Patrick Nee's A Criminal and an Irishman: A Review

by Matthew Smith

Patrick's Nee's memoir A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection has been in print for a couple of years, but even so it remains a must read for anyone who enjoys a good crime story. This books gives a very personalized glimpse into Boston Irish Mob when James “Whitey” Bulger dominated the underworld.

A Criminal and an Irishman has the virtues and vices of a true memoir. It should not be taken as a history, but neither is it fiction. Congruent time-lines and supporting research are not on Nee agenda. Broader socio-cultural events remain untouched except in the ways in which they personally influence Nee and for the most part remain unexamined.

God and Country Inc.

By Gene Ogorodov

[This is a critique of a SCOTUS case, Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, that I wrote a few months back. It first appeared in the Portland Occupier January 28, 2012.]

The Supreme Court made a ruling on the second landmark First Amendment case in three years—Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. On 11 January 2012, the Court’s unanimous decision on this case has further secured the rights of corporations hitherto enjoyed only by individual American citizens.

The ruling comes on the heels of the of the controversial judgement in the 21 January 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC, which undermined one hundred years of the legal distinctions between the rights of individuals and the rights of corporations in influencing elections.