Art, Meet Politics; Politics, Meet Art

1. Sarah Hromack explains that Serpentine Gallery pulled the plug on a light projection piece by Paul Chan about life in Baghdad before the Iraq War. Why? Because Fox News was hosting a party at the gallery. Serpentine, your new name is Sniveling.

2. Not only does Antonin Scalia defend Jack Bauer at an international justice conference, he also—no, let's take a moment to consider that. Whew, that's sorry to read. I understand that it's only a conference, and the attendees are like people at any other conference—they hope the hotel has HBO, they'd like to catch up on real work between sessions, they hope not to run into exes, whatever. But Scalia isn't a middle manager or a lowly graduate student, he's a Justice of the Supreme Court, and there is a dignity to that office that flows with its holder wherever he goes. Scalia should bear his office much better than he does. Watch all the 24 you like, sir, but remember that you have one of the highest duties in the entire world.

Anyway, the Globe and Mail:

"Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.

The correct answer is, yes, Jack Bauer has the right to a jury trial, and if reasonable evidence is put forth saying he broke U.S. laws or U.S.–signed treaties, then yes, a jury will convict him, but nevertheless, yes, sometimes doing the right thing involves breaking rules, however, the only world in which doing the right thing necessitates lifting the ban on torture is the world of fiction. In the real world, there is never perfect knowledge of ticking time-bombs, and anyway, torture is not a useful way to interrogate people if it's reliable intelligence (instead of cheers from the audience) that you're hoping to gather. (Yep, we're fucked.)

Posted by Kriston at June 20, 2007 11:48 AM