Imprisonment Quotes
The great wall of China was built just as much to keep the Chinese in as to keep the barbarians out.
The Chinese 1st Emperor had unified China by brutal war. His troops and government were more sophisticated than the others and they were particularly sophisticated about drafting soldiers, forcing the civilian population to manufacture weapons for the huge military and to levy and collect taxes. Many people in the conquered provinces fled from China. The Emperor responded to the outside ‘barbarians’ and the fleeing Chinese by connecting the many walls that existed on the Chinese border into one unified wall as much to keep his labor force in China as to keep others out.
Trotsky appeared at the Russian Foreign Ministry shortly after the October Revolution. The staff had served the Czar and the Aristocrats who were in charge of the Czar’s Ministries. To them Trotsky (and the other revolutionary leaders) were nobodies and certainly not fit to lead a Foreign Ministry. They did not quite realize that Russia and the world had changed forever.
There has been a constant conflict between the government and the press regarding the right of a journalist to refuse to disclose his/her sources for a story or to reveal his/her notes or outtakes. Reporters would sometimes be subpoenaed and if they refused to testify or disclose the subpoenaed information, they could be held in contempt of court and fined, jailed or both. However, one of the major reasons reporters have been able to get information on the malfeasance and incompetence of government is that leakers and whistleblowers have been willing to provide information to the press is that they are confident that the press will not disclose the source. The courts have ruled that journalists have no special rights regarding subpoenas, so the outcome of the conflict depends on the political decision of the administration. Risen had been subpoenaed during the George W. Bush Administration and he and the New York Times had fought the case all the way up to the Supreme Court which ruled, that Risen had no special right wo withhold information about a possible crime. That seemed to leave Risen with his “two choices”.
