This is a purely educational website. Nothing here is legal advice or creates or implies an attorney-client relationship. If you have a specific legal issue, PLEASE talk to a lawyer who practices where you live—laws vary from place to place, and how they're applied varies from courthouse to courthouse. Your local county bar association can probably refer someone.
By using this site, you agree that you are awesome. Use of this site also constitutes acceptance of its
Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, which are known to medical science as a cure for insomnia.
It's best to keep all discussions in the comments. But if you really need to reach Nathan privately, go ahead and email him at n.e.burney@gmail.com. He won't mind.
THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LAW and the PEEKING JUSTICE logo are pretty damn cool trademarks and should probably be registered one of these days.
© Nathaniel Burney. All rights reserved, though they really open up once you get to know them.
Did you illustrate all of Anubis et al?
Heck no. That’s a public-domain photo of an ancient Egyptian mural that gets used a lot in teaching materials. But thanks for even thinking I could have done that!
Only just realised that there was a new update – you might want to change the thumbnail so it’s distinct from the previous page’s one :)
I did that on purpose. :)
Bert! NOOOooooo!!!
After the insurgence, Bertov avoided persecution by changing his name and moving to America where he spent the rest of his life with a roommate called Ernie.
What I get for trusting the current page icon. I also didn’t get an email notification this time. Looks like I am late by…four days.
That “graveyard of empires” line is dangerously misleading. https://acoup.blog/2021/08/27/fireside-friday-august-27-2021/
How so? The essay you cite points out that Afghanistan’s geography and isolation make it particularly unsuitable for the requirements of state-level political organization. It also calls Afghanistan “the last place an empire would want to go and the first it would want to give up.” “The graveyard of empires” doesn’t mean it destroyed entire empires, only that great powers of the modern world have buried a lot of men trying to turn the place into something it isn’t. The ancient empires mentioned in the essay weren’t trying to turn the region into a state, but instead conquered or asserted hegemony over it while the population continued to govern themselves as agnatic lineages.
Hence ‘misleading’ rather than ‘wrong.’ The phrase “graveyard of empires” could reasonably be interpreted more than one way, and I’ve heard people whose opinions I otherwise respect using it in the sense of “destroyed entire empires” specifically, so I’d rather not let such a footnote pass unexamined. Even a seemingly minor ambiguity can be dangerous when it’s in a position to get tangled up with the sort of policy decisions that lead to five-digit body counts.
And, if I’m being completely honest, I saw a plausible excuse for a link to something else which fans of your work might also enjoy. Lots of websites talk about history and/or law, but this wonderful combination of rigor and approachability isn’t always easy to find.