Things are getting a little crazy, and, I suspect, they will get crazier by the day until we either get control of the viral infection causing the global pandemic, or, until – gasp – the virus declares victory and extinguishes the last man or woman standing.
But between now and the apocalypse there are lots of intermediate, cost-benefit, decisions to make.
In this past Monday’s New York Times, two physicians and a law professor published a piece entitled, “Doctors May Face Impossible Decisions.” The thesis was...
March 18, 2020
It’s hard not to be anxious just now. A new virus sweeps the globe, killing some, and making many more ill. Never in most of our lifetimes has there been a threat like this. Sure, it’s like 9/11, in some respects, but when terrorists struck we mobilized and united behind fear of another.
Now fear is untethered to time and place. Each day’s news seems to grow darker. Businesses are closed, public institutions shuttered, the news, always given to alarmism, is on overtime, offering both doom and silly tips about how to cope with anxiety. What are we to...
March 17, 2020
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 Baran Cohen. But I repeat what I’ve said any number of times: There is no mob quite so terrifying as a self-righteous mob.
Cohen appeared last week at an ADL convention in New York to do what he claims never to have done before – show his true colors. The low-brow comic transfixed the crowd of attendees by telling them exactly what they wanted to hear: Hate speech is bad. Social media is to blame as it panders to our basest...
November 25, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK ZUCKERBERG, : Defendants. : November 12, 2019
COMPLAINT
1. This is an action for money damages and injunctive relief against Facebook, a social media company and personal data harvester, and its founder and current chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg. The defendants seek to, and do, have quasi-monopolistic control of a quintessential public communications forum, offering users access to their service free of charge while surreptitiously...
November 13, 2019
October 20, 2019
Mark Zuckerberg can afford to be as irrational as he wants to be. The billions he’s made gives him what the magnificently rich call...
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,...
June 28, 2019
How do you represent those people?
The question is common enough for criminal defense lawyers. In the past few weeks,...
October 14, 2019
I pre-ordered Edward Snowden’s Permanent Record, his autobiographical memoir of how he came to be – well, what did he...
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...
February 20, 2019
Gov. Ned Lamont lives in a bubble, and that bubble is impenetrable. I know this because he was once a potential juror on a criminal case...