Rating," The New York Times, December 11, 2013, p. A21. (Republicans are baffled. Mr. Obama's approval ratings will continue to rise, despite the dire predictions of so-called pundits.)

Michael S. Schmidt, "Aide to Senator Is Arrested In Child Pornography Cases," The New York Times, December 12, 2013, p. A19. (Chief of Staff for Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, arrested for possession of kiddie porn. Senator Menendez will be happy to hire him. "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

Matt Friedman, "Menendez Pops the Question to Girlfriend in Capitol Rotunda," The Star Ledger, County News, December 11, 2013, p. 11. 

Robert Rudolph, The Boys From New Jersey: How the Mob Beat the Feds (New Jersey: New Brunswick, 1992), entirety. ("Menendez Gets Over On the Feds.")

Ted Sherman & Josh Margolin, The Jersey Sting: Chris Christie and the Most Brazen Case of Jersey Style Corruption Ever (New York: St. Martin's, 2011). ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.") 

Bob Ingle & Sandy McClure, The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption (New York: St. Martin's, 2008). ("More Mafia Arrests in New Jersey and Anne Milgram is Clueless.") 

"U.S. Senator Robert Menendez got engaged [sic.] to girlfriend ALICIA MUCCI in the Capitol Rotunda yesterday afternoon, Menendez's office confirmed."

The proposal arrived, after an "ultimatum" from Ms. Mucci, who is alleged to have said: "I'm not getting any younger!"

There is a slight age difference between the two love birds since Ms. Mucci is reportedly 45 years-old; Mr. Menendez is a dashing 59 years-old. Love makes up for a lot. 

The two "crazy kids" from North Jersey are pondering honeymoon plans. Ms. Mucci may have visited my office in the good old days. I wonder who asked her to do that? ("Diana's Friend Goes to Prison" and "Marilyn Straus Was Right!")

Fittingly enough, Ms. Mucci lives near the famous "Paramus Mall" where she plans to shop much more frequently in the years to come, even as Mr. Menendez will travel less frequently, unsupervised, to the Dominican Republic in the company of Dr. Melgen. ("Menendez Evades Indictment in Florida.") 

Ms. Mucci, allegedly, has visited my sites and read several of my writings. I wonder whether she did so at the request of any particular person in New Jersey. If so, was that person someone other than Mr. Menendez? Ms. Riccioli, perhaps? ("Jennifer Velez is a Dyke Magnet!" then "Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!")

Ms. Mucci is reportedly a "good friend" of Diana Lisa Riccioli, Ken Zisa, Joe Coniglio, Joe Ferreiro, and "Big Nicky" Sacco, but has not yet been linked to Estela De La Cruz or Nydia Hernandez and Lilian Munoz. 

I wonder whether Alicia Mucci has met Marilyn Straus? If so, how and when did these ladies (Marilyn Straus and Alicia Mucci) meet? Does Ms. Mucci enjoy a "colorful" legal history? ("Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?" and "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks.")

Ms. Mucci is the "widow" (she doesn't know nothing!) of ROBERT MUCCI who worked as a bartender at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack, New Jersey and was, allegedly, an "enforcer" for local organized crime families. ("Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics" and "More Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")

This well-known New Jersey restaurant is owned by construction magnate JOSEPH SANZARI, who is "connected" by the media to New Jersey's Luchese crime family, allegedly. Ms. Mucci is in real estate. 

Has Ms. Mucci "fronted" for Senator Bob on any deals where he would have had a legal or ethics conflict? Were moneys shared between Ms. Mucci and the Senator "under the table"? Was Ms. Mucci a "go-between" the Senator and some "contributors," like Mr. Sanzari? ("Senator Bob Loves Xanadu!" and "Cement is Gold!" then "Crooked Broker Paid Off Menendez.") 

Construction and real estate in New Jersey have been fertile grounds for organized crime activity in the Garden State. Mr. Menendez must have done some research and "made things disappear" to avoid unpleasant surprises in a few months' time. ("Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?" and "Bribery in Union City, New Jersey.")

Opposition research has certainly focused on Ms. Mucci for a while. Developments are expected soon in this story, allegedly. 

It is possible that both Ms. Mucci (and I) will testify before the U.S. Senate's Ethics Committee. I wonder what Senator Bob had to say about me, secretly, way back when? ("John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")  

Mr. Menendez and Ms. Mucci met at a fund-raiser, but no one knows what happened to all the money raised. Perhaps the funds were deposited in the Democrats' "non-federal" account? ("Crooked Broker Paid-Off Menendez" and da capo "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks.")

"Somebody had the money," Ms. Mucci said, allegedly, "but I don't know who." ("Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?")

Mr. Sanzari has promised to see what Mr. Menendez "has under his fingernails."

The two "star crossed lovers" deny persistent allegations appearing in Urban Times News that a former Menendez girlfriend -- who had been his aide (before Ms. Li Causi) -- was pregnant with Bob's "love-child" and that this one-time girlfriend and Bob's former wife had a very nasty public cat fight. ("Menendez Gets Over on the Feds" and "More Problems For Menendez -- Tapes!")

Ms. Mucci refused to comment on any of this because she is "a lady." Ms. Mucci likes "da shore." Friendship between Ms. Mucci and Maria Noto, Esq. cannot be confirmed. ("Celeste Carpiano Likes Da Shore.")

The couple plan to party in Vegas in "rat-pack" style. Many happy returns, Bobby. 

Coniglio Scams Campaign Funds.

December 11, 2013 at 1:59 P.M. Congratulations to Presidents Obama and Castro for a historic and hopeful handshake at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. The fury of Ms. Ros-Leghtinen and Senators Rubio and Menendez is shameful for America. ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba.")

Threats against me, efforts to destroy my online writings, thefts of those writings, rapes, and constant insults, along with any other obstacles that come my way have not stopped me in 27 years. I doubt that, for as long as I live, I will hesitate to speak, freely, of my political opinions or of the disgusting spectacle and lie that is New Jersey's legal system. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.") 

I am grateful for the support of friends in Cuba and, at least this week, also in Africa. Any requests from others for the truth about my matters from Trenton officials is welcome to me. Maybe officials will respond to the requests of others -- journalists, politicians, judges from many states -- if not to me. ("New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

Was it Mr. McGill who asked Dr. Bercik to file a collection action for a fee that the doctor had already been paid as an expert testifying in a personal injury case? Dr. Bercik was paid twice for his services and has kept the doubled fees (with the assistance of his lawyer-spouse), possibly also at the request of the OAE and/or Mr. McGill. This is called "theft by deception." 

Is this an example of New Jersey's legal ethics, Mr. Rabner? Medical ethics? ("Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?")

" ... our problem isn't a philosophical problem of the human being." -- In America there is such a philosophical problem! -- "The anguishing question that we must ask is why, when the world has such advanced technology at its disposal, there is such an overwhelming majority of NON-PERSONS, people without rights or hope, in Latin America. ... " and in the world.

Harvey Cox, Editor and Introduction, Fidel and Religion: Castro Talks On Revolution With Frei Betto (New York: Touchstone, 1987), p. 248. ("Ape and Essence.")

As one of the "non-persons," of which Castro speaks, whose rights are ignored, along with the billions insulted and censored in our world, I will continue to struggle. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

Ed Beeson, "Madoff Croney Comes Clean About How Firm Stayed Steps Ahead of Auditors," The Star Ledger, December 3, 2013, p. 1. (Prominent N.J. lawyers and other professionals -- often linked to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner's old law firm -- have been essential to Mr. Madoff's "success." None of these lawyers will face ethics actions.)

Christopher Baxter, "Accountant for Troupe at Princeton is Charged: $100K Allegedly Stolen From the Triangle Club," The Star Ledger, December 3, 2013, p. 15. (It is unlikely that theft of more than one hundred thousand dollars will result in any prison time for John Muzza, 53, of Hightstown, N.J. because Mr. Muzza is not guilty of being African-American. "So Black and So Blue in Prison.")

Ryan Hutchins, "Study Questions Ex-Inmates Returning to Prison: Author Says High Number of Parolees Being Reincarcerated is a Big Expense," The Star Ledger, December 3, 2013, p. 15. (The primary criteria for incarceration in America continues to be skin color rather than offense committed.)

Bill Wichert, "Bail Motion Denied On Assault Charge," The Star Ledger, December 3, 2013, p. 19. (Luis O. Torres, 28 -- alleged Bob Menendez supporter -- is denied bail in connection with a charge of sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl.)

Minjae Park, "Halidan Police Chief Hearing On Sex Harassment is Delayed," The Record, December 5, 2013, p. L-3. (Chief Luis Mercuro is among several police officers in New Jersey currently facing sexual harassment and/or child abuse allegations. More priests are in a similar situation. Lawyers may also be included in this distinguished company.)

John Petrick, "Paterson Diocese Named in Lawsuit: Ex-Seminarian Alleges Role in Sexual Harassment," The Record, December 6, 2013, p. L-1. (Rev. Addison Hallock, allegedly, sexually assaulted several seminarians studying for the priesthood. Confessions, gentlemen?)

John Reitmeyer, "N.J. Seeks $170,000 From Coniglio: Says Campaign Funds Used in Criminal Defense," The Record, December 7, 2013, p. L-1. 

"New Jersey's elections watchdog [Are you kidding?] is seeking to force former state senator [sic.] Joe Coniglio to repay $140,000 in campaign funds used for his legal expenses in a corruption case several years ago, and pay up to $30,000 in penalties."

No doubt, among his many sins, Joe Coniglio "misused" campaign funds in the past when "it didn't matter" because "his people" had everything in New Jersey. ("Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.")

The use of campaign money to purchase a car for a mistress or "trysts with prostitutes" (Senator Menendez?) is a time-honored tradition in New Jersey. However, Mr. Coniglio's actions were somewhat obvious and he wasn't sharing:

"State election laws allow campaign funds to be spent on an 'ordinary and necessary expense of holding public office,' not on a criminal defense, the suit, filed in Superior Court in Bergen County, argues. It names Coniglio, who now lives in Barnegot, and his campaign treasurer."

It has been seriously suggested that, because of those annoying feds, in New Jersey, normal campaign expenditures includes or should include defending a corruption action. This argument -- addressed, specifically, by Justice Albin in a controlling case at the conclusion of this essay -- is unlikely to succeed today. 

Scams are nothing new for New Jersey State Senator Joe Coniglio who was connected, allegedly, to the North Jersey mob:

"Coniglio, a Democrat who represented Paramus ["We have a great mall!"] and was a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, spent 16 months in federal prison after being convicted on federal corruption charges in 2009."

In the words of Joe Coniglio: "The feds have no sense of humor."

Coniglio betrayed his office by steering public funds to Hackensack Medical Center in exchange for $100,000 in sham consulting fees.

Coniglio may have been rewarded with other no show jobs along with fellow law makers indicted in 2008-2009. Before that indictment was handed down, Joe came through with $1 MILLION in state grants to the hospital. 

No lawyers or hospital officials involved in making the "deals" happen -- including the DeCottiis firm which may have played a role -- has faced ethics charges in New Jersey, so far. ("New Jersey Lawyers' Ethics Farce" and "Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics.")

The total amount now "misappropriated" by Coniglio -- whose recent headlines for his release from prison may be followed by new headlines for a return to prison -- is about $140,000. 

Trying to get defense lawyers to "cough-up" $140,000 will not be easy since some of this money may already have been spent on bribing judges, like former Justice Barry Albin (friend of Debbie Poritz) who wrote "concurring in part and dissenting in part" in a celebrated corruption case where the need to use campaign funds to pay lawyers was argued:  

"Despite blaring headlines that announce the most recent prosecution and conviction of a public official [in America's 'Soprano State,'] we have yet to reach the point when it can be said that defending against a federal and/or state criminal indictment alleging corrupt politics is an 'ordinary' expense of holding public office."

Perhaps now we have reached the point when Justice Albin should reconsider this conclusion. 

Menendez Evades Indictment in Florida.

December 8, 2013 at 6:07 P.M. Access to these blogs was blocked twice. I have finally managed to access my writings from my home computer. I will continue to struggle to write from multiple public computers. ("How censorship works in America.") 

John Reitmeyer & Melissa Hayes, "Outsiders Spent Big on N.J.'s Elections: A State Record for Flow of Political Cash," The Record, December 6, 2013, p. A-1. ($129 million in out of state money was spent on N.J.'s gubernatorial and legislative elections with expected results. The G.O.P. wishes to transform Mr. Christie into a viable presidential candidate. The jury is still out on this issue.)

Melissa Hayes, "Senate Panel OKs Bill to Foil Online Bullies: Extends Protection of Minors," The Record, December 6, 2013, p. A-3. (N.J.'s OAE is the source, allegedly, for a number of the computer crimes committed against me: "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")

"GWB Probe Widening: politics behind closures?," (Editorial) The Record, December 6, 2013, p. A-19. (PA playing politics for the so-called mafia-Democrat machine in New Jersey and placing lives at risk. Overtime? "Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy.")

Herb Jackson, "No Sex Charges Against Menendez, Menendez Says: Ties with donor reportedly remain under scrutiny," The Record, December 6, 2013, p. A-4.

"A federal grand jury in Florida will not file any charges against Senator Bob Menendez related to sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, the Miami Herald [sic.] reported Tuesday, quoting several unnamed sources [Ms. Ros-Leghtinen?] familiar with the probe."

Allegations of "trysts" with prostitutes were made and supported, eventually, by an alleged total of 11 young women. Several of these women, also allegedly, recanted testimony -- possibly after being threatened (or bribed) -- and one young woman may have disappeared since the incidents occurred. ("Website Denies Link to Menendez Case.")

Some of the testimony from a number of these witnesses and/or participants in the events in question was videotaped and posted online, appearing on websites. 

Curiously, if all of these women were lying for a fee -- something I have experienced from alleged witnesses -- it is difficult to explain how it is that several of the women were able to describe, in intimate detail, the Senator's anatomy:

"The prostitution scandal, which Menendez has repeatedly called a political smear, broke just days before Menendez was reelected in November, 2012. The Daily Caller, [sic.] a conservative website, [sic.] posted videos featuring women whose faces were obscured saying they were prostitutes and had sex for money with Menendez at Melgen's home in the Caribbean nation." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

These videotaped women were not the only witnesses against Menendez. ("Is Senator Menendez For Human Rights?")

There may be reason to believe that Senator Menendez has made use of prostitutes' "services" in Florida in the past and, perhaps, also elsewhere. ("Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks.") 

Possibly, Mr. Menendez's old law partner -- Manuel R. Diaz, Esq.-- may be able to shed some light on this mystery as well as upon my story. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

"The allegations gained national attention in January after federal agents raided Melgen's West Palm Beach, Florida office and another website published emails reportedly sent by a tipster to the Florida FBI office [sic.] describing other alleged trysts, including one with a prostitute" -- a young woman -- "who was underage." (emphasis added!)

Federal investigators are still looking into the financial aspects of this matter, including a possible quid pro cuo paid to Menendez for assisting Melgen with the doctor's collection efforts, and also for help obscuring Melgen's alleged organized crime affiliations, or "relationships" with Cuban-American underworld figures. ("Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?" and "Menendez Gets Over on the Feds.")

Dr. Melgen is rumored to be a member of the Cuban American National Foundation:

"Melgen contributed more than $950,000 to Menendez's campaigns and committees that supported him." ("Is Menendez For Sale?" and "Menendez Gets Over On the Feds" then "New Jersey's Child Sex Industry" and "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

"Melgen continues to battle the government over Medicare payments, and a second raid of his office was carried out in October. His lawyer said the second raid was retaliation over a lawsuit Melgen filed in August to recover $9 million that the Medicare Appeals Council ruled in June he had [fraudulently] overcharged the government."

It cannot be determined whether Melgen and others were sharing cash under the table with Menendez in additional compensation for the Senator's efforts on "their" behalf with Medicaid. ("Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes" and "Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics.")

Traditionally, prosecutors are said to be able to "indict a ham sandwich." ("Is Menendez For Sale?" and "New Jersey's Child Sex Industry" then "Bribery in Union City, New Jersey" and "Crooked Broker Paid-Off Menendez!")

Very little proof is needed to establish the "probable cause" that is sufficient to proceed with criminal charges, certainly there is more than enough information in the press to justify charges based on the undisputed allegations by highly credible women displaying amazing personal knowledge of the Senator's "person." ("Menendez Croney's Office Raided.")

It is difficult to avoid concluding that politics had a little something to do with the decision not to indict -- if, in fact, there is no indictment of any kind in any jurisdiction in this matter. 

I am not surprised, so far, by these developments. I expect that the Senator's greatest difficulties will emerge before the U.S. Senate and Bar Association. Good luck, Bobby.  

Ape and Essence.

December 5, 2013 at 7:02 P.M. Congratulations to Senator Menendez on evading indictment in Florida. Regrettably, for Boss Bob, this was only one of the three bullets that he must duck: federal investigators will continue to look into his finances and the episode with Dr. Melgen, while possible FBI as well as Justice Department criminal proceedings will continue, together with the U.S. Senate's Ethics proceedings and the New Jersey Bar Association's Ethics Committee has yet to "clear" Senator Menendez. This "clearance" may cost him more money. I will be writing about this development soon. ("De Blasio and Christie.")

December 5, 2013 at 2:33 P.M. The title of Ms. Okin's book was altered in size overnight in violation of copyright and First Amendment rights by New Jersey hackers. I will try to repair the harm done. ("How censorship works in America.")

December 4, 2013 at 3:15 P.M. Defacements of this essay are expected, including alterations in spacing between paragraphs, size of text, and other deformations of this work. I will struggle to make all necessary corrections promptly. I continue to experience obstructions in efforts to use my home laptop computer. Perhaps "Muhammad" at Time/Warner is upset about my views?

Motoko Rich, "American 15-Year-Olds Lag, Mainly in Math, On International Standardized Tests," The New York Times, December 3, 2013, p. A12. (U.S. is 26th out of 30 countries in High school graduates' educational level. Decline in math and reading as well as comprehension skills is sharpest, but the numbers are even more discouraging and still falling among university graduates. "Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!")

Adam Liptak, "Allocating Liability For Child Pornography, in Full or Fractional Shares," The New York Times, December 3, 2013, p. A13. (Are children "persons," Mr. Menendez? "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")

Benjamin Wieser, "Prosecutor Sees Danger in Budget Cuts," The New York Times, December 3, 2013, p. A25. (Who gets prosecuted for serious crimes, besides African-Americans, is a budgetary matter. Perhaps this lack of money explains the inaction in my matters. "So Black and So Blue in Prison.")

Thomas Kaplan, "One Cuomo Interviews Another," The New York Times, December 3, 2013, p. A22. (An interview symbolic of the relationship between U.S. media and government today. Is this cozy "connection" between press and politicians a good thing?)

Gary Gutting, "The Real Humanities Crisis," The New York Times, Sunday Review, December 1, 2013, p. 8. (Why Johnny can't read and ... whatever.)

What follows is a brief comment on a legal controversy touching on some of the issues discussed in my philosophical essays concerning the status of "persons" in law and philosophy.

James Gorman, "Rights Group Is Seeking Status of Legal Person For Captive Chimpanzee," The New York Times, December 3, 2013, p. A19. 

Lon L. Fuller, Legal Fictions (Stanford: Stanford U. Press, 1967).

Mary Midgley, Utopias, Dolphins and Computers: Problems of Philosophical Plumbing (London: Routledge, 1976).

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics For Our Treatment of Animals (New York: Avon, 1975). 

James B. White, The Legal Imagination (Boston: Little & Brown, 1973).

James B. White, When Words Lose Their Meaning (Chicago: U. Chi. Press, 1984). 

Law evolves, "consciously," through the use of fictions. Accordingly, much legal reasoning involves the ability to deploy juridical concepts in new and unexpected ways that allow for the ever-greater incorporation of humane values into the administration of law, or adjudication, while fostering the social policies intended to create maximum justice for the community. ("Ronald Dworkin's Jurisprudence of Interpretation" and "Ronald Dworkin Says: 'The Law Works Itself Pure!'")

Cases, however, are mostly about litigants (individuals) involved -- often unwillingly -- in controversies before the bar, not merely illustrative hypotheticals capturing dramatic and abstract political or philosophical issues. ("What is Law?") 

Questions of whether there is a genuine "case or controversy" and threshold problems concerning "standing" -- or even, as it were, in personam jurisdiction -- may preclude this matter from being heard on the merits in a courtroom. 

Judges acting as Platonic philosopher kings become exceedingly dangerous: For example, New Jersey's Supreme Court has entered a number of moral minefields -- usually, unnecessarily -- losing a limb or two in the well-intentioned effort to "legislate" values for society. Mt. Laurel, Abbott, and plenty of other examples of such overreaching and hubris are available. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court.")

The much-better (because they are usually more cautious) New York courts have now been presented with a novel question concerning whether chimpanzees can be regarded as "persons" under the law, thus ensuring their protection for some reasons and purposes, by guaranteeing them rights comparable in limited ways and contexts, to the rights that should be afforded to all human persons. ("America's Holocaust" and "Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")

In a society that continues to operate concentration camps and/or "black sites," places like Guantanamo, where human beings are tortured, killed, or simply held in solitary confinement without charges or convictions over a period of years, denied habeas corpus relief along with due process rights of any kind; for a nation that admits to a drone policy allowing for foresseable killings of thousands of innocent human beings, many of them children and old people, without accusations or convictions, nor public and meaningful judicial review of any kind for the victims; for a society that starves and denies innocent human beings life-saving medicines and food under illegal embargos or "sanctions regimes" -- for such a society to pursue this litigation potentially defining a chimpanzee as a "person" with some rights that are legally recognized strikes me as surreal and insulting to the millions of persons concerned about alleged U.S. human rights violations in the world.

There is, then, a kind of "Alice in Wonderland"-like absurdity to this news item and law suit, even as I continue to request, publicly, the truth about the rapes, thefts, tortures, to which I have been subjected by New Jersey, while receiving no response from the state's courts and government, in violation of their own existing laws. I renew my requests for the truth under New Jersey's public disclosure laws and all applicable provisions of Constitutional and other regulations. ("Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?")

If only I were a corporation (or a chimp, perhaps?) New Jersey may be required to abide by its own laws so as to disclose the truth in my case. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")

At any rate, cases should be decided on their facts. The factual source of this litigation is easily summarized. After setting forth the facts, I will turn to the doctrinal question of first impression for New York's Supreme Court. 

Curiously, it appears that both the authors of the legal briefs in question and The New York Times article describing the case may have missed existing legal precedent on point: a case from one American jurisdiction has examined, extensively, the question of whether a non-human mammal can be regarded as a legal person as well as the analysis of this judicial opinion by a leading analytical philosopher. 

More on that later, for now it may help to be clear on the parties and counsel before the bar.

This litigation is a "class action" suit as well as a petition under a habeas corpus writ filed on behalf of "Tommy," a chimpanzee (and other apes who are "similarly situated") against Patrick C. Lavery, owner of Circle L. Trailer Sales in Gloversville, New York, where "Tommy" is held -- ostensibly against his "will," in a cage -- but also on behalf of apes held by the New Iberia Research Center and Carmen Presti of Niagara Falls, who runs the Primate Sanctuary, a non-profit organization. 

I am told that persons in New Jersey see me and many others in America as "like Tommy," fitting subjects for experimental research because we are not, allegedly, true human beings. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")

All of these entities in New York have "state contacts" and habeas corpus is a writ derived from common law (dating from Magna Carta) usually filed against the state for the production of a person held without charge, while class actions are civil procedural mechanisms that permit multiple plaintiffs to bring an action together, because they share an interest in the outcome of litigation.

The procedural confusions in this law suit suggest that, at least in part, the matter was prepared by non-lawyers. If an attorney brought a "suit" like this, he or she should be sanctioned, or disbarred. ("Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?" and "America's Torture Lawyers.")

I am afraid that counsel for "Tommy" may have erred by failing to bring the action also against New York and the United States of America alleging Constitutional rights to due process and equal protection for "Tommy" and his fellow non-human creatures, if he prevails on the personhood issue. ("American Doctors and Torture" then "American Legal Ethics Today" and "Foucault, Rose, Davis and the Meanings of Prison.")

The court will probably dismiss the action on a summary judgment motion. Sorry, "Tommy."

The first set of difficulties are, therefore, pragmatic: by recognizing legal rights for "Tommy," despite the efforts by counsel to limit the holding of the initial tribunal, will the courts open the proverbial floodgates of litigation brought on behalf of many other non-human animals raised for slaughter: cattle, chickens, pigs, horses?

Furthermore, the "slippery slope" problem must be faced: what characteristics of horses or dogs preclude their achievement of the legal or moral status of "persons" under the law as compared with any kind of apes? Perhaps next week a Moose will sue to be admitted to Barnard College? 

How can we distinguish a fictional entity's status as a person -- that is, a corporation -- with (potentially) religious rights (this is something which the U.S. Supreme Court must decide this term!) from a non-fictional animal's ("person"?) suffering when tormented or killed, caged or eaten, or from being confined forever and separated from fellow creatures in the way that we torture, say, Mumia Abu-Jamal and so many others. ("Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal" and "Freedom For Mumia Abu-Jamal.")

Should we be more troubled by a corporation seeking to convert to Judaism, or to become a priest, than by chimpanzees seeking to run for President of the United States of America? (G.W.?) 

Perhaps "Tommy" and other chimps could file for incorporation and solve the problem by becoming a corporate "person" with fully recognized legal rights. ("Is there a gay marriage right?" then "Mind and Machine" and "Consciousness and Computers.")

The petition brought by counsel affiliated with the "Human Rights Project" -- an organization seeking to protect "animal rights" -- articulates (unconsciously) and brings to center stage America's many confusions and contradictions or hypocrisy on the subject of persons and rights:

"This petition asks this court to issue a writ recognizing that 'Tommy' is not a legal thing to be possessed by respondents, but rather is a cognitively complex autonomous [moral philosophy] legal person [jurisprudential] with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned."

It is very likely that confusions in these pleadings and journalistic accounts may result in an unfavorable outcome for "Tommy." The "chimpanzee" in question may have been much better off without these efforts by so-called "therapists" and "friends." 

The legal analysis by counsel fails to distinguish the moral rationale for rights of human persons -- in a cynical and contemptuous manner in relation to the slavery debate in American legal history -- from the legal fiction of personhood status that is accorded to corporations and, possibly, to other entities or animals (someday) for social policy reasons. ("Humanities and Humanity in Decline?")

I refer readers to Professor Lon L. Fuller's classic analysis of this device and the reasons for the doctrine in his treatise on legal fictions. Rights are not best understood in the context of such fictions as demonstrated in the legal scholarly works of Jeremy Waldron and Ronald Dworkin, Harold J. Berman and Charles Fried. ("What is Law?")

British philosopher, Mary Midgley, has analyzed a celebrated case from Hawaii handed down in 1977, in which courts determined, specifically, whether dolphins and other non-human creatures may be considered "persons" with legal rights for some public policy purposes. 

The same or similar litigation has been attempted with respect to the "rights" of robots. Regrettably, for advocates of these animals and entities, thus far, the courts have been (correctly) unsympathetic to efforts to extend rights to non-humans even if they are concerned to protect animals and encourage scientific developments. 

The question of animals, as persons, was first examined by Immanuel Kant -- who developed the linked concepts of persons and rights that are foundational to Western jurisprudence -- in a work entitled "Duties Towards Animals and Spirits," in Lectures On Ethics (London: Methuen, 1930), p. 239. (1791?) ("Is Western Philosophy Racist?")

The courts are likely to reject "Tommy's" claim -- Professor Kant would have agreed -- while instructing counsel to revise and refile this petition as a public interest claim by society (humans) in preventing suffering or cruelty to all animals. 

If the concern is genuinely to prevent suffering to animals rather than to make laws or obtain headlines, then this petitioner will be more likely to succeed with a revised claim. On the other hand, if the motivation for the so-called "Human Rights Project" is to extend the concept of rights to any or all sentient creatures that are non-human, I believe the effort to protect these animals should and will fail to result in legally-recognized "rights" for non-human creatures, like "Tommy."

To explain why this is true will require me to offer a brief comment on the twined concepts of "persons" and "rights."

The boundaries and limits of these concepts have been examined, most importantly, in three contexts: 1). in deciding whether persons of African ancestry should be considered human beings with equal rights as compared with other human persons in America (Dredd Scott); 2). in connection with the, amazingly, still unresolved question of whether women and men are fully equal citizens and moral subjects entitled to identical ontological status and, therefore, parallel legal rights ("David Stove and the Intellectual Capacity of Women"); 3). also in deciding whether non-human animals and A.I. systems as well as corporations may be deemed "persons" in moral philosophy, or legally, to serve our social purposes, only as legal fictions. ("The Allegory of the Cave.")

These are very different contexts: the first two issues are deontological in nature; the third issue is teleological and utilitarian in nature. ("Zero Dark Thirty" and "John Rawls and Justice.")

"The idea of a person in the almost technical sense required by morality [and law] today is the one worked out by Kant. It is the idea of a rational being, capable of choice and therefore endowed with dignity, worthy of respect, having rights; one that must be regarded always as end in itself, never as a means to the ends of others."

Mary Midgley, "Is a Dolphin a Person?," in Utopias, Dolphins and Computers, pp. 110-111. 

"Autonomy" creating "zones of entitlement" is explored in the jurisprudential writings of British barrister and law professor Genevieve Lloyd together with American legal scholars Martha Minow and Robin West on law and humanities. For the examination of this question in connection with women's centuries-old struggle for equality of rights, please see Susan Muller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1979), esp. p. 251. (From Mary Wollstonecraft to Judith Butler, today, women have fought to be accepted as equal persons before the law: "A Doll's Aria" and "Master and Commander.")

A fascinating discussion of slaves' inability to appeal an action of a master who raped, beat, nearly killed a female slave -- also a woman -- please see State v. Mann, 13 N.C. 263 (1828). (To be a woman and a slave meant that a person could be raped and beaten without recourse to the courts and with fewer protections, at the time, than were given to horses. Do Americans feel the same disdain about the rights of "prostitutes" today? If so, if such disdain of their rights exists among lawyers and judges, is it because prostitutes are mostly powerless women?)

The evolution of the law requires theoretical consistency. Rights are unique in Western thought because they feature in the lives exclusively of persons, as the essence of their ontological status, which must receive public recognition. This recognition makes persons the only beings who are the locus of legal responsibility because they are free and each is equally entitled to the dignity, or respect, that the law exists to protect. The law must never violate this dignity by trampling on human rights on penalty of ceasing to be law or violating legality. ("A Commencement Address by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton" and "Charles Fried and William Shakespeare On Interpretation" then "The Allegory of the Cave" and "Is Humanism Still Possible?")

Legal behaviorism offends this value of human dignity as does the extension of this moral-jurisprudential category of "persons" to non-human creatures. The crucial mistake regarding slavery was the failure to see the humanity of dark-skinned persons. This is not a matter for trivializing humor. Jews were "rodents," according to Dr. Mengele, who were unworthy of being treated as persons. ("Drawing Room Comedy: A Philosophical Essay in the Form of a Film Script" and "Richard A. Posner On Voluntary Actions and Criminal Responsibility" then "Roberto Unger's Revolutionary Legal Theory.")

" ... the law shows itself to be in a not uncommon difficulty, one that arises when public opinion is changing: Legal standards are not altogether independent of moral standards. They flow from them and crystallize in ways designed to express certain selected MORAL insights. When those insights change deeply enough, the law changes. But there are often jolts and discrepancies here, because the pace of change is different. New moral perceptions require the crystals to be broken-up and reformed, and this process takes time." (Midgley, p. 114.) ("The Wanderer and His Shadow.")