Word: playful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...warlords and Taliban who are not totally possessed by the ideology of the extremist fringe and 3) guarantees from Pakistan to no longer meddle with Afghan affairs. While the first two could still be possible, the third one is a mirage. It is too much to expect Pakistan to play a constructive role in the current imbroglio as it faces increased pressure from fundamentalist groups. Sharad Bishnoi Mumbai...
There are certainly other factors at play here besides just a tough job market - more stay-at-home dads, more rich loafers, more prison inmates. But it also may be a sign that these are in fact the worst times for American workers since the 1930s. Which helps explain why there was so little excitement about that drop in the unemployment rate...
...González case, in fact, that Brazil has opened itself to charges of especially egregious hypocrisy. It's no secret that Brazil, especially under hugely popular President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has become a hemispheric counterweight to the U.S. And it loves to play tit-for-tat with Washington. Because Washington still insists Brazilians secure a visa before entering the U.S., Brasilia makes Americans pay for a "reciprocal" permit to get into Brazil; after the U.S. started thumb-printing foreigners in immigration lines after 9/11, Brazil obliged Americans to do the same. Those are understandable counterjabs...
Which makes it all the more embarrassing that Brazil would play the judicial perpetrator in the Goldman debacle. Sean was a four-year-old toddler in 2004 when his mother, Bruna Bianchi, took him from New Jersey for what was supposed to be a two-week visit to her family in Rio de Janeiro. She instead stayed, filed for a divorce from her husband David Goldman and essentially abducted Sean from him. That's what a U.S. court ruled anyway, ordering that the boy be returned to his father. But a Brazilian court instead granted custody to Bianchi, who remarried...
Many factors play a part in the fading importance of capital punishment. The drop in the number of death sentences reflects a drop in the murder rate. Many states have adopted life-without-parole terms as alternative sentencing, and both prosecutors and juries have embraced the option. Also, DPIC executive director Richard Dieter theorizes that in tough economic times, states are reluctant to take on the high costs of capital cases - the special sentencing hearings, the mandatory reviews and the nearly inevitable years of appeals. The DPIC report cites the example of California, where death sentences were up this year...