The story that Kurt has to tell begins with a clandestine attempt to interfere with radio broadcasts controlled by the corrupt government of Manuel Noriega in the late 1980s. Kurt, and a few co-conspirators, devised a way in which they could hijack the broadcast signal of the official Panamanian radio station and broadcast their own anti-Noriega message. This obviously didn’t go over very well with Noriega and Kurt was eventually arrested in detained.
The ideal of nine legal experts sitting together to discuss some of the most important legal issues confronting our country is a facade. Most of the opinions are written by law clerks. The justices themselves hold up in their offices like kings and queens disconnected from the populace. Justice Roberts once made the comment that judges were nothing more than umpires who simply follow the rules. Author Toobin, however, rightfully points out that this is certainly not the case for the Supreme Court justices, whose decisions end up forming the rules.
Students of film will find glimpses of lessons learned, as in don’t make the same mistakes that Stephen Verona makes. The author starts by talking about his background and growing up in Brooklyn and how the film is mostly autobiographical. He takes the reader from original idea to completed film, albeit via a circuitous route in which the reader is introduced to every individual the author has ever met in the past thirty years.
This story takes place in Chicago in 1924. Two teenagers, both well educated and both from wealthy families, decide to commit what they believe will be the perfect crime.
Gavin describes the huge treasure ships and the large armada that accompanied them carrying a combined total of some 28,000 men. The ships also carried concubines, horses, plants, jade, grains, and enough food to remain ocean bound for months at a time. As the ships traveled from port to port, the fleet grew in size to as many as eight hundred ships.
The book is written mostly in the present tense, jumping back and forth between the ground and the numerous aircraft that were still flying as the hijackings were taking place. Lynn expertly portrays the confusion confronting flight crews as they received unprecedented instructions from dispatchers and controllers concerning the closure of airspace and airfields. She describes the panic of FAA and airport managers who unnecessarily evacuated airports and air traffic facilities leaving airplanes still in the air vulnerable to further mishaps.