Blog Posts

I keep running into the following in books and articles I read about current affairs. An author writes about critics of a current social policy or tendency, and he characterizes the criticism as "white supremacist." There's something dishonest about the move that I can't quite put my finger...

Donald Trump’s suits against Facebook and Twitter are, unfortunately, about as likely to succeed as were his challenges to the 2020 election. In the election cases, his claims appeared to be frivolous. The social media complaints are far from frivolous, at least in intent. But the legal...

A year ago, I watched New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to try to catch my bearings as a pandemic struck. Donald Trump was the black beast of politics then. In the contrast media of the cable news cycle, Cuomo came out looking like a white knight. Hell, he wrote a book about it all. He was king...

The best thing about the pandemic? I’ve discovered podcasts. One of the best is Lex Fridman’s, called, simply, Lex Fridman Podcast.
Fridman is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in machine learning. He began the podcast in...

Suppose you were suddenly accused of sexual assault. Your accuser claims that one night, a dozen or more years ago, you crossed a line. You’re arrested, and now publicly accused of rape. In an instant, your reputation is destroyed.
Assume for the moment you...

Social media censorship is a red-hot topic now. Conservatives are outraged by a perceived bias against their content by the likes of Facebook and Twitter; liberals want to avoid hate speech and misinformation by adopting standards; and techies have all but resigned themselves to some...

There is magic in bookstores of all types, but the magic is especially profound in a used bookstore. A discerning reader will find not only invitations to new worlds and intoxicating ideas, but the books themselves have a history. I’ve often marveled at the marginalia left by...

Last week’s censorship of the New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the Ukraine has renewed calls to take another look at the immunity from suit for libel and defamation provided to social media giants, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Should Internet hosts...

I’ve a confession to make: I’ve not stepped into a courtroom since sometime in early March of this year, and I haven’t missed it one bit.
This is a confession because I am a trial- and appellate-lawyer. I make my living, or at least I used to make my...

Oh, to be a digital overlord, a master of the social media universe, occupying an office at Twitter, or Facebook, or Google. The money just keeps rolling in. You get to decide what to publish or not with impunity. You’re the owner of a monopoly so big even governments cower at the...