Word: racketeer
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...Sicilian Mafia, founded in the mid-19th century as a protection racket in Palermo, is the master template of the modern organized-crime network. Yet its success is grounded in paradox. Cosa Nostra is a multinational conglomerate based in the backwater of Sicily, an organization bred in violence that accumulates power best when it maintains internal peace. It is an association of men - sometimes men of extraordinary influence and charisma - yet the Thing is always bigger than even its most powerful bosses...
Beyond the art thieves linked to established organized crime networks, Rutelli also said there is evidence that terrorists were getting rich off the racket. "There are conversations in which [Sep. 11 suicide bomber] Mohammed Atta was talking about some of the financing of terrorism... coming from the illicit art trafficking market," he said. But Rutelli said there is also a "scientific" motivation for his unprecedented push to resolve these standoffs directly with the musuems. "The issue is also one of context. If you have a stolen masterpiece, you don't know its history. You don't know where it comes...
...bonus.) For years, these folks got away with murder. Congratulations. But then, when the sheer size of their incomes draws unwanted attention, instead of a sheepish grin and an "O.K., you caught us," they decide to use the power of their money to keep the racket going. At that point, I think, Who cares how many cultural centers these guys may have financed? Screw them...
Indeed, James R. Blake, Class of 2001, who is African-American, might be one of the top two American players in tennis today, but—in keeping with general trends across the conference—racket sports such as tennis and squash currently have no African-Americans on their rosters. And, perhaps predictably, the Crimson’s totals suggest that for all sports whose surface of competition is any kind of water—meaning ice hockey, water polo, swimming and diving, sailing, skiing, and crew—less than 3 percent of those student-athletes are black...
...When McEnroe hits the ball it is still a work of art,” Fish said. “To watch the ball come off his racket on volleys is a remarkable visual cocktail...