This past Memorial Day I saw a graphic reminding us to recall all those who have lost their lives in armed conflicts on behalf of the United States. The bars reflected war dead in the conflicts that we’ve engaged in since the Second World War. Somehow, the tiny bars associated with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars made those conflicts seem like blips on a larger screen dominated by losses in the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam. The Iraqi and Afghan conflicts have taken place just below the radar of our national lives.
Sebastion Junger’s War was a necessary corrective....
June 2, 2013
Oh, how sensitive they all were. How considerate, how kind, how diplomatic. Governor Dannel Malloy, Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, state lawmakers, all sitting secretly clucking their tongues in a sickly sweet chorus of concern. “We shall keep secret things too painful to be spoken of,” they decided. Why, their very decision is so sensitive it cannot even be debated in an open forum.
I suppose we all ought to be thankful this unctuous gaggle of civil servants is protecting us from knowing the truth. But just who elected these clowns to serve as existential...
June 1, 2013
Clients often claim entrapment when a police officer catches them red-handed in some unlawful act, especially when one of the participants is an undercover cop. It offends a sense of fair play to learn, suddenly, that the voice on the other end of a telephone line was actually a police officer pretending to be someone else. Isn’t police deception enough to prove entrapment?
The answer, sadly, is no. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: The police are entitled to use deception to solve crimes. What the police are not permitted to do is induce you to commit a...
May 31, 2013
I saw an interview of Nicco Mele on PBS, and was intrigued enough to read his book, The End of Big: How Internet Makes David the New Goliath. I am glad I did.
Mele does a good job of illustrating how "radical connectivity" -- the internet's capacity to reach across traditional institutional boundaries -- undermines the social structure of the world around us. While this poses some challenges, such as the decline of institutions capable of supporting good, investigative journalism -- a world of bloggers transforms the world into a colony of gossips -- it also presents...
May 28, 2013
May 25, 2013
Odds are you have an opinion about whether Jodi Arias should live or die. You probably also know all about Florida’s prosecution of Casey...
May 16, 2013
I should be bleeding red, white and blue over reports that the Internal Revenue Service has singled out some Tea Party groups for extra-special...
May 16, 2013
Here’s some free legal advice that might just keep you out of jail: If federal officials pay you a surprise visit and want to talk to you,...
May 13, 2013
I originally posted this in 2010. Over the weekend, I was approached and asked for permission to republish this by a third party. I am reposting...
May 9, 2013
Tamerlan Tsarnaev is dead. He can’t hurt anyone again. So what’s the big deal about whether he is buried in Hamden, or in Russia, or...
May 8, 2013
Is Amanda Knox guilty of murder? One Italian jury said yes. Then a second jury said no. Now the case is being sent back for another trial. Ms. Knox...