Blog Posts

Timing, they say, is everything. There are no coincidences. Things happen when they do for a reason. Thus the conspiratorial mind reckons. Those of more sober disposition acknowledge the great god Chaos. His method is chance. Life simply happens. We make such meaning of it as we can. Conspiracy...

A senior federal judge once pulled me aside in the hallway of the court and asked, with a twinkle in the judicial eye, if I didn’t worry about burning bridges when I wrote critical of sitting judges.
"Burned bridges? No judge," I exclaimed. "I know how to swim."
The truth is that...

Blame the Internet gods, or, at the very least, my webmaster.
In an effort to accomodate the complaints of several readers who had difficulty posting comments to this page, I requested yesterday that someone fix the settings in the comments section. They did. But at various points last night,...

I don’t get to watch as much television as I would like: I leave the house early in the morning, and get home late. My wife and I are addicted to books, so what free time we have is typically spent reading. It is only when astride an exercise bike that I watch the moving screen, and there are...

Were I a praying man, I’d utter the following: "Lord, save us from the likes of Rick Santorum." But who would listen to such a prayer? Certainly not the legions of Bible-thumpers themselves hoping and praying that he is elected President. A Santorum presidency, you see, will be based on the...

Death is inconceivable. I am not saying it does not happen all around us every day. But we cannot conceive of death. Life forces propel us through space and time: We see others die, and know we, too, shall meet an end. But the mind reels. It is a living, adaptive instrument. The instinct for...

I detoxed on Scott Greenfield and Simple Justice a year or so ago, and have had few occasions since to go back to his page. But when I read this morning that he was unplugging his keyboard, I was surprised. I will miss him now that he has gone. Indeed, I suspect he will be back soon enough, perhaps...

I suppose Barack Obama and Mitt Romney ought to just pack up their bags and head, respectively, to Kenya and Mexico. You see, that is where their fathers are from. In birther-world that deprives them of the status of "natural born citizens," and thus makes them ineligible to become president of the...

I’ve never fully understood what universities are seeking to accomplish with their various honor codes. Yes, it is important to teach students the values of citizenship in a community of scholars. But aren’t transparency and a sense of fair play also important?
Every so often,...

Against my better judgment, I have stumbled into yet another post-judgment divorce case, this time, on behalf of a former client, now friend, who is not seeing a couple of his children. There is a guardian ad litem, an attorney for the minor child, a therapist for the kids, a reunification...