Bill Gates for president?
Why not? He’s the perfect choice in a crisis. He’s the functional equivalent of a Roman dictator. No, I am not talking about Nero, or Caligula, or even Julius Caesar.
Think Cincinnatus – the 6th century BCE Roman general to whom republican Rome handed dictatorial powers in a time of crisis. He famously gave the power back, once the crisis had past, thus earning him accolades ever since. We refer to George Washington as our Cincinnatus because he did not hold too tightly to the reins of power at the...
April 6, 2020
I’m not sure what the new normal will look like for litigators in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but several things seem obvious enough.
First, I doubt seriously that any juries will be selected until sometime in 2021.
Why? No one is saying that we are anywhere close to having a vaccine that can inoculate against infection. When one is discovered, it will have to be produced, distributed and administered. That’s going to take time. It would not surprise me to for this process to take at least one year, possibly two.
...
April 6, 2020
Things are tense in the prisons. As the COVID-19 virus sweeps across the land, there are calls to release prisoners, and concerns about the welfare of prisoners, guards and the communities in which the prisons are located.
Have we warehoused men and women in fertile nests for the virus to spread?
Yes.
Will there be outbreaks in the prisons?
It’s hard to imagine there will not be.
So what will we do about it?
There’s confusion at the national level.
At his...
April 5, 2020
We’re forced, suddenly, to make explicit what we do all the time – make cost-benefit decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. Economists call such choices decisions about marginal utility. What value do we get for the next dollar we spend? What do we forego by spending that dollar on one thing rather than another?
Everyone does this. All the time.
We call it rationing when medical resources are insufficient to meet the demand for care. Physicians make decisions about who should get scarce care. In wartime, that’s...
April 5, 2020
November 25, 2019
Forgive me if I am not prepared to sacrifice the right to speak freely to the sensibilities of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and to comedian Sacha...
August 8, 2019
Suppose money were no object: Would you declare in your will that, upon your death, every effort should be made to preserve your body,...
April 2, 2020
Lost amid the chaos of preparing for, and coping with, the Covid-19 pandemic is an honest assessment of what to do with prison inmates....
November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...
April 1, 2020
For years, I’ve been haunted by the message of a slender volume written in 2014. Only China survived the challenges imposed by...
October 10, 2019
I understand and accept the syllogism, I really do:
"All men are mortal.
"Mr. X is a man.
"Therefore Mr. X is...