Word: mobster
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That makes arms deals far more difficult to track. But Griffiths says one tactic could work in nabbing arms traffickers: the "Al Capone method." When the U.S. justice system failed to convict the 1930s mobster for racketeering and murder charges, he was finally run in for tax evasion. Griffiths says arms traffickers have one obvious vulnerability: their need to ship arms on boats and planes, most of which require registration. When the E.U. introduced strict safety standards for air-cargo carriers two years ago, its leaders weren't thinking of arms dealers. Yet of the scores of companies they have...
...early days of this quagmire of an election—the really early days, before Giuliani’s mobster connections and before Edwards’ pregnant mistress—I might have found this funny. We all used to laugh at all the candidates, what characters they were: the 9/11 Guy, the Crazy Libertarian, the One Who Calls Himself a Potted Plant. I used to tell people I was voting for Mike Huckabee because his weight-loss story was an inspiration to us all. Sarah Palin, nearly as cute and every bit as socially conservative, now inspires only disbelief...
...another climactic shootout, are a few detectives (John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg and the always smart, luscious, screen-saving Carla Gugino) and some perps: Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, as a Harlem drug lord; Trilby Glover as a lawyer with a coke habit; Oleg Taktarov as a slab-torsoed Russian mobster. They're around mostly to provide alibis and victims, and for spaces between the dialogues of the stars...
...ambitious character named Vlastik Klein (whom some commentators speculate is modeled on Havel's political rival, current president Vaclav Klaus, although he differs from Klaus in important ways) embodies the materialistic, mobster-driven world of eastern Europe in the 1990s. Klein slyly ousts the Chancellor from his government villa, then buys it himself and converts it into a shopping mall complete with brothel. The language makes light of democratic institutions. "A good leader must be surrounded by a good network of think tanks," Rieger says at one point, using the English for 'network' and 'think tanks...
...Really, how can anyone reasonably blame a form of entertainment for problems in society? Before it ended a few months ago, The Sopranos was one of the most TV popular shows in America—but I highly doubt anyone was compelled to become a mobster after watching it. The same goes for most cultural phenomenon during any given era, as The Nation contributor Dave Zirin writes: “Music and culture are reflections—sometimes very ugly reflections—of … harsh realities…Blaming hip-hop for our current state is like...