Stoning in Iran: A Sexist and Overlooked Practice

This paper seeks to dissect and expose the ancient practice of stoning in Iran, and to analyze the injustices that are built into this punishment

The importance of 'place' in Japanese politeness: implications for cross-cultural and intercultural analyses

It has long been the contention of various scholars that Brown and Levinson's notion of face, in particular the concept of personal autonomy associated with negative face, is not appropriate for explaining politeness in Japanese. However, there has been little work on what might constitute a suitable alternative. In this paper, it is proposed that the concept of “place,” which has long occupied an important position in Japanese philosophy and language studies, is fundamental to instances of politeness in Japanese. It is suggested that Japanese politeness involves concern about both the “place one belongs” (inclusion) and the “place one stands” (distinction). Examples are then given to show how the concept of place can be useful in understanding politeness phenomena both cross-culturally and interculturally

Can the CEO Learn From the Condemned? The Application of Capital Mitigation Strategies to White Collar Cases

Ted Kaczynski and Bernie Madoff share much in common. Both are well-educated, extremely intelligent, charismatic figures. Both rose to the height of their chosen professions—mathematics and finance. And both will die in federal prison, Kaczynski for committing a twenty-year mail-bombing spree that killed three people and seriously injured dozens more, and Madoff for committing the largest Ponzi scheme in history, bilking thousands of people out of almost $65 billion. But that last similarity—Kaczynski’s and Madoff’s plight at sentencing—may not have had to be. While Kaczynski’s attorneys tirelessly investigated and argued every aspect of their client’s personal history, mental state, motivations, and sentencing options, Madoff’s attorneys offered almost nothing to mitigate his conduct, simply accepting his fate at sentencing. In the end, Kaczynski’s attorneys were able to convince the government, the court, and their client that a life sentence was appropriate despite that he committed one of the most heinous and well-publicized death penalty-eligible crimes in recent history. Madoff, on the other hand, with almost unlimited resources at his disposal, received effectively the same sentence—150 years in prison—for a nonviolent economic offense. Why were these two ultimately given the same sentence? And what can Madoff, the financier with unimaginable wealth, learn from Kaczynski, the reclusive and remorseless killer, when it comes to federal sentencing? The answer lies in how attorneys use sentencing mitigation strategies. This Article contends that federal white collar defendants have failed to effectively use mitigation strategies to lessen their sentences, resulting in unnecessarily long prison terms for nonviolent offenders committing financial crimes. The white collar defense bar has inexplicably ignored the mitigation techniques perfected by capital defense attorneys, and in the process has failed to effectively represent its clients. After discussing the development of the mitigation function in capital cases and paralleling it with the evolution of white collar sentencing jurisprudence, particularly post-Booker, this article will present seven key mitigation strategies currently used by capital defense teams and discuss how these strategies might be employed in federal white collar cases. The goal throughout this Article will be to highlight new strategies and techniques available in defending white collar clients and to enhance sentencing advocacy in federal criminal cases

Digital Marketing Strategies in Libraries

In this paper, the author examines the importance of digital marketing in libraries across the United States. As patrons become more technologically savvy, libraries are tasked with expanding their presence to digital landscapes. One way to do so is to implement simple and effective digital campaigns. This step can ensure ensure libraries remain relevant and indispensable to the patrons they serve. Marketing, once thought to be an unnecessary expense for libraries, is fast becoming a necessity. This paper explores different contemporary views on digital marketing in libraries

On understandings of intention: a response to Wedgewood

In a recent paper, Wedgwood (2011) launches a simultaneous defense of intention recognition and a critique of the alleged neglect of cognition in interactional approaches to communicative interaction. In this paper, I argue that this simultaneous critique and defense is deeply flawed on a number of counts. First, the "looser" notion of intention that Wedgwood proposes glosses over and even confounds various levels or types of intention, and for this reason is ultimately not falsifiable. Second, in the course of his argumentation, he confounds intention with intentionality and agency. Third, his claim that a focus on "local" intentions offers a more "fine-grained" and "explanatory analysis" is completely unwarranted in light of close examination of the data at hand. I argue that such an approach instead generates speculation that is analytically unproductive, and, does not account for the cognitively interdependent inferences that underlie conversational interaction in addition to traditional monadic inferential processes. It is concluded that further discussions about the requirements that interaction places on cognition, including the question of the place of intention and intentionality can be productive, but only if researchers are cognizant of the different ways in which intention has been defined, and also the different analytical work to which intention is put by scholars in pragmatics