Blog Posts


Much Ado About The Same Old Stuff: This Time The "Slackoisie"

The most interesting drill I ever saw at Gerry Spence's trial lawyer's college was the so-called milling exercise. This was a form of group dynamics that taught an important lesson: Strength is not chest-thumping. Silent laws transform strangers into a pack with discernible roles. They are laws...

Helen Thomas: Victim Of Hypocrisy

I've never been to Israel, and would love to spend a good, long time in Jerusalem. This was the city in which Jesus was crucified; the ancient stones bleed history. But when I mention this to my wife, she worries. Israel is a dangerous place. When I try to explain to her that the world is simply...

Why I Am Firing Westlaw And Thompson-West

My office manager has been given clear instructions: Do whatever it takes to avoid doing any further business with Thompson-West. If a new book arrives, return it. If a contract needs renewal, cancel it. If we can get out of existing contracts, do so. If we must honor contracts in place, count the...

Twitting and Flitting Away Time, Byte by Byte

The New York Times reports that the Internet is making us stupid. Perhaps that is so. It certainly has undermined my productivity, and I am taking steps today to right that.
About two months ago, I finally succumbed and opened a Twitter account. I wanted to see what all the fuss was. When I...


JFK Assassination: A Matter Of Interpretation

Trial is reconstruction of the past by means of the most reliable evidence and most compelling narrative tools available. But we never really know the past. Any trial lawyer will tell you that the proof of a fact is a thing of considerable difficulty. In that regard, trial work and historiography...

Scott Greenfield and the On-Line Community

Scott over at Simple Justice and I have been in a pissing match of late. He calls me a self-indulgent whiner; I snipe that he is an anti-social network marketing social network marketer. On and on it goes, where is stops, who the fuck knows. Or cares. I've wearied of his "I am not worthy" cynicism...


A Garden At Peace

If the weather in New England this past week is any indication, the summer of 2010 will be a scorcher. It's only early June, and the temperature has already hit 90 degrees. It has been humid and sunny. The good news is that it makes a garden flourish. Ours certainly is.
My wife and I have a...

The Genius of John Rawls

More years ago than I care to remember, I prepared for a career as a scholar. Before oral examinations, we were required to complete four research seminars. In one of them, we read John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971). Among the many reasons I was not cut out for a work as an academic is the fact...

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