I’ve got a serious case of the dystopian jitters, and I can’t tell whether the source of them is realistic or not. So, I share them with you, the better to reality test in these days of isolated anxiety.
What are dystopian jitters?
A fear of what the future may bring.
As a species, we have the wonderful gift of imagination. We don’t merely detect and respond to the data our senses bring to mind; we can add or subtract ideas, and create imaginative worlds of our own based on our selections. Thus science fiction,...
April 11, 2020
Word has it that Gov. Ned Lamont is beside himself. The judiciary isn’t doing enough in this crisis, he is said to mutter. He is said to have ordered, or is contemplating ordering, judges to turn up at the courthouses, even if it is only to punch the clock. Courthouses throughout the state have been effectively shuttered for weeks now, handling only “emergency” matters.
I don’t know if this simply a bit of ill-digested liver on the governor’s part. (Okay, okay – read Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” for...
April 10, 2020
I’m noticing something like a new rhythm as the weeks roll into the first month of COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that about once a week, I run out of courage, and collapse into a puddle of something approaching tears. Today was such a day.
For the most part, I’m upbeat, even philosophic about it all. I grew up amid chaos and have earned my living dancing on the perimeter of disaster. But I knew no better as a child, and simply lived; as an adult, I approached the line always believing I could pull back, just in the nick of time, before disaster claimed me...
April 8, 2020
Cross-examination is the engine of our civil and criminal justice system. When there is a dispute about facts, witnesses are required. Fact-finders, whether they be juries or judges, then make credibility assessments, deciding whom to believe. Yes, mistakes are made – many a “fact” is no doubt found that would surprise God, or some dispassionate observer, but cross-examination has for centuries been regarded as the best means for determining the truth.
Will cross-examination survive COVID-19?
As I write this, Courts here in...
April 8, 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 6, 2020
It is only a matter of days until COVID-19 takes root in one of Connecticut’s prisons, infecting both guards and inmates. The...
November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...
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...
April 6, 2020
Bill Gates for president?
Why not? He’s the perfect choice in a crisis. He’s the functional equivalent of a...