SIGMUND FREUD was rarely accused of being too timid. Religious ideas are illusions, he wrote. God and the notion of an afterlife are mere products of our wishes. They are no less real for being illusory. Call them necessary fictions.
But Freud was cautious, even coy, about government and justice.
After writing about religious illusions, he had this to say about justice: “Must not the assumptions that determine our political regulations be called illusions as well? ... The author does not dispose of the means for undertaking so comprehensive a task.”
Let me help Freud...
February 17, 2013
A good friend of mine can’t needle me enough about my outspoken support of gun control. He’s a criminal defense lawyer, so he likes to stand tall for the defense of the rights of ordinary people. The very idea that someone could take his guns enrages him. He marshals all sorts of arguments in support of the right to bear arms. All are foolish.
Does the press report a bus accident in which children are killed? He sends a note: When will I call for the banning of school buses? The reasoning is so stupid, I am dumbstruck. Just what do you say to a person who...
February 9, 2013
“Can I sue?”
I am asked the question almost daily. The answer is, of course, simple: You can always sue. The real question is, can you file a lawsuit and win. In the United States, there is little harm in trying. That’s because losers aren’t required to pay the cost of hauling a defendant into court. Neither the government nor private parties bears any risk when they take aim at someone and miss the mark.
That’s wrong.
In Great Britain, losers pay the other side’s litigation expenses. That seems just. It is expensive to wage war in the courts....
February 8, 2013
One of the down-sides of practicing law is having little time to do such things as watch television. Without a steady diet of the flickering screen, a certain sense of cultural illiteracy grows. So when I found myself in a hotel the other day, I turned on the tube. Wow.
I was huffing and puffing my way through an hour on an exercise bike while watching Fox News. The commentary was acid, even rancid. If Obama says hello, it’s disingenuous. I called my wife afterwards to report that full half of the country had lost its mind.
The next night, still stranded in the same hotel, I...
January 31, 2013
January 17, 2013
Laws banning assault weapons, prohibiting clips capable of carrying dozens of rounds of ammunition, and requiring background checks of all gun...
January 17, 2013
Have you bought your AR-15 yet? Do you have enough ammunition? Are you ready to shoot your way to freedom and security? And what about a stockpile of...
January 13, 2013
IF you or a loved one needed life-saving surgery, would you choose a surgeon who had only read the textbook, or would you want a doctor who’d...
January 3, 2013
I’m not sure why the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association turned on Irving Pinsky the other day. Pinsky filed a claim before the state’s...
January 3, 2013
Imagine my surprise tonight when a reporter from a local paper sent me an email asking to see a copy of my sentencing memorandum in the Jason Zullo...
January 3, 2013
Irving Pinsky’s phone has been ringing off the hook. Some callers are wishing him well. But 50 or so folks want him dead, or so they...