The trial and death of Socrates stands alongside that of Jesus of Nazareth as a milestone in our civilization. What these deaths signify is far from clear. Neither man wrote memoirs about what he taught. Both were killed by political authorities intent on doing what politicians always do – keeping order. And both deaths have spawned passionate debate and interest thousands of years after each man breathed his last. Why we do care about these deaths?
Bettany Hughes’ The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life provides an answer of a sort. "Home...
April 16, 2011
I've missed the bright lights of the city, living as I do in the country. My main office is a couple short miles from where I live. The morning commute is usually a matter of dodging wildlife: I see more deer and turkeys than cars when I see anything at all. One stop sign separates my home from my office. If it takes all of five minutes to get to the office, I've been dawdling.
It was not always so. I used to be centered in New Haven. Sure, it's not much of a city by the standards of New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. But it is as close to urban as I can tolerate. I spent my youth in...
April 14, 2011
Connecticut lawmakers are missing an opportunity to save money, improve public safety and enhance public confidence in the courts. The legislation is drafted and awaits action. All that’s needed is a little push, so permit me to shove.
Reform of the state’s sex offender registry is desperately needed. At the present time, the registry operates on the basis of a series of mandatory classifications in which judges and fact finders are deprived of the opportunity to make individual risk assessments about whether a person needs to be registered at all, and, if so, whether...
April 14, 2011
The only real obstacle standing in the way of Connecticut’s abolishing the death penalty seems to be special pleading arising from the Cheshire home invasion case. Lawmakers want to repeal the penalty. Indeed, they voted to do so in 2009, but their vote was vetoed by then governor N. Jodi Rell, who did not want to offend Dr. William Petit, Jr., the lone survivor of the Cheshire murders, or his supporters.
Connecticut and New Hampshire are the only two states in New England to retain this savage relic of justice. Our near neighbors to the South, New York and New Jersey, have...
April 7, 2011
April 5, 2011
“The man who gets angry at the right things and with the right people, and also in the right way and at the right time and for the right...
April 3, 2011
We say that the criminal justice system assigns responsibility for deviant conduct to those who violate communal norms. Of course, not all communal...
April 2, 2011
Perhaps it takes economic hard times to do what the machinery of justice is incapable of accomplishing: putting the breaks on the seemingly...
March 31, 2011
You might think they are contradictory, but I tell you the notions are wholly consistent. We can and should have an independent judiciary. We should...
March 30, 2011
Score another victory for what I call the regal species of judicial activism, the school of through that holds the king can do no wrong. By a vote...
March 27, 2011
Several weeks ago, The New York Times carried a front-page story entitled, "Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message." I clipped the piece and set...