10,000 fugitives

This article raises so many questions.

U.S. law enforcement officials captured more than 10,000 fugitives around the country in a week-long drive to round up some of the most violent criminals who had previously evaded justice.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Thursday a total of 10,340 fugitives were captured by an operation led by the U.S. Marshals Service between April 4 and April 10 -- about 10 times as many fugitives who were arrested the same period a year ago.

How were so many fugitives caught during a single week? What do the involved law enforcement officials do during the rest of the year? How many fugitives are roaming the street anyway? Is there any connection to 10,000 Maniacs?

The Wages of Guilt

In The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan, Ian Buruma discusses how the Germans and Japanese come to terms with their nation's actions during World War II.

He makes some interesting points. For example, Auschwitz is the main association of the war in the German mind, while the Japanese focus on Hiroshima. Separate chapters describe how Germans approach the Holocaust, how the Japanese remember Hiroshima (in ways similar to the US reaction to 9/11), and how the Japanese consider the Rape of Nanking. In general, the Germans accept guilt for their wartime actions, while the Japanese deny that they launched a brutal war of aggression.

Buruma’s research was very impressive. For both Germany and Japan, he read the postwar literature, spoke to a variety of individuals, and so on. However, the book was disappointing is some ways, since he didn’t provide the insight into German and Japanese psychology that I was hoping for. Maybe that’s because he focused on elite opinion, such as what the artists and political leaders were saying, instead of the man-on-the-street reaction. The Wages of Guilt wasn’t quite as good as it could have been.

Beautiful Inez

Bart Schneider, my uncle, wrote Beautiful Inez as a prequel to his earlier book Secret Love; the protagonist in Secret Love is a secondary character in Beautiful Inez. The story focuses on Inez, an unhappy married violinist who has an affair with another woman. I was a little wary of a male author depicting a Lesbian romance, but he pulls it off fairly well.

The character portrayals are multi-dimensional, and the interweaved subplots held my interest. The sad ending made me reluctant to finish the book, but it’s a good sign that I actually cared about what happened to Inez. The musical references and atmosphere of San Francisco in the early 60’s add substance to the narrative.