Journalists and bloggers glory in the role of iconoclast. Nothing falls with quite such a crash as a hero toppled by disclosure of their failings. The writer who wields the toppling axe struts like a hero. But the line between iconoclasm and gratuitous mudslinging is a thin one. The New York Times demonstrated that this week with its story on a Yale student named Patrick Witt.
While college football fans sat dazed this fall over the allegations of sexual misconduct by a former football coach at Penn State University, and the abrupt firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno for...
January 28, 2012
I never got a chance to stop in to ask Judge Peter C. Dorsey what he thought of the new gym in the basement of the New Haven federal court. It’s not that his door was not open. He was generous with his time. On the occasions that I was in the area with time to talk, he always made time. He was a great storyteller. Now that he is dead, I will never speak to him again. That is a hard truth to accept.
Here’s what I imagine would have happened had I stopped by.
“Hey, Judge, how are you?”
“Ah, Mr. Pattis,” he would say, with an appraising...
January 27, 2012
The politics of federal law enforcement are now front and center in the courtroom of United States District Court Judge Alvin W. Thompson. That is where the federal government’s case against four East Haven police officers landed today. The officers are accused of various acts of police brutality, false arrest and obstruction of justice.
At the obligatory press conference, U.S. Attorney David B. Fein sounded like Bambi watching a forest fire: "There is no place for excessive force in a police station or on the streets," Fein said from the bully pulpit of his pressroom. "There is...
January 24, 2012
I don’t know why the death of an old man takes me by surprise. But it always does. They pass into the night and suddenly a landmark is gone. Yes, all men are mortal. Joe Paterno, Peter Dorsey, were men. Therefore they die. I get the logic. It’s my heart that is breaking.
Joe Paterno, a football coach at Penn State for longer than many of us have been alive, is no more. The flame, the passion, the character that inspired generations of young men to compete, to excel, to finish what they started, to fight against all odds and never give up, that flame went out this...
January 22, 2012
January 19, 2012
Does anyone really care whether Newt Gingrich asked for an open marriage from his second wife? (He wanted permission to cavort with his mistress....
January 17, 2012
Michael Connelly is as good as it gets when it comes to telling tales about lawyers and policemen engaged in the dark but heroic act of combatting...
January 16, 2012
I was born on the wrong side of the color line, and, to my shame, I would have it no other way. Not a day goes by in which I do not enjoy the benefit...
January 15, 2012
I was watching Jesus play football on Saturday. He was embodied in the person of Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos. During a commercial break, a gaggle...
January 14, 2012
Here are some excerpts from the latest star on Twitter. A prize to the person who can name the clerk. My bet? There is no such clerk....
January 13, 2012
Let me see if I get this right: We take an eighteen-year-old kid, break down his inhibitions against killing another person, train him to kill,...