All posts tagged: scholars

“No president is above the law”: Ex-Judges, legal scholars sound off on Trump’s “contempt” of courts

“No president is above the law”: Ex-Judges, legal scholars sound off on Trump’s “contempt” of courts

Published by Sam Flores

A panel of four retired judges and legal scholars on Thursday decried President Donald Trump‘s “contempt” for the nation’s judiciary, describing the Trump administration’s attacks on federal judges as “very dangerous.” The event, titled “An Unprecedented Attack: Federal Judges Threatened with Impeachment for Blocking Executive Power,” was held by the legal advocacy group Speak Up for Justice. The panel discussion came on the heels of Trump’s high-profile remarks on the Supreme Court, after it voted 6-3 to overturn the president’s tariff policy last Friday. He called the majority a “disgrace to our nation” and “very unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution.” “The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” Trump said in remarks at the White House. The pressing concern for the panel, however, was the ongoing efforts to impeach two federal judges. The first is Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who …

What Did the Instruments in Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights Sound Like? Oxford Scholars Recreate Them

What Did the Instruments in Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights Sound Like? Oxford Scholars Recreate Them

Published by José Betancourt

Wel­come to The Gar­den of Earth­ly Delights. You’ll find no angel­ic strings here. Those are reserved for first-class cit­i­zens whose vir­tu­ous lives earned them pas­sage to the upper­most heights. Down below, stringed instru­ments pro­duce the most hell­ish sort of cacoph­o­ny, a fit­ting accom­pa­ni­ment for the horn whose bell is befouled with the arm of a tor­tured soul. How do we know that’s what they sound­ed like? A group of musi­col­o­gists, crafts­peo­ple and aca­d­e­mics from the Bate Col­lec­tion of Musi­cal Instru­ments at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford, took it upon them­selves to actu­al­ly build the instru­ments depict­ed in Hierony­mus Bosch’s action-packed trip­tych—the hell harp, the vio­lat­ed lute, the gross­ly over­sized hur­dy-gur­dy… …And then they played them. Let us hope they stopped shy of shov­ing flutes up their bums. (Such a place­ment might pro­duce a sound, but not from the flute’s gold­en throat). The Bosch exper­i­ment added ten more instru­ments to the museum’s already impres­sive, over 1000-strong col­lec­tion of wood­winds, per­cus­sion, and brass, many from the stu­dios of esteemed mak­ers, some dat­ing all the way back to the …

“This is unprecedented”: Bondi’s conduct in hearing draws ire of lawmakers and legal scholars

“This is unprecedented”: Bondi’s conduct in hearing draws ire of lawmakers and legal scholars

Published by Sam Flores

Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing severe backlash from lawmakers and legal experts alike after a fiery hearing on Wednesday in front of the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing quickly devolved into a tense, at times explosive event, with Bondi and mostly Democratic lawmakers trading verbal attacks over the handling of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice, and questions of the department’s role in acting on behalf of President Donald Trump. Bondi accused Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., of “theatrics” when she asked Bondi to apologize to a group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors for the DOJ’s “absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information.” The attorney general also got into a tiff with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., calling him a “washed-up, loser lawyer” after Raskin accused her of using her time to “filibuster.” When Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a leading Republican voice in releasing the Epstein files, pressed Bondi on redactions for suspected Epstein associates, she went on the attack. “This guy has Trump derangement syndrome … You’re a failed politician,” she …

Christian nationalism isn’t limited to US, say scholars meeting in Chicago

Christian nationalism isn’t limited to US, say scholars meeting in Chicago

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Scholars from around the world are gathering in Chicago this week to focus on Christian nationalism, which they say is growing in influence globally. “Christian nationalism is not a single ideology, nor is it confined to one nation,” said Abimbola Adelakun, associate professor of global Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School and organizer of the conference. “Across the world, Christianity is being invoked to legitimize political authority and exclusionary visions of belonging. This conference brings global perspectives together to better understand how these movements operate and why they matter.” The first of what organizers say will be an annual event, the conference is designed to look at issues affecting Christians around the world, said Adelakun. “This year, we’re looking at Christian nationalism, because it’s the most topical issue,” she said. “We are trying to understand this phenomenon of Christian nationalism. What does it mean for Christianity?” she said. “What does it portend, and where do we go from here?” She said the scholars invited to the conference have defined Christian nationalism …