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Crime & Federalism 
Discussing recent news and court opinions, with an emphasis on federalism, criminal law, and civil rights actions.
Post Frequency: 15.3/day Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 18:50:57 Recent Entries: 1240
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Kurt Greenbaum, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reporter, is a Fraud and Hypocrite
Posted on November 19, 2009Kurt Greenbaum, a director of social media for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has answered an important question. Namely: "What happens when someone that knows very little about social media gets a job as a director of social media?" In answering the question, Greenbaum reveals himself as unethical and hypocritical...
Warren Buffett is No Folk Hero
Posted on November 17, 2009Years ago Tom Kirkendall had an insight that no one had before - or since, it seems - about Warren Buffett. Called "The Buffett Rule," Kirkendall explained the media's reporting of Buffett thusly: "A folksy and media savvy businessman involved in complicated structured finance transactions is given a pass [when others go to jail and receive negative press for the...
Using Google for Legal Research
Posted on November 17, 2009I begin every legal research issue the same way - with Google. Using Google just got better: As many of us recall from our civics lessons in school, the United States is a common law country. That means when judges issue opinions in legal cases, they often establish precedents that will guide the rulings of other judges in similar cases...
Deferred Prosecution for Aleynikov?
Posted on November 16, 2009In like a lion, out like a lamb: In a court filing on Monday, federal prosecutors revealed that Aleynikov's attorney plans to seek a resolution of the case that could culminate in either a deferred prosecution agreement, or a plea to a reduced charge of a misdemeanor...
Facebook Saves Teen from Confirmation Bias and Flawed Eyewitness Identification
Posted on November 15, 2009We got a black kid who was already in jail for armed robbery. Therefore, he must be guilty of an unrelated armed robbery. Oh, and we have an eyewitness identification. Let's send him to prison! Oops: For 19-year-old Rodney Bradford, a simple Facebook status update turned into much more: a rock-solid alibi after he was accused of a crime...
See a Narcissist Parent
Posted on November 15, 2009Do check out this insightful post and fascinating comment thread. "Sparkylong" serves as the voice of insight and reason. "Turk" plays the role of narcissistic father. The post and thread reminded me of a brilliant insight from The Last Psychiatrist: "[Today's parents] secretly read their kid's email and MySpace accounts, but have never once read the kid's math book...
Is it Legal for Lawyers to Use GPS Tracking?
Posted on November 15, 2009Tracy J. Hasper and Gordon F. Lull, both of Batza & Associates Inc., have this lengthy and interesting article discussing the legal issues of GPS tracking. Check it out (.pdf).
Obama Gives $33 Billion to Home Builders
Posted on November 14, 2009Rarely does news shock me. The corruption is so thick...How can one be surprised? Barack Obama has given us a reason to sit in awe: ON Nov. 6, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law, extending unemployment benefits by 20 weeks and renewing the first-time homebuyer tax credit until next April...
Judge Manuel Real at it Again
Posted on November 13, 2009What does it say about the judiciary's ability to self-police when Judge Manuel Real is still on the bench? A federal appeals court today criticized U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real for his handling of $33.8 million entrusted to him for victims of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, calling his accounting ?curious? and ?filled with cryptic notations? that failed to...
Aleynikov Hearing on Monday: Facciponti's Unanswered Questions
Posted on November 12, 2009Will AUSA Joseph Paul Facciponti indict Aleynikov - who was arrested less than 48 hours after Goldman Sachs reported him for alleging stealing trade secrets? (When Goldman calls: Arrest first, investigate later.) Or will Facciponti ask for another 30-day continuance? When is a federal judge going to stand up to Facciponti? Facciponti already lied in federal court...
Veteran's Day is a Time for Narcissism
Posted on November 11, 2009"Oh, thank you so much soldiers for serving and risking your lives. Yes, thank you. Oh, sure, I haven't written a single check this year to any veteran's-related charity. I care, though, dammit! I support the troops!" Yes, indeed, you do care. You care about how people perceive you...
Bear Stearns Not Guilty
Posted on November 10, 2009The two former Bear Stearn fund managers have been found not guilty. Details here. That is unsurprising. The prosecution against them was frivolous, for reasons I discussed in this post.
Sometimes It's Better Not to Appeal
Posted on November 10, 2009In the federal courts, court-appointed lawyers in complex cases must have their fee requests judicially approved. Spokane lawyer Gerald R. Smith requested a large fee request for a court-appointed case - over $46,000. The trial court hinted that Mr. Smith's performance was not worthy of $46,000: [T]he Honorable Justin L...
Speciesism and the Death Penalty
Posted on November 09, 2009Is it intellectually consistent for a death penalty abolitionist to feed her dog? There are those who claim that the death penalty is always wrong. It doesn't matter if the criminal tortured his victims for days before killing them. It doesn't even matter if the criminal enjoyed it...
Should Teenagers be Sentenced to Life Imprisonment?
Posted on November 09, 2009The Supreme Court will soon decide whether its constitutional to sentence juveniles to prison for life, for crimes less than murder. Scott Greenfield thinks that constitutional issues aside: LWOP for kids at all, no less for crimes short of murder, is just nuts...
A Human-Sized Duffel Bag
Posted on November 06, 2009I laughed out loud at this: [The defendant] challenges a number of the district court?s factual findings and argues the findings do not establish that officers lawfully conducted a protective sweep of the garage during which they observed an open duffel bag containing marijuana...
Federal Judges Demand DOJ Reform Discovery Practices
Posted on November 06, 2009Federal judges are standing up to the United States Department of Justice: Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia says he's "radicalized" when it comes to prosecution disclosure obligations. He is a proponent of a federal rule that clearly spells out the government's obligation to turn over favorable evidence to defense lawyers...
Prosecutors Should Feel the Chill
Posted on November 06, 2009Sometimes someone says something so crisp that one can only feel awe and jealousy. Justice Sotomayor put me and everyone else to shame during oral arguments in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee. §§§ During the oral arguments in Pottawattamie, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Breyer kept niggling over the alleged ?chilling effect? that allowing a lawsuit to proceed against...
Catholicism Succumbs to the Culture of Narcissism
Posted on November 05, 2009Section 1983 Blog has a post about Catholic League v. City and County of San Francisco, a frivolous case in our frivolous times. In Catholic League, the Catholic Church sued because the City of San Francisco hurt Catholics' feelings. Suing for hurt feelings is only more evidence of our culture of narcissism...
Thinking Like a Scientist
Posted on November 04, 2009Science is supposed to be more about the memorization of trivial. Instead, science is supposed to be about method, about process ? most of all, about thinking. Most scientists, sadly, are weak problem solvers. Scientists amass a great amount of trivia ? often life-saving trivia...
Bill Maher and the Yes-Man Effect
Posted on November 03, 2009I never understood why Bill Maher was considered funny. Still, it seems he's imploding. It's because he's surrounded himself with yes-men: When Elvis came out of the dressing room for the first time in that sequined white jumpsuit with elephant bells, high collar, and a matching cape, he asked the people he thought were friends, ?Ahh , what d?yall think?...
You Are Your Environment
Posted on November 01, 2009Why do you do what you do? Why are your friends your friends? Why do you listen to the music you listen to, watch the TV shows you watch, and read the books you read? We often do not ruthlessly weed the garden of our mind. We should, because we become our environment...
Money and Cognitive Bias
Posted on October 30, 2009Bankrate.com has fantastic article entitled, "12 Hair-Raising Money Tales." Some of the tales involve banker corruption, deceit ans so-called gotcha capitalism. Many money mistakes involve decisions. And thus there are problems with cognitive bias. Take this example: In 1995, my husband's employer in Pensacola, Fla...
What Does a "Hit" Look Like?
Posted on October 30, 2009"For a second I thought I was dead. But, when I heard all the noise, I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they'd been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead." Indeed.
On Getting the Democracy We Deserve
Posted on October 30, 2009After giving Wall Street $2 trillion, there haven't been any reforms. Even the derivatives "reform" bill is an industry-sponsored joke. It's clear what is going on. It's not the politicians' fault. Instead, its our fault. We're idiots who deserve the economic asteroid that is about to hit...
"This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly"
Posted on October 30, 2009As we live in a culture of narcissism, few realize when we are re in a bubble. Sure, there have been bubbles in most every other country; and all throughout history. But we are special. I am a special. I would never get caught in a bubble. Well, of course, this time wasn't different...
Psychopaths Can't See Your Fear
Posted on October 29, 2009From the latest issue of Scientific American Mind: Marsh relayed a chilling anecdote about a colleague of hers, University College London psychologist Essi Viding, who was going through a task with a psychopathic murderer in which a series of faces with different emotional expressions were laid out before the woman...
Bear Stearns and Dunning-Kruger
Posted on October 26, 2009Some guys at Bear Stearns ran a hedge fund. They bet that subprime mortgages would pay off big time. During the bubble, they were right. They and their investors made a lot of money. Last year everything changed. The market started tanking. How did the hedge fund managers respond? They sent each other some e-mails: "I think the subprime market...
Narcissism
Posted on October 25, 2009Probably most human behavior would not be surprising if a person understood: social classes; sociopathy; and especially narcissism. Humans really can be stereotyped. People are interesting, persons are boring. A great place to start is: Narcissism: Denial of the True Self (here)...
Alana Joblin Ain: A Narcissist Joins a Co-op
Posted on October 25, 2009But I'm special. How dare the collective treat me like that. A sign of the times (and of the Times). A question for those of you made it through all three pages of whining (good reading, actually, when you view it as a narcissist's diary): Did Ms. Ain return to the farmer's market to pay her $4 debt?
Smartest Thing Heard Today
Posted on October 22, 2009"Most bands sing about what people want to feel. Pink Floyd sings about what people really feel."
Henry Paulson, the Bobolink Foundation, and Goldman Sachs
Posted on October 21, 2009Before Henry Paulson become Secretary of the Treasury, he was required by law to sell all of his shares in Goldman Sachs. He was allowed to sell all of his shares of Goldman Sachs stock tax-free. Thus, by becoming Secretary of the Treasure, he was paid over $200 million dollars...
William Welch II is Still a Federal Prosecutor
Posted on October 21, 2009Remember the laundry list of prosecutorial abuses in the Ted Stevens prosecution? If not, click here and start scrolling. William Welch's prosecutor's misconduct was so outrageous that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan initiated contempt proceedings against him...
How to Frame a Man
Posted on October 21, 2009Any police officer who wants to frame a person for child rape without facing any consequences should read this post. One-sentence summary: Lie well enough, and you'll get a pass.
"Sword and Shield, Third Edition: A Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation"
Posted on October 21, 2009Amazon has weird pricing algorithms. For whatever reason, "Sword and Shield, Third Edition: A Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation," is "on sale" for under eighty bucks. It's the '07 edition, and the law of Section 1983 often changes. I use the same edition, though, as it's valuable for issue spotting and harvesting cases...
Understanding the Bailouts
Posted on October 20, 2009News that Henry Paulson held a secret meeting with Goldman Sachs in Russia is not surprising or shocking. It's banal. The only surprising aspect is that the public learned about the meeting. If you want to have a sage-like understanding of the United States, you need only this mantra: "The system is lawless...
Hank Paulson's Secret Meeting with Goldman Sachs
Posted on October 20, 2009A year ago, you'd have called me a conspiracy theorist if I suggested that the Secretary of the Treasury - the man responsible for doling out $700 billion - was having secret meetings in Russia with Goldman Sachs. Some of you should start becoming less dismissive of "conspiracy theories...
McSherry v. City of Long Beach
Posted on October 20, 2009What is going on in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals? On March 30, 2009, in McSherry v. City of Long Beach, 560 F.3d 1125 (9th Cir. 2009) (here) (media coverage here), a unanimous three-judge panel held that a lawsuit alleging a fabrication of evidence claim against the Long Beach Police Department could go forward...
Aleynikov Case Continued Again
Posted on October 19, 2009The Department of Justice is attempting to distract us through boredom: ORDER TO CONTINUE IN THE INTEREST OF JUSTICE as to Sergey Aleynikov re: 6 Order to Continue - Interest of Justice. Time excluded from 10/16/09 until 11/16/09. Follows oral order of 10/16/09...
Obama Decriminalizes Medical Marijuana
Posted on October 19, 2009The Associated Press has this great news: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday...
Fannie, Freddie, and the Market Meltdown
Posted on October 18, 2009Folks tried arguing with me about the causes of the market meltdown. Well, we're doing it again. Pay attention this time, please: Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority.
Why Jeff Skilling's Conviction Should be Reversed
Posted on October 18, 2009In a post at the Business Insider, Tom Kirkendall explains why Jeff Skilling's conviction might be reversed. It's a fantastic post. As an aside, why have so few people spoken out against the Enron prosecution? Many criminal defense lawyers, faced with a brute who a tied up woman in his basement and raped her for several days before burning her...
29-Year-Old to Head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Posted on October 18, 2009This this a joke? Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission named Adam Storch, a 29-year-old from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.?s business intelligence unit, as the enforcement division?s first chief operating officer. Storch, who joined the SEC Oct...
Major in Black Homophobia at Morehouse College
Posted on October 18, 2009Proving that blacks remain the Made Men of minority groups, Morehouse College has admitted to openly discriminating against gay and transgendered students without a single column from the New York Times. Meanwhile, CNN and other media outlets have been busy attacking Rush Limbaugh for racist statements he did not even make...
DOJ's Fake Mea Culpa in Ted Stevens Prosecution
Posted on October 17, 2009The United States Department of Justice has received significant attention for its prosecutorial misconduct in the Ted Stevens prosecution - among many other cases. Mainly, DOJ has had a problem with turning over Brady material. Named for Brady v. Maryland, Brady material is any evidence favorable to the accused...
Crime & Taxation: A Pop Quiz
Posted on October 16, 2009The owner of my favorite coffee shop arrived while I placed my order. He collected the day's take, and headed towards the bank. I followed him. When no one was looking, I grabbed his money. I am going to spend this on things I deem worthy: Obviously the coffee shop owner knows less than I about how to stimulate the...
California Court of Appeals Going After Litigation Gamesmanship
Posted on October 15, 2009Even if two cases don't make a trend, there are two must-read posts for California litigators from Shaun Martin, whose blog, California Appellate Report, really is a must-read: Nazir v. United Airlines (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 9, 2009) - "It's a damning indictment of a lot of things...
Aleynikov Hearing Tomorrow
Posted on October 15, 2009Tomorrow we'll find out the fate of Sergey Aleynikov. Will the Department of Justice file an Indictment against him; dismiss the case; or reach some other deal? We'll keep you updated.
On Charm
Posted on October 15, 2009Charm is the greatest vice. The charming stand not on the shoulders of giants ? but on the shoulders of corpses. Harry Truman said: ?I like old Joe. Joe is a decent fellow [].? That ?Old Joe? was Joseph Stalin ? the man whose only defense is that he might have killed only 20 million people...
Conservative Judicial Activism
Posted on October 14, 2009In our system of separated powers, judges are to interpret the law. The Federalist Society's favorite quote from the Federalist Papers reads: "The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body...
Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Enron Prosecution
Posted on October 14, 2009There was substantial prosecutorial misconduct in the prosecution of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. Here are a few bullet points: The Enron Task Force withheld exculpatory evidence. There were several witnesses with evidence exculpating Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling...
Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Jeff Skilling Prosecution
Posted on October 14, 2009Tom Kirkendall has covered the Enron prosecution - with flair - from the beginning. Commenting on the Supreme Court's agreeing to hear Jeff Skilling's case, Tom notes one instance of prosecutorial misconduct: Fastow testified at trial that he told Skilling about the Global Galactic agreement, which purportedly documented a series of illegal "side deals" between Fastow and former Enron chief...
Taser Admits that Tasers are Deadly Weapons
Posted on October 13, 2009How surprising! RCMP officers have to stop aiming their stun guns at the heart and chest, after Taser International raised new concerns about its weapons causing cardiac arrest. As of last Friday, Mounties are called upon to aim their tasers at the abdomen, legs or back of people they want to subdue ? abandoning the chest, which offers the biggest...
Reason to Hate Wal-Mart?
Posted on October 13, 2009During my freshmen year in college, I applied for a part-time job at Wal-Mart. Even part-time employee applicants had to take a 100-question test. One question went something like: "Do you believe that a large corporation cares about its employees?" Um, duh...
Socialism is Based on Power; Capitalism, on Trust
Posted on October 13, 2009What happens when the trust is gone?
Blawg Review #233
Posted on October 12, 2009Blawg Review is an aggregation of posts - often annotated, never duplicated - from dozens of law blogs, which is published weekly at a host's blog. The latest Blawg Review is at Popehat.
Humanity's Hateful Nature
Posted on October 11, 2009Michael Shermer offers yet another reason why humanity is debased: Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same...
Are Ancient Fight Scenes Realistic?
Posted on October 11, 2009Have you ever wondered how realistic film scenes depicting ancient battles are? If these two videos are any indication, then the organized chaos in the opening scene of Gladiator is pretty accurate. Some will use these videos are evidence that Russia is barbaric...
Memento Mori
Posted on October 10, 2009My friends don't believe me, but I have a small ego. Or, if not, I appreciate my own mortality. You could have everything...And it will all be gone due to a brain tumor, a car crashing into you, or a loved one's death. Even if you "make it," you will still die...
Class Action Lawsuit Against Whole Foods for Not Honoring Volume and Case Discounts
Posted on September 30, 2009One of the most frustrating facts of modern life: You can't trust corporations. I monitor my credit card statement monthly. I cancelled a gym membership with Gold's Gym months ago. Each month, they bill me. Each month, I dispute the charges. In America, a person must have two jobs...
Pottawattamie County and Racial Justice
Posted on September 30, 2009We've discussed the legal issues raised in Pottawattamie County extensively. In a recent amicus brief, Mark Herrmann, on behalf of Black Cops Against Police Brutality, looks at the case from a different angle. In a blog posting about Pottawattamie County, Herrmann highlights the racial issues that we've ignored: Two white prosecutors participated in fabricating, and then presenting at trial, perjurious...
EMT Firefighter Punks Neo-Nazi
Posted on September 30, 2009Too good to not be true: I was called to respond to a medical emergency involving a man who was covered in Nazi tattoos. He had high blood sugar, and was drunk and pretty out of it. We had to take him to the hospital. On the way there, I kept telling him he needed a blood transfusion; and this...
Catholic Church Defends Roman Polanski
Posted on September 29, 2009The Catholic Church wants us to move past its child molestation scandal, because, quite frankly, priests were not molesting children. Instead, ala Roman Polanski, they were simply having relations with adolescents (via): The statement said that rather than paedophilia, it would "be more correct" to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males...
1-877-362-2803 is a Scam. Is Acxiom Corporation-Delivery.Net a Criminal Enterprise?
Posted on September 28, 2009On Sunday afternoon, I received the following alert: "smsbanking@t-mobile.delivery.net: Message from [Name of my Bank]. Not a sales message. Call us at 1-877-363-2803 immediately about your recent account activity. Thank you." I was startled, but knew not to call...
Oklahoma City Bombing Tapes Edited
Posted on September 28, 2009What is going on here? OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday...
PATRIOT Act Used for Non-Terrorism Cases
Posted on September 28, 2009The PATRIOT Act stands for: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. As it turns out, the PATRIOT Act isn't about terrorism at all: In the debate over the PATRIOT Act, the Bush White House insisted it needed the authority to search people's homes without their permission or knowledge so...
Paul Clement to Argue Pottawattamie County v. McGhee?
Posted on September 27, 2009In the Pottawattame County merits brief (here), Paul Clement is listed as counsel of record. Is Clement doing the oral argument? It will be much better for everyone if a former Solicitor General argues the case. Incidentally, the merits brief disposes of the argument that adequate alternative remedies against prosecutorial misconduct exist: Petitioners? amici describe a host of other remedies...
No Charges in Hofstra Rape Hoax
Posted on September 27, 2009The young woman whose false accusation led to jail time for 5 innocent men, will not face responsibility for her actions.
New York Times in Denail About ACORN Story
Posted on September 27, 2009Some people are so much superior that, when they gaze at their own navels, they abs where there is only lint and flab. And so goes the New York Times missing the target. A week or so ago, a story about ACORN's corruption broke. Why wasn't the newspaper of record on this story? Does ?media bias? explain the inattention? The...
Consciousness of Guilt; Consciousness of Innocence
Posted on September 26, 2009In most states, a person facing criminal charges who flees the jurisdiction will be hit at trial. The jury will be instructed that it can infer guilt based on the defendant?s flight. The concept is known as flight as evidence of consciousness of guilt...
What is Criminal Practice Like?
Posted on September 26, 2009Two heartfelt and thoughtful posts: Norm Pattis on a favorable verdict that still feels like a loss. Jeff Gamso on the death of a client.
Sudafed is a Crime
Posted on September 26, 2009Often people like me seem unreasonable. We fought efforts to make purchasing Sudafed a crime. Yes, Sudafed contains pseudoephedrine. Yes, pseudoephedrine can be used to manufacture meth. However, it's also the case that there are moronic police and prosecutors...
Free Speech for the Corporatocracy
Posted on September 25, 2009The answer to speech is more speech, libertarians will utter. So you're really going to outspend the GM Corporation? Goldman Sachs? If the Supreme Court gives corporations the same rights as people, then we can consider the latest bailouts a quasi-bailout, perhaps even the Diet Coke of bailouts...
Why I'm Not a Libertarian
Posted on September 25, 2009Libertarians will say, "But that's not libertarianism, Mike!" That response parallels communists who say, "But China isn't real communism! Russia wasn't pure communism!" The bailouts should have been 9/11 for libertarianism. We libertarians were duped...
Summary of ACORN Lawsuit
Posted on September 24, 2009Here is a post that I am jealous of, for not having written.
Links (9.24.09)
Posted on September 24, 2009"Pottawamie and the Shaking Prosecutor Syndrome" "What Are the Medical Ethics of Forced Catheterization?" "Thursday on Men?s Rights" "Inverse Preemption: Does California's Anti-SLAPP Statute Preempt Section 1983?" "Cutting Budgets, Scaring People"
Opinion Writing (2nd Edition) by Ruggero J. Aldisert
Posted on September 24, 2009Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert, author of the excellent Logic for Lawyers, recently updated his book on judicial opinion writing. I've just ordered a copy, which I'll review once it's read. Why should lawyers read a book on opinion writing? Some judges - unlike Richard Posner - actually try applying the law when writing an opinion...
Prosecutors Can't Lie: They are "Truthful, but Inaccurate"
Posted on September 23, 2009Remember Rachel Cannon, the federal prosecutor who lied to U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow? She has issued her apologia, and she ain't no Socrates: The prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office on Sept. 18 filed a motion for reconsideration in the case, telling U...
Pottawattamie County v. McGhee: DOJ's Amicus Brief
Posted on September 23, 2009The Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee. In McGhee, the issue is this: Should prosecutors who fabricate evidence, leading to a wrongful conviction, be absolutely immune from suit? Absolute immunity from suit means that a wrongfully convicted person may not sue - at all or under any circumstances...
NEA Violates the Law, White House Offers Creative Solution
Posted on September 22, 2009The National Endowment for the Arts is a federal agency that funds a lot of really bad "art." The kind of stuff I could produce. Someone said it best, "I can't define art. I will say this: If I can do it, it ain't art." True dat playa. In any event the NEA is in trouble (well, it's not; but...
Real Life Date Rape Case
Posted on September 22, 2009The Hofstra Rape Hoax has people talking about date-rape all over again. Emily Bazelon has some interesting commentary here. Glenn Reynolds and Ann Althouse have some great comments here. Let's not dwell on the abstract; let's look at the concrete. Let's examine a real-life date-rape case...
Zazi Terrorist Case
Posted on September 22, 2009Or, rather, "The Terrorist Case That Isn't." There's a must-read post on Zazi here.
Links: Annotated (9.21.2009)
Posted on September 21, 2009"Federal Reserve Accounts For 50% Of Q2 Treasury Purchases." In a Ponzi Scheme, new investors invest money. This new money is used to pay dividends to old investors. Every Ponzi Scheme eventually fails, because you will always run out of new investors...
AEDPA Habeas Deadlines
Posted on September 21, 2009The nastiest issue in habeas corpus proceedings is the deadlines. If someone questions me about a habeas petition, I immediately drop everything, and pray that we haven't missed a deadline. In comparison to deadlines, the con law stuff is easy. How closely do you need to read Crawford v...
Appeals Courts Should Improve the Public's Access to the Law: Here's How
Posted on September 21, 2009The law exists for the public. Why then do most Federal Courts of Appeal making finding the law more complicated than need be? Some Courts make it very hard for people to track developments in the law. Every Court of Appeal uploads recent decisions to its site...
Links: Annotated
Posted on September 19, 2009From the New York Review of Books, "The Torture Memos: The Case Against the Lawyers." Georgetown law professor David Cole discusses the Office of Legal Counsel's role in supporting torture. Cole's normative position is: "At its best, law is about seeking justice, regulating state power, respecting human dignity, and protecting the vulnerable...
Moral of the Hofstra Rape Hoax: Film It?
Posted on September 18, 2009Joye Brown has some interesting commentary about the Hofstra Rape Hoax. She saves her best point for last: 5. A cell phone video of a portion of the sexual activity was key to gaining the young woman's confession. If not for the video - taken by one of the woman's alleged sex partners - four young men could still be...
Hofstra Gang Rape Hoax, and Feminism's War Against Men
Posted on September 17, 2009Hofstra had its own Duke Lacrosse Case: The student who alleged she was gang raped by five men inside a Hofstra University dormitory bathroom on Sunday has admitted to making the entire story, the Nassau County District Attorney's office confirmed on Wednesday night...
Eyewitness Identification Remain Unreliable
Posted on September 16, 2009What is the leading cause of wrongful convictions? It's an easy answer: Unreliable eyewitness identification. Most of us think that most eyewitness testimony is reliable. Wanna bet your life on it? Associate Professor Dr Kimberley Wade from the Department of Psychology led an experiment to see whether exposure to fabricated footage of an event could induce individuals to accuse another...
Prosecutor Goes Underneath Her Robes: Verla Sue Holland and Attorney Tom O?Connell's Affair
Posted on September 16, 2009It's not often that you get an unethical prosecutor and a judge in the same case. Then again, we are talking about Texas: The question of whether a romantic relationship between a judge and prosecutor is unfair won?t be decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals...
Links: Annotated
Posted on September 16, 2009A Writer Rants About Pro Bono. Not quite; but the rationale is similar enough. How dare you not represent me for free? I often ask people for copies of tax returns. "You ever given any money to charity? Volunteer anywhere? Do you even give blood?" It's always those who have done the least for humanity who demand that lawyers represent...
Sergey Aleynikov Update
Posted on September 16, 2009The Aleynikov prosecution received more attention that DOJ was prepared for. DOJ is in a tough position - "tough" if you put personal interests ahead of your ethical and legal obligations, that is. If DOJ indicts Aleynikov, they won't obtain a conviction...
Federal Judges Taking Separation of Powers Seriously
Posted on September 16, 2009Contrary to popular prosecutorial belief, a federal judge's duties include more than, "Do what DOJ tells you to do." According to the Constitution, federal judges must serve as adversaries to prosecutors. Power must check power in our system of separated powers...
Eyewitness Identification Remains Unreliable
Posted on September 16, 2009What is the leading cause of wrongful convictions? It's an easy answer: Unreliable eyewitness identification. Most of us think that most eyewitness testimony is reliable. Wanna bet your life on it? Associate Professor Dr Kimberley Wade from the Department of Psychology led an experiment to see whether exposure to fabricated footage of an event could induce individuals to accuse another...
"Silberman Transcripts Remain Sealed, at Least for Now"
Posted on September 15, 2009I haven't followed the prosecution of Judge Harvey Silberman, and thus have no opinion about the merits of the case. Still, one's nose should itch when one judge refuses to make public, the accusations against another judge: The newly assigned judge hearing election-bribery charges against Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harvey Silberman and two others declined to rule Friday on...
Overcriminalization Event at the Cato Institute
Posted on September 15, 2009The Cato Institute is holding a fun event on October 1st. If you're in the Washington D.C. area, check it out.
Pottawattamie County v. McGhee: Fabricating Evidence is All in a Day's Work
Posted on September 14, 2009In Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the Supreme Court will decide whether a prosecutor should be entitled to absolute immunity from suit for "obtaining, manufacturing, coercing and fabricating evidence before filing formal charges." Absolute immunity from suit, in the context of civil rights cases means this: Even if the prosecutor fabricated evidence, he may not be sued...
Judge Jed S. Rakoff Stands Firm: No Conspiracies in his Courtroom
Posted on September 14, 2009Last week Bank of America and the SEC conspired to trick Judge Jed S. Rakoff into approving a bogus settlement agreement. Today Judge Rakoff sent a message to the SEC: Stop lying to me; stop cheating the American public; stop cheating Bank of America shareholders...
Gamso - For the Defense
Posted on September 14, 2009This is a blog you will likely enjoy. UPDATE: Mark Bennett points out two other good ones: Kaiser Law Blog (a new one to me) and People v. State. Check them out, too.
"How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession"
Posted on September 14, 2009I feel like a babe in the woods. How, I wondered, could otherwise smart people like Tyler Cown kowtow to the same members of the Federal Reserve who failed to foresee the economic crisis? It made no sense. My error, I now realize, was assuming good faith on the part of the Fed's supporters...
Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
Posted on September 14, 2009This looks to be a very good book about the problems of overcriminalization. "Another overcriminalization book," you wonder. "Isn't the market saturated?" No; there will always be a shortage of good books. I skim all of the books on overcriminalization, and this one is legit...
Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (UPDATED)
Posted on September 14, 2009This looks to be a very good book about the problems of overcriminalization. "Another overcriminalization book," you wonder. "Isn't the market saturated?" No; there will always be a shortage of good books. I skim all of the books on overcriminalization, and this one is legit...
Lawyers and the First Amendment
Posted on September 13, 2009Two Pennsylvania judges sold children into slavery in the infamous Cash-4-Kids scam. By law, lawyers who appeared before those corrupt judges were not allowed to stop the human trafficking. Why do judges put self-interest above the public interest? Suspicious things happen in courtrooms across the country...
Prosecutorial Discretion in Action: Andrew Sullivan Skates on Marijuana Charge
Posted on September 12, 2009Prosecutors say they need a lot of discretion. Why? So that they can prosecute the powerless, while refusing to prosecute the powerful and connected? You think I'm some sort of wild-eyed Marxist? Hardly. Here's a typical case (via): Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M...
Sheldon Nahmod has a Blog
Posted on September 12, 2009The legal blogging world became much more interesting, now that Sheldon H. Nahmod, an expert on Section 1983 law, has begun blogging. In the "About" section to his page, Nahmod notes: "I plan to blog once or twice weekly on 42 U.S.C. section 1983, perhaps the most important federal civil rights statute, and on constitutional law (including the First Amendment),...
Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court
Posted on September 12, 2009Amy Bach has written a promising book entitled Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court. I haven't had time to review it myself, but Scott Greenfeld seems to be a fan. Do you need any further endorsement?
DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility: Protecting Their Own
Posted on September 11, 2009What are the odds that a federal prosecutor will be punished for prosecutorial misconduct? The odds are about 50-to-1 that a prosecutor who is reported for prosecutorial misconduct will not receive even a slap on the wrist. Given that most prosecutorial misconduct goes unreported, the odds of getting away with misconduct are even better...
Sergey Aleynikov Hearing on Sept 16, 2009
Posted on September 11, 2009The next hearing in U.S. v. Sergey Aleynikov, the most disgraceful criminal prosecution since the Duke Lacrosse Case, will be held this coming Wednesday. While we don't know whether the charges against Aleynikov will be dismissed, there has been a related development...
Andrew Sullivan's Drug Case Dismissal Approved by Highest Levels of DOJ
Posted on September 11, 2009As other media outlets have reported, famed blogger and Atlantic writer Andrew M. Sullivan was cited for possessing marijuana on federal property. That anyone would be prosecuted for possessing marijuana in the United States is itself sad. What is worse, however, is the special treatment Andrew Sullivan received...
DOJ Refuses to Prosecute Schlozman for Perjury
Posted on September 11, 2009Yesterday, in a post entitled, "DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility: Protecting Their Own," we argued that the United States Department of Justice does not take professional misconduct within its ranks seriously. Today, Attorney General Holder rubber-stamped our conclusion...
Prosecutorial Discretion in Action: Andrew Sullivan Skates on Marijuana Charge
Posted on September 11, 2009Prosecutors say they need a lot of discretion. Why? So that they can prosecute the powerless, while refusing to prosecute the powerful and connected? You think I'm some sort of wild-eyed Marxist? Hardly. Here's a typical case (via): Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M...
Pottawattamie County v. McGhee Amicus Brief: Prosecutors Spread Familiar Lies
Posted on September 10, 2009[Editor: In Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the most interesting Section 1983 this Term, the Supreme Court will determine whether a prosecutor who manufactured evidence should be held liable for money damages. An amicus brief, filed on behalf of state and federal prosecutors, is unpersuasive...
Pottawattamie County v. McGhee: Reversal Hurts
Posted on September 10, 2009[Editor: In Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the most interesting Section 1983 this Term, the Supreme Court will determine whether a prosecutor who manufactured evidence should be held liable for money damages. An amicus brief, filed on behalf of state and federal prosecutors, is unpersuasive...
Pottawattamie County v. McGhee Amicus Brief: Lawsuit Doublespeak
Posted on September 10, 2009[Editor: In Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the most interesting Section 1983 this Term, the Supreme Court will determine whether a prosecutor who manufactured evidence should be held liable for money damages. An amicus brief, filed on behalf of state and federal prosecutors, is unpersuasive...
Too Many Lawyers? The Free Market has a Solution
Posted on September 10, 2009Having too many lawyers is not just bad for society: It is bad for the lawyers. Too many lawyers means too few jobs. Life is tough out there for nearly every recent law school graduate. Many people have offered many solutions. Most of these solutions are paternalistic...
"Judge Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench"
Posted on September 09, 2009The Eighth Circuit Bar Association is hosting an event to discuss a new book about Judge Richard S. Arnold. If you're in St. Louis, you should go. Details here. I didn't even know the book was out. I made an exception to my boycott of new books to order my copy...
The NYTPicker
Posted on September 09, 2009Media bias discussions are frustrating. The ones who mention media bias are right-wing goons. The Left has no problem with the Times. One cannot have an interesting discussion with fools. There is no doubt that the New York Times is incredibly biased...
SEC and BOA Conspire to Trick Judge Rakoff
Posted on September 09, 2009When two people pretend to be adversaries to commit fraud on a federal judge, a problem emerges: Keeping a bunch of lawyers "on message" ain't easy. The SEC and Bank of America lawyers are going to learn this lesson, as Judge Jed S. Rakoff is not going to like their latest ruse...
Scalia's New Police Professionalism: Two Counter-Memes
Posted on September 08, 2009In Hudson v. Michigan, Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the exclusionary rule was unnecessary because of "[a]nother development over the past half-century that deters civil-rights violations," namely, "the increasing professionalism of police forces, including a new emphasis on internal police discipline...
Al-Kidd v. Ashcroft and Material Witness Warrants
Posted on September 08, 2009There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the history, purpose, and actual law of the material witness statute, 18 U.S.C. 3144. In 2005, the Congressional Research Service published a characteristically helpful summary of the material witness statute: "Arrest and Detention of Material Witnesses:Federal Law In Brief and Section 12 of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act...
Southern Justice
Posted on September 06, 2009Fire chief shot by police for complaining, in open court, about excessive ticketing.
On Vacation: Reading, Not Writing
Posted on September 04, 2009Norm Pattis peeks behind the curtain. Three parts: I, II, III. Lots of drama and name calling in the comments. Anonymous people call other anonymous people cowards for being anonymous. Lawyers claim that tax records and lease agreements don't mean anything...
"Chasing Small Fry, S.E.C. Let Madoff Get Away"
Posted on September 03, 2009The modern American prosecutorial novella has a simple theme. Federal prosecutors ignore rich and powerful people like Bernie Madoff. Instead, they prosecute small targets. This June, 2009 New York Times article is typical: Three months ago, in a courtroom in Bridgeport, Conn...
Prosecutorial Misconduct in the United States Department of Justice
Posted on September 02, 2009In 2009 alone, federal judges have identified several cases of prosecutorial misconduct. All of these prosecutors are still serving with the Department of Justice: Sean Cronin Rachel Cannon Adam Reeves Juliet Sorensen Brenda Morris William Welch II Karen Ann Escobar Suzanne Sullivan Andrea Hoffman Again, that is from 2009 alone...
American Bar Association Issues New Guidelines on Prosecutorial Ethics
Posted on September 02, 2009The American Bar Associate recently issued an important opinion expanding a prosecutor's ethical duties. Significantly, the ABA has interpreted the Rules of Professional Conduct to be more demanding than constitutional requirements under Brady v. Maryland...
"Prosecutors Run Amok"
Posted on September 02, 2009Kathleen Ridolfi has a must-read column in the Daily Journal (subscription only) about prosecutorial misconduct. This statistic should make everyone queasy: I was a contributor to a recent study published by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice that detailed how California appellate courts found prosecutors committed misconduct in 444 cases...
Judge Stephen Reinhardt's Footnote Five
Posted on September 02, 2009Today in a fascinating criminal case, Judge Stephen Reinhardt inserted an interesting footnote into his concurring opinion. After critizing the Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court for making up the defintions of words - i.e., engaging in judicial activism - in order to affirm criminal convictions, he wrote: Other ways, of course, [to earn more public trust and respect than we...
The Perils of Good Lawyering
Posted on September 02, 2009This is the second time my friend's life has been in real danger.
Journalist has Proof that Paulson Lied to Congress about TARP
Posted on September 02, 2009Former Treasury Secretary Henry Pauslon requested $700 billion from Congress. He told Congress that he intended to use the money to buy mortgage-backed securities. Five days after he recieved the $700 billion, he used it to pay billions to Goldman Sachs via AIG...
Keeping the Heat on Sean Cronin
Posted on September 01, 2009John Pacenti, I like your style: Where in the world is federal prosecutor Sean Cronin? Those in the know are certainly not offering the whereabouts of the Miami Assistant U.S. Attorney at the center of a prosecutorial misconduct investigation. The Miami U...
"Dog Days Turn Deadly in America's Prisons"
Posted on September 01, 2009Mother Jones has this disturbing article about prison conditions: The summer of 2009 hadn't even begun when Marcia Powell, a 48-year old inmate at Arizona?s Perryville Prison, was baked to death. Powell, whom court records show had a history of schizophrenia, substance abuse, and mild mental retardation, was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution...
Section 1983 Blog: Blog Spin-off
Posted on August 31, 2009We're spinning a blog off. All of Crime & Federalism's Section 1983-related posts are going to be posted to a new blog, creatively entitled: Section 1983 Blog. That blog will provide serious legal analysis only. It will be more technical than our postings here...
Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Problems of the Middle Class
Posted on August 30, 2009The Zhenli Ye Gon case was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct. (Details here.) How was the misconduct discovered? Zhenli Ye Gon was a rich drug dealer whom federal prosecutors deemed unworthy of a fair trial. And so prosecutors hid evidence. Fortunately for Ye Gon, he was able to pay lawyers to work tirelessly on his case...
Rachel Cannon, AUSA, is an Unethical Prosecutor
Posted on August 28, 2009Another day, another unethical federal prosecutor: A federal judge has found that a prosecutor in U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's office committed prosecutorial misconduct by allowing a government witness to testify falsely in a drug conspiracy trial that resulted in the convictions of four defendants in March...
District Attorney David Paulson Found Liable for Retaliation
Posted on August 28, 2009This is an interesting jury verdict: Solano County, Calif., District Attorney David Paulson retaliated against a bail bondsman who slammed the prosecutor in a newspaper ad, a federal court jury decided Wednesday. Paulson and his chief investigator, Al Garza, acted with malice when they sought a temporary restraining order against Joel Thomas "Tom" Toler and then unsuccessfully pursued charges that...
Mike Tyson Talks About Prison
Posted on August 27, 2009This is part of an older series of videos with one of the most interesting men to ever live, Mike Tyson. The video will autoplay at 3:20 (where Mr. Tyson discusses his time in prison):
Barack Obama Gives Kickback to George Soros
Posted on August 27, 2009On August 15, 2008, Bloomberg repoted: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro SA in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund's largest holding. On August 19, 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported: Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling You read that headline correctly...
A First Amendment Right to Receive Campaign Contributions?
Posted on August 27, 2009Dean v. Blumenthal (2d Cir.; here) held that if there is a right to receive campaign contribution, the right is not clearly established. Very interesting case.
Qualified Immunity: Reasonably Believed that it was Reasonable?
Posted on August 27, 2009The always excellent "Wait a Second" blog has a post on qualified immunity. It's "inside baseball" sure to give you a headache if you're not versed in the controversy over whether qualified immunity gives an officer two chances to show reasonableness...
Sherlock Holmes Flips an Uncooperative Witness
Posted on August 26, 2009In "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," Sherlock Holmes discovers that a stolen gem had been hidden inside the carcass of a goose. In order to uncover the thief, Holmes had to learn who sold the goose to the butcher. The butcher was unwilling to answer Holmes question...
Was Cameron Todd Willingham the First Innocent Man to be Executed?
Posted on August 26, 2009I don't know enough about the case to have an opinion. This American Statesman article is troubling: The fatal house fire that led Texas to execute Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004 was erroneously ruled to be arson by fire investigators who relied on bad science, unproven theories and personal bias, a state-funded analysis concludes...
William D. Cohan is on Goldman Sachs' Payroll
Posted on August 26, 2009William D. Cohan wrote a puff-piece about Goldman Sachs in the most recent issue of Time. The end of the article describes Cohan thusly: "Cohan, a contributing editor at FORTUNE, is the author, most recently, of House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street...
A Fun Kindle 2 Experiment
Posted on August 26, 2009I recently received my Kindle 2. I thought of a lovely experiment you should consider trying. Many books are available for free download on the Kindle 2. These books are free because their copyrights have expired. They are, in a word, old. For the next 30 days, I am not going to purchase any books...
Prosecutorial Misconduct in Zhenli Ye Gon Drug Case?
Posted on August 25, 2009Zhenli Ye Gon is a Chinese-born, Mexican businessman who allegedly sold materials he knew would be used to manufacture methamphetamine in the United States. The United States Departe of Justice filed a complaint against Ye Gon in June, 2007. Ye Gon was arrested in July, 2007...
Prosecutors Seek Mulligan in Zhenli Ye Gon Prosecution
Posted on August 25, 2009Imagine you're a federal prosecutor. You do not like the law that requires you to turn over evidence in your possession that is favorable to the defense - so called Brady material. You devise an ingenius scheme. You won't hand over any Brady material...
How Goldman Sachs Helps Clients Manipulate Stock Market
Posted on August 24, 2009One of Goldman Sachs' business is in issuing analysts reports. These reports often move the stock market. Unfortunately, many people take these reports at face value. Chumps buy-and-sell based on publicly-released reports. Goldman has found a way to cash in on their market-moving reports...
Aleynikov Arrest Contradcited Formal DOJ Policy
Posted on August 24, 2009Sergey Aleynikov was arrested for theft of trade secrets, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1832. The United States Attorneys Manual is an internal document that "contains general policies and some procedures" regarding the prosecution of federal crimes. Here is what the United States Attorney Manual has to say about arresting people for theft of trade secrets: Economic Espionage Act of...
New York Times Reports on Aleynikov Arrest
Posted on August 24, 2009Alex Berenson of the New York Times is asking the right questions about the arrest of Sergey Aleynikov. Check out his Times report here.
Was Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi Innocent?
Posted on August 23, 2009Americans who suckle soma-laced milk from the American Press' teat are outraged that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has been released to Libya. Yet it seems that he should have been released: There were question marks too over Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who was the only man to identify Megrahi...
Gays or Goldman Sachs?
Posted on August 23, 2009Someone e-mailed to tell me I'm obsessed with Goldman Sachs. Yes, I am. Why aren't you? Is there an issue more important to America's future? They have stolen trillions from you. Your children will not, for the first generation in centuries, lead a better life than you have...
"Wall Street profits from trades with Fed"
Posted on August 23, 2009There is currently a proposal that would require Congress to audit the Federal Reserve. The bill has 282 co-sponsors, which means it would easily pass the House. Yet someone in the House has buried the bill. The Fed, of course, does not want audited. Although the Fed gave hundreds-of-billions of money directly to Wall Street, the Fed has actually transfered...
Libertarian Morality
Posted on August 22, 2009Credit card reform legislation was passed. I applaud it. Todd Zywicki is upset. Why? He's upset because the poor and igorant will no longer subsidize our credit cards. Yes, really. The smart and well-to-do have been taking advantage of the poor and ignorant...
Todd Zywicki Supported Subprime Lending
Posted on August 22, 2009"[T]he growth in subprime lending is not creating overwhelming debt burdens for low-income households." -- Todd Zywicki. Over the years, Todd Zywicki has made highly suspicious arguments regarding consumer lending and consumer behavior. The usual theme: Banks should be able to do whatever they like, because this benefits the poor...
The Elitism Bias/In-Group Bias
Posted on August 21, 2009The financial crisis has given us insight into a blindness bias that affects the elite. Ask yourself: How furious were you to learn the details of the bail outs? Unless you're reading this blog from a Goldman Sachs network, you were likely outraged. How is it, then, that even progessives like Barack Obama were unable to anticipate the populist outrage?...
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's Lies About AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs
Posted on August 21, 2009There are a lot of questions we all should have about the bailouts: Why was Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs' main competitor, not bailed out? Why did the Fed give AIG $85 billion, of which $13 billion went to Goldman Sachs? Chairman Bernanke, in a speech given today, claimed: The case of the investment bank Lehman Brothers proved exceptionally difficult, however...
Admiring Judge Richard Sullivan (UPDATED)
Posted on August 21, 2009The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a post criticizing Judge Richard Sullivan: "To Lawyers Who Represent Cooperators: Fear Judge Richard Sullivan." The Journal blogger seems upset that a judge actually takes seriously the judicial function. The United States Constitution was founded up on separation of powers...
Barack Obama is a Holocaust Denier
Posted on August 20, 2009President Barack Obama made a campaign promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide. This is what Obama said: I also share with Armenian Americans ? so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors - a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide...
Winston Smith in a Robe: Judge Tells Lexis and Westlaw to Delete Court Opinion
Posted on August 19, 2009If you don't like the case, the case never existed: Ordinarily, the decision to settle a case while an appeal is pending means giving up the opportunity to set a legal precedent as well as forgoing the chance to win a reversal of any unfavorable published decisions handed down by the lower court...
Kozinki's Opening Line, and a Fun Pop Quiz
Posted on August 19, 2009United States v. Rex Harrison: "Everyone could have done more to protect defendant?srights at trial." I want to read more. Don't you? The opinion is here. Before you read it, guess it you can tell how the case came out. It was a criminal case: Opinion by Chief Judge Kozinski; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Bybee See if...
"Innocent Man Freed, But Shabby Prosecutor Still Works as Judge"
Posted on August 19, 2009Radley Balko has this report.
G. Paul Howes, Former Prosecutor, Bribed Witnesses
Posted on August 19, 2009It's happening. The Ted Stevens case will mark a historical turning point on the discipline of prosecutors. I have been following these issues for almost a decade. There has been more attention on prosecutorial misconduct over the past 12 months than in the past decade...
Peter Schiff for Senate?
Posted on August 19, 2009It seems that Peter Schiff is going to run against Chris Dodd. Damn; I might be taking a sabbatical to Connecticut. If he's a viable candidate, is there even a choice? At some point staring at a computer screen isn't enough activity for a moral agent.
Clint Eastwood's Behavioral Economics Approach to UBS Tax Cheats
Posted on August 19, 2009The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has an insightful post on the proposed settlement between the United States and Swiss government. So, at long last, as we blogged earlier, we?ve got an end result in this UBS tax situation. The final piece of the settlement, put into effect last week, was announced earlier Wednesday...
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves is an Unethical Prosecutor
Posted on August 18, 2009Adam Reeves is the latest edition to the Prosecutorial Misconduct Wall of Shame: The record demonstrates that the prosecution [Adam Reeves] argued to the jury material facts that the prosecution knew were false, or at the very least had strong reason to doubt...
Domestic Violence Victim's Section 1983 Lawsuit May Proceed to Trial, Second Circuit Holds
Posted on August 18, 2009Okin v. Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, No. 06-5142 (2d Cir. Aug. 18, 2009) (here). A woman?s husband, Roy Sears, was a hometown hero. He owned a bar where the cops got drunk and watched sports. The police department gave the bar owner a license to beat up his live-in girlfriend...
Stress and the Brain
Posted on August 18, 2009One of the recent - and very silly myths - to die is that the brain is a fixed piece of meat: Your moronic teachers no doubt told you not to "kill brain cells." Instead, the brain is flexible - neuroplasticity is the buzzword, and The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force is a good...
"Scalia's Constitution" Has No Moral Authority
Posted on August 17, 2009Scalia has once again revealed himself to be a tyrant and a sociopath. Today Justice Antonin Scalia implied that, under the United States Constitution, an innocent person can be killed by the state. In In Re Troy Anthony Davis, Justices Scalia and Thomas stated: This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who...
RECAP to Make PACER Free?
Posted on August 17, 2009I'll never understand the whining over PACER's fees. Computers and servers cost money, and the fees for PACER rarely even hit my radar. Still, it is obnoxious that I've had to pay an entire sixteen cents thrice today after having run the same search for the Aleynikov case...
Update on Sergey Aleynikov Case (UPDATED)
Posted on August 17, 2009Today there was a hearing scheduled in United States v. Aleynikov. I haven't seen any reports of today's hearing. The docket sheet for PACER isn't showing any updates. (See update, below.) Bloomberg, however, is reporting: Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc...
Judge Manuel L. Real: Judicial Self-Regulation Fail
Posted on August 16, 2009The Los Angeles Times has this lengthy expose on federal judge Manuel L. Real. Real has been terrorizing litigants and lawyers for decades. He's a disagrace. He's still on the bench. If other judges can't can't do something about this guy, then what does that say about judicial self-regulation? Best paragraph: The Judicial Council of the U...
Shaming Sanction
Posted on August 16, 2009How do you maintain order without throwing people into prison? What if you can't catch a person breaking the law? What if a person is doing something that might not be illegal, but that is ruining someone else's life? The city of Peoria, Illinois, has found a genius solution...
Assistant United States Jason M. Ferguson is Shady
Posted on August 13, 2009This is some shady stuff. A criminal defense lawyer is accused of money laundering. The lawyer allegedly accepted what he knew was "dirty" money for payment of legal fees. The United States Attorneys Office for Middle District of Georgia has been recused from prosecuting the defense attorney...
What is a "Criminal Case" Under Chavez v. Martinez: Section 1983 Lawsuits for Violation of the Self-Incrimination Clause
Posted on August 13, 2009I had an longer post but my computer crashed, and I need to return to work. Here is what you need to know. Today the Ninth Circuit held in Stroot v. City of Everett: A coerced statement has been ?used? in a criminal case when it has been relied upon to file formal charges against the declarant, to determine judicially...
Blog Might Be Down: "I would like to learn how to spell Connecticut."
Posted on August 12, 2009In Small Time Crooks, Woody Allen's uneducated character bemoans: "I would like to learn how to spell Connecticut." Wise Woody was making a point: Isn't it comical to say we "want" to do something that we're capable of? Does it even make sense to refer to something you won't do, as a "want...
Second Circuit Civil Rights Blog
Posted on August 11, 2009"Wait a Second!" is a good blog. It covers Section 1983, ADA, and some criminal procedure. Lengthy entries; well reasoned case summaries. I like it. Check it out.
Corrupt SEC Younglings Enabled Bernie Madoff
Posted on August 11, 2009Every lawyer I know who litigates against the SEC uses the same cliche, "It's like taking candy from a baby, Mike." A new book discusses how SEC younglings treated Bernie Madoff: YOUNG, inexperienced government regulators were so wowed by Bernard Madoff's ritzy Midtown headquarters that they asked about job openings and dropped off resumes while missing clear evidence he was...
Alex Kozinski on Ethics and Henry Paulson
Posted on August 11, 2009In 2005, Alex Kozinski wrote a brilliant article in Legal Affairs on judicial ethics. He noted that current ethics laws are mostly trivial. A judge, e.g., must recuse himself when hearing a case involving a corporate client if the judge is a shareholder in the company...
So Much for Don't Blame the Victim: Ninth Circuit Validates Suicide-by-Cop
Posted on August 11, 2009The Recorder has the details.
Four Concentric Circles
Posted on August 11, 2009If you don't believe me, trace the outline of each circle with your mouse or finger. Our eyes don't deceive us, since our eyes only gather sensory data. It's our brains that do the processing. Everyone recognizes the validity of optical allusions; few recognize that our brains make similar mistakes when thinking about politics, policy, and personal problems.
Census to Count Illegal Immigrants, Giving Democrats More Seats in Congress
Posted on August 10, 2009Next year?s census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents...
Henry Paulson Lied to Congress About AIG and Goldman Sachs
Posted on August 10, 2009Former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson testified before Congress about his role in the bailout of A.I.G. During his July 16, 2009 sword testimony, Paulson said: ?I want you to know that I had no role whatsoever in any of the Fed?s decision regarding payments to any of A...
Do Parents Have a Constitutional Right to Kill Children?
Posted on August 10, 2009Interesting case out of the Ninth. Too busy to blog now. Check it out: Detective Dale Rogers made a decision permitted by Idaho law to remove temporarily a sick infant from the custody of her parents in order to secure a medical diagnostic test and prophylactic treatment, procedures which pediatric doctors advised Rogers were both necessary and within the standard...
Eliot Spitzer Discusses AIG, Goldman Sachs, and Henry Paulson
Posted on August 10, 2009Henry Blodgett recently interviewed Eliot Spitzer. Here is one interesting excerpt:
Henry "Hank" Paulson's Federal Crimes
Posted on August 09, 2009Here is a great law school exam idea for a course in White Collar Crime. Dear Student, You are a young, knowledgeable, ethical federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. You take seriously your promise to provide equal justice under the law...
Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs Are RICO Enterprises
Posted on August 09, 2009There is now no doubt that Henry Paulson and Goldman Sachs have committed numerous felonies. Paulson laundered several billion dollars of money through A.I.G. to Goldman Sachs. Paulson lied to Congress about the true nature of TARP. Paulson also violated the honest-service statute, which makes it a felony for a government official to breach his fidicuariy obligation to taxpayers: Paulson...
Paulson's Perjury
Posted on August 09, 2009I am preparing a letting outline a perjury case against Henry Paulson. I am addressing the letter to Representative Cliff Stearns. Please review the letter and offer your feedback. I want to finalize the letter tonight. I am most interested in feedback on legal concepts and overall organization...
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Has RSS Feed
Posted on August 07, 2009Want case summaries delivered to Bloglines, Google Reader, or whatever RSS device you use? The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals now has an RSS feed: http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/rss/ca8opns_rss.xml I don't do any work in the Eighth Circuit, but their decisions (especially their Section 1983 opinions) are usually sound and well reasoned...
United State Senate Declares: Chris Dodd May Accept Bribes from Subprime Lenders
Posted on August 07, 2009Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd received a better mortgage deal from subprime lender Countrywide, simply because Dodd was a United States Senator. Today, the United States Senate cleared Dodd of wrongdoing. According to CNBC: In the end, it takes a lot for the country's most elite club to turn on one of its own...
Judge Refuses to Confirm Sham Bank of America-SEC Settlement
Posted on August 06, 2009Rulings like these will be good news for America: A judge Wednesday balked at signing off on a $33 million proposed settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp. over executive bonuses. Bank of America on Monday agreed to pay the penalty to settle government charges that it misled investors about Merrill Lynch's plans to pay...
Cash for Clunkers: Ending is Better than Mending?
Posted on August 06, 2009Cash for Clunkers is a fantastic program to think about. We could spend hours talking about it. Consider the angles: ?Ending is better than mending.? That was the theme of the best under-read book out there: Brave New World. It ?Ending better than mending? really a good societal value to teach? Next up: Cash for Trophy Wives...
Unethical Prosecutor, Dan Satterberg, Excuses Police Misconduct
Posted on August 05, 2009Thanks to the Internet, we no longer need to take unethical prosecutors like King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg at their word: King County prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who slammed a man into a wall so hard after a foot chase that he was left in a coma...
Bernie Madoff and Goldman Sachs
Posted on August 05, 2009When Bernie Madoff made market gains that left everyone scratching their heads, people called the SEC. The SEC wasn't too interested. We all know how that ended. Investors lost everything. None of the crooks, liars, and bozos from the SEC lost anything...
Larry Summers Protects Goldman Sachs; Forces Out Cybersecurity Czar Melissa Hathaway
Posted on August 04, 2009Cybersecurity Czar Melissa Hathaway has resigned for "personal reasons." The real story is much more interesting. Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal reports: People familiar with the matter said Ms. Hathaway has been "spinning her wheels" in the White House, where the president's economic advisers sought to marginalize her politically...
Myth Busters: Prosecutors as Disinterested Public Servants
Posted on August 04, 2009One of many myths about prosecutors is this: They are humble, disinterested public servants. And so, it is poor form for a lawyer to accuse a prosecutor of filing a high-profile case in an effort to win a promotion or to gain publiclity for a move to a lucrative private sector job...
Philadelphia Police Officer Caught on Tape Assaulting Woman
Posted on August 03, 2009Alberto Lopez Sr. assaulted a woman. He then arrested her for assaulting a police officer. At a preliminary hearing, he lied under oath. The victim of police misconduct was ordered to stand trial. Then this videotape surfaced. Philadelphia police officers asked the gas station owner to delete it...
When is Pointing a Gun at Someone Excessive Force?
Posted on August 03, 2009Baird v. Renbarger, No. 08-2436 (CA7) (denying qualified immunity to police officer who pointed submachgine gun at citizens who posed no threat to officers) provides an outstanding discussion of excessive force within the context of pointing a gun at civilians who poses no threat to the officer...
Corrupt Prosecutor Seeks to Strike Deal With Sergey Aleynikov
Posted on August 03, 2009Matthew Goldstein, the Reuters blogger who broke the Aleynikov story, is reporting: It looks like federal prosecutors may be trying to cut a deal with alleged Goldman Sachs high-frequency trading code stealer Sergey Aleynikov.Today was the day for prosecutors to indict Aleynikov, who was arrested on July 3 on the theft charges...
Police Plant Drugs on Motorist
Posted on August 01, 2009They even had their own hand signal. Obviously, then, this is not the first time these officers have planted drugs on an innocent citizen. EMBED-Cops Plant Drugs On Suspect - Watch more free videos
State v. Outing and Change Blindness: Will the Connecticut Supreme Court Respect Empirical Evidence?
Posted on July 30, 2009There's an interesting case pending before the Connecticut Supreme Court. The Court states the issues as follows: [T]he defendant sought to introduce expert testimony regarding, among other things, the following identification concepts: (1) that witnesses who experience heightened levels of stress during a crime tend to make inaccurate identifications; (2) that under the "weapons focus effect," witnesses tend to focus...
What's the Standard of Review in the Ninth Circuit?
Posted on July 30, 2009I just remembered that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has a huge digest of cases discussing the standard of review. It's several-hundred pages of stuff. Well worth reading and bookmarking. Do any other Circuits have a similar digest? If so, please post a comment with a link to the source material.
"How You Finance Goldman Sachs? Profits"
Posted on July 30, 2009Are you tired of reading about Goldman Sachs? I sure am. Yet the most corrupt criminal organizatin in American history has created a neverending story. In the latest Mother Jones, a former Goldman Sachs insider explains how you (yes, you) are making really rich people even richer...
Justice Sotomayor: Pro-Prosecution or Pro-Civil Liberties? (Pottawattamie County v. McGhee)
Posted on July 30, 2009We are about to soon find out. There can be no more telling of a case than Pottawattamie County v. McGhee. In McGhee, prosecutors who fabricated evidence were denied absolute immunity from suit under Section 1983. Will Sotomayor side with prosecutors who violated the law and ruined lives; or with innocent citizens who are wrongfully accused of crimes? McGhee is...
Quick Thought on Libertarian Paternalism
Posted on July 29, 2009Those opposed to libertarian paternialism should spend some time talking to people with sub-100 IQs. Seriously. Try explaining a basic concept like Pythagora's theorem to someone who is as smart as half of the population. (Relatedly: I tell my liberal friends, mostly Ivy-league grads, that they should go teach at a rural junior college before spouting off that everyone is...
Graffiti Artist [sic] Ordered to Surrender Passport?
Posted on July 29, 2009This is moronic: Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch ordered mixed martial arts champion Jeff Monson to surrender his passport Tuesday after Monson pleaded not guilty to malicious-mischief charges for allegedly spray-painting an anarchist symbol on the Capitol last year...
R. Rex Parris and David C. Wheeler Obtain $370 Million Verdict Against Guess Co-Founder
Posted on July 29, 2009The Associated Press, ABA Journal, and Metropolitian News Daily are all reporting: A Los Angeles Superior Court jury yesterday awarded nearly $370 million in damages against Guess? Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano for claims of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress by several former employees, attorneys involved in the matter have announced...
Edward Eugene Harper and the FBI's Age-Progress Photo/Junk Science Machine
Posted on July 28, 2009Edward Eugene Harper was a serial pedophile. His failure to appear in court 15 years ago got him put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitive List. He was recently arrested. That's not interesting. Here is what's interesting. Harper made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list...
Norwood v. Vance: Law Professor's Failure to Understand Appellate Procedure Leads to Bad Law
Posted on July 28, 2009Procedural law breaks hearts. The facts are the facts. You can spin - not change - them. Even the substantive law isn't especially malleable. If you lose on the facts or substantive law, why can you do? Curse the law, sure. There is no need for tears or guilt...
Ashcroft v. Iqbal: Supervisory Liability Under Bivens and Section 1983
Posted on July 27, 2009In its recent opinion in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the United States Supreme Court confused the law of supervisory liability. Iqbal's bare majority did not, contra the some gasps in the dissent, overrule supervisory liablity under Bivens or Section 1983. The Court did confuse the law of supervisory liablity...
Sex Crimes Prosecutor Charged With Rape
Posted on July 27, 2009Bizarre is an overused word. This is a bizarre story: As Michael Gressett waited for a jury verdict in a molestation trial, the Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor had what he called a "nooner," bringing a fellow prosecutor to his Martinez home for intercourse...
More on the Chris Dodd-Countrywide Connection
Posted on July 27, 2009The Associated Press has this breaking news: WASHINGTON - Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony...
Does the Aleynikov Prosecution Violate the Equal Protection Clause?
Posted on July 25, 2009If I were Sergio Aleynikov's lawyer, I'd seek to dismiss the case under a class-of-one equal protection theory. Why is Aleynikov, unlike other people who allegedly stole trade secrets from Wall Street firms, being criminally prosecuted? Does AUSA Joseph Facciponti, the attorney prosecuting Aleynikov, have a secret and improper relationship with Goldman Sachs? Why did the FBI, less than 48...
High Frequency Trading and Goldman Sachs
Posted on July 24, 2009The New York Times has an excellent article on high frequency trading. Sergey Aleynikov, a man did something very right for the wrong reasons, even makes a cameo. Read the whole thing. If you want to get a better feel for the issues, the Themis Trading blog shows how high frequency trading looks: The three HFT horsemen are C, BAC...
Diversity and Police Abuse
Posted on July 24, 2009The Gates case raises an interesting issue no one wants to discuss. It causes too much cognitive conflict. We are told that we need "diverse" police forces so badly - even if this means discriminating against whites - because more divesity means less police abuse...
Karen Ann Escobar is Unethical Prosecutor
Posted on July 24, 2009Another day, another unethical prosecutor. From United States v. Nobari (here): The defendants raise several claims on appeal, including an allegation that the prosecution improperly presented, as evidence of the defendants? guilt, testimony that drew generalizations on the basis of ethnicity about ?Middle Easterners? and ?Mexicans...
Henry Paulson Can't Keep His Lies Straight
Posted on July 24, 2009Henry Paulson, yet again, is revealed to be a liar and a thief.
Fun With Student Loans and Credit Reports
Posted on July 23, 2009I ran my credit report. I saw a loan on it that I never remember taking out. According to my credit report, I am 1,455 days past due on the loan. I've never made a payment on the loan, as I've never received a bill from the lender. Which is unusual: Student loan providers are pit bulls...
Rep. Marcy Kaptur Cross-Examines Henry Paulson About Warren Buffet-Goldman Sachs Deal
Posted on July 23, 2009Henry Paulson loaned taxpayer money to Goldman Sachs. Warren Buffett loaned private capital to Goldman Sachs. Who got the better deal? Rep. Marcy Kaptur cross-examined Paulson about this issue. Before heading Treasury, Paulson was CEO of Goldman Sachs...
Tasers and Excessive Force/Section 1983
Posted on July 22, 2009The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion I'll need to review later. Here is the Clerk's summary: 081640P.pdf 07/22/2009 Sandra Brown v. Rob Zarrett, etc. U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 08-1640 U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis [PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Riley and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Civil case - civil rights...
Hubbert v. City of Pittsburg, and the Definition of a Police Officer's Duties
Posted on July 21, 2009In Hubbert v. City of Pittsburg, a split panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a police officer who speaks to FBI agents about police misconduct, is doing so pursuant to his official duties as a police officer. In reaching its conclusion, the panel cited California law: Though Huppert argues that he was repeatedly informed by the...
Ceballos' Casualties
Posted on July 21, 2009The biggest fear civil rights and open-government advocates is coming true. In Garcetti v. Ceballos, the United States Supreme Court held that a government employee's speech made in a official capacity was not protected under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court did not consider what would happen...
Barack Obama Expands Goldman Sachs' Power
Posted on July 20, 2009Goldman Sachs is too entrenched in the Federal Government. What is President Barack Obama going to do about it? July 17 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama announced today he was nominating Robert Hormats, a vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, to a top economic position at the State Department...
Federal Appellate Practice
Posted on July 20, 2009Just snagged a copy from the secondary book market at Amazon for $125. Looks like an awesome book. Grab 'em while they're hot. (Hat tip: Eugene Volokh)
Police Officers Claimed: "We Just Wanted to Help"
Posted on July 17, 2009Taken from Hopkins v. Bonvicino: On August 22, 2003, two San Carlos Police Officers broke into Bruce Hopkins? home. They did not have a warrant, nor did they have probable cause. All that they had was a statement from a third-party that Hopkins had been involved in an extremely minor traffic incident, an incident so minor that it did not...
John Squires, of Chadbourne & Parke, Gets Handled for Threatening Frivolous Lawsuit
Posted on July 16, 2009John Squires sent a threatening letter to a blogger who published postings critical of Goldman Sachs. In this letter, Squires threatened to file a frivolous lawsuit agianst the blogger. The blogger fought back. He sued Goldman Sachs. And he won. You may read the glorious details here.
More on David Viniar's Statment Regarding Goldman Sachs v. Sergey Aleynikov
Posted on July 15, 2009Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs employee, allegedly stole software from Goldman Sachs that, according to Goldman Sach's lawyer, Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Paul Facciponti, "could [be] use[d] it to manipulate markets in unfair ways...
Joseph Facciponti Lied at Aleynikov Bail Hearing
Posted on July 15, 2009Sergey Aleynikov allegedly stole some software from Goldman Sachs. While on the job, Aleynikov, a former quant at Goldman Sachs, would allegedly downlownd Goldman's software. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Facciponti is prosecuting Aleynikov for theft of trade secrets...
Conservatives and Liberals Have United
Posted on July 15, 2009Have people on the Left and Right realized that Goldman Sachs is manipulating the markets and stealing billions from taxpayers? Have they realized that Goldman began running the Federal Reserve during George W. Bush's Administration, and continues running the Fed during the Barack Obama Administration? I guess you'll have to watch this video to see what has created such bipartisanship.
As the Country Falls, Goldman Sachs Rises
Posted on July 14, 2009Is Elliot Spitzer the only former elected official in the United States who understands the evil of Goldman Sachs? We know that Barney Frank is on the payroll. What of Barack Obama. Is Obama ignorant or in cahoots? Oh, and before you say it - as if this is a "point...
Sergey Aleynikov Fan Club
Posted on July 13, 2009If you are on Facebook, join the Sergey Aleynikov Fan Club. Aleynikov is the whistleblower who copied Goldman Sachs' illegal, market-manipulating computer software. Aleynikov, who should be heradled as a hero, is being prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice - even though Goldman Sachs has admitted that its software is designed to manipulate the stock market...
Goldman Sachs Makes Bernie Madoff Look Like Pick Pocket
Posted on July 13, 2009Goldman Sachs has admitted that it's trading software allows it to manipulate the market: July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Never let it be said that the Justice Department can?t move quickly when it gets a hot tip about an alleged crime at a Wall Street bank. It does help, though, if the party doing the complaining is the bank itself, and...
Literary Output
Posted on July 13, 2009A novelist who writes 250 words a day is a success: That's a novel a year. A lawyer who writes 250 words a day is a failure: That's barely a billable hour. How then can a lawyer consider herself anything but a writer? It could be quipped that quantity does not equal quality...
Ira Sorkin Got Paid... For What?
Posted on July 10, 2009What exactly did Bernie Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, actually do? Madoff turned himself in. Sorkin didn't try Madoff's case. Sorking didn't prepare for trial; sort through boxes; have armies of associates write motions and writs; prepare witnesses; hire priviate investigators; and, for good measure, pad bills...
Women More Racist than Men; Liberals as Racist as Ever
Posted on July 09, 2009I always outrage feminists with this claim: Men are less racist than women. Proof: Men have more diversity in their dating lives than women. Really; it's true. How many of your proper white female friends have ever dated or have relations a black guy? How many of your male friends have been with a black chick? It's a fun question...
Textbook False Rape Conviction
Posted on July 09, 2009This sad story has all the telltale signs. You could make a check list. A drunk woman who claims she was raped. She was too drunk to remember what happened; but somehow not too drunk to know she did not give consent. No DNA evidence from the acussed rapist is present...
Using iPhones to Avoid Speed Traps
Posted on July 09, 2009Now this is cool: Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras. That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge...
Interesting Discusson on Sham Affidavit Rule
Posted on July 09, 2009Plaintiff-deponent gave testimony that would tend to not establish liability. Based on plaintiff-deponent's testimony, there would be no triable issue of material fact; defendant should win. The plaintiff-deponent then introduced evidence from other witnesses that tended to establish liability...
Batson and Comparative Juror Analysis: Stephen Wagstaffe is a Racist and Unethical Prosecutor
Posted on July 09, 2009Ali v. Hickman (CA9) is going to be tedious - but required - reading. Hickman (here) discusses comparative juror analysis in detail. A comparative juror analysis is common sense, but until recently, wasn't the law. Under Batson v. Kentucky, a prosecutor cannot discriminate against black prospective jurors...
How the Legal Blogosphere has Changed
Posted on July 07, 2009There's an interesting post about the changes which have occurred in the blogosphere in general. It's a good summary. The legal blogosphere has changed dramatically since I began blogging over 5 years ago. It's a lot worse than it once was. I probably read 5 or 6 law blogs...
Ninth Circuit Issues Two Potentially Big Cases on Class Certification
Posted on July 07, 2009In Vinole v. Countrywide Home Loans, and Mevorah v. Wells Fargo, the same three-judge panel hols that home loan consultants aren't a proper wage-and-hour class. Mevorah explains why, and thus is the best of the two to read for an understanding of the court's reasoning.
Das Experiment/The Experiment
Posted on July 06, 2009Leave it to the Germans to make a movie dramatizing the Stanford Prison Experiment. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the researchers stopped once people started losing it - just six days. In "The Experiment," the experiment goes on. I don't know how to do movie reviews, so here is a good one...
Obama Becoming a Beta?
Posted on July 06, 2009This is pathethic. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. Yes, dealing with Russians is challenging. Russians are natural alphas. Nevertheless, the Presient of the United States must communicate, "No, fuck you. I'm the President. You come to shake my hand...
Why One Cannot Take Paul Krugman or Other Keynesians Seriously
Posted on July 03, 2009In his latest New York Times column, Krugman "argues" in favor of a second - this time much larter - stimulus. Argues in in quotes, since Krugman doesn't really make an argument. Rather, like a holy man or witch doctor with a direct line to the supernatural, he makes assertions...
Out of Work? Start a Business
Posted on July 03, 2009How many people will take advantage of the incredible opportunity that joblessness offers? It's cliche, but true: Often the best things in life happen after tragedy or trauma. If you had a job you didn't enjoy but could pay the bills with; how do you quit? How do you justify that choice to people you might be supporting? "Sorry, dear,...
Perception and Reality: It's Still Fast Food
Posted on July 03, 2009This blog should encourage thoughts about subjects other than fast food. Must read.
How Shady are Bank Overdraft Fees?
Posted on July 02, 2009Clusterstock is a finance news site with a very pro-capitalist readership. Read the comments if you want to see the anti-banking sentiment. When a bunch of capitalists agree that banks are robbing people, something very criminal is ocurring. There are some good comments regarding the shady practice of overdraft fees...
Lessons from Bernie Madoff, Robert Allen Stanford, and Marc Rich
Posted on July 01, 2009Bernie Madoff surrended himself to authorities. He cooperated fully. He put up no fight. He got 150 years in prison - a death sentence. J. Allen Stanford, who has not yet been convicted, returned from a foreign country to fight the criminal charges against him...
Jury Selection and the Five Factor/Big 5 Personality Factors
Posted on June 30, 2009Snoop (here) focuses on the Big 5 personality factors. Why care? Because it seems that the Big 5 are correlated with actual juror behavior. According to one study: Actual venire members ( N = 764) completed the Big Five Inventory before going through the jury selection process for 1 of 11 criminal or 17 civil trials...
"The Private Lives of Jurors"
Posted on June 29, 2009In the most recent Los Angeles Lawyer is an article exploring the legal and ethical issues of having a private investigator, investigate jurors. (It's here.) It's written by two associates from the best investigative firm in California, Batza & Associates...
Have You Heard?
Posted on June 29, 2009Michael Jackson died, Bernie Madoff got 150 years, and the United States Supreme Court sided with the white firefighters. Life would be unintesting if everyone stopped talking about the same things as everyone else. And if everyone else decided to stop being interested in the same things, life would be a bore...
Western Centric Bias, Pascal's Wager, and Muslim "Freedom"
Posted on June 29, 2009An ignorant 19-year-old from a farming community, I found Pascal's Wager reasonable. "Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose...
Blogger Crosses Fine Line
Posted on June 25, 2009It's one thing to say, "I wish you were dead!" It's quite another to post your photo, work address, references to colleagues of yours who had been killed, etc. Details here.
Even in Recession, Good Help is Hard to Find
Posted on June 24, 2009Saying this deeply offends people, as the truth often does: If you are the best at what you do, you'll always have a job. People go home, drink beer, and watch televion. They are then shocked to lose their jobs. Sure, rarely an industry dies; but even then, start learning a new skill while your industry lives...
Are California's IOUs an Unconstitutional Bill of Credit?
Posted on June 24, 2009California is broke. It's going to start issuing IOUs to creditors. Article One, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides: "No State shall ... emit Bills of Credit []." Is an IOU a "bill of credit"? I don't know. Do you?
Kindle DX Review
Posted on June 23, 2009Awesome, A+, fantastic, must-see review here. The .pdf feature is what sold me on the DX rather than the Kindle 2. The DX is larger, though. With the Kindle 2, you must convert .pdf files. Not everyone has had good luck with the conversion. Most of my day is spent reading trial transcripts...
Gig: What Your Jurors Do For a Living
Posted on June 23, 2009I was up too late last night reading Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs. People from every job imaginable (or unimaginable) give a first-person narrative of what their jobs are like. Each entry is a few pages. Easy to skip from one profession to another...
Conclusive Evidence of Media Cover-Up: New York Times Covers Up David Rohde Kidnapping
Posted on June 21, 2009It doesn't get more overt than this. The New York Times and every other media outlet refused to cover a story involving a kidnapped Times reporter. They had good reasons.... If you believe that it's the job of a media outlet to decide when to cover something that is clearly newsworthy...
Cognitive Bias and Friends
Posted on June 20, 2009As expected, Aristotle gave the best instrumentalist justification for having friends. To paraphrase: We are disgusting, self-involved, snot-producing, hairy beasts who cannot see our own faults. We can easily see the faults in others. By socializing with others, we can see what they do wrong...
How Does the Recession Affect Friendships?
Posted on June 19, 2009That seems to be an interesting topic. I find it boring. If I have money, my friends have money. My friends share the same value system. If your value system is different, then you are not a real friend, and do not have real friends. Your life is empty...
Body Language Tip of the Day: Talk to the Hands, Cuz the Face Ain't Telling the Truth
Posted on June 19, 2009If you want to guess a person's age, look at her hands. More people are using Botox than you'd expect. So the face is sending off false signals. The hands show age much more reliably than the face. Plus, if you see old hands but a youthful face: You have new information...
Are Gold American Eagles Worth What Congress Has Said They Are Worth? Or: The IRS v. Robert Kahre
Posted on June 17, 2009[Editor?s note: I am not a tax protester. Until researching the issue that is subject to this blog post, I thought all of the arguments raised by the tax protester crowd were frivolous. On this issue, I am not so confident.] Take a look at this gold coin...
Why Hasn't Greg Damm Been Disbarred?
Posted on June 17, 2009When I read an article about an overbroad subpoena designed to chill free speech, I saw a familiar name - Greg Damm. Here's the article. Here is my prior coverage of Greg Damm.
Peter Singer Explains Why We Shouldn't Take Academics Seriously
Posted on June 16, 2009Peter Singer issues a non-partisan critique of academia: If I am correct, the vast majority of us who live in developed nations are not living an even minimally decent ethical life. Almost all of us spend money on luxuries ? after all, even bottled water is a luxury when the water that comes out of the tap is free...
Regulation, Doctors, and Universal Health Care
Posted on June 16, 2009Universal health care for all! People say that like it means something. The logistics of universal coverage are complicated. Which is why I roll my eyes at "theorists" who write articles about why it's we must have universal health care. Um, great. We should have nuclear fission, too...
Stallworth Buys 30 Days for Manslaughter?
Posted on June 16, 2009Isn't killing someone considered a crime against the public? If so, then why can you buy yourself out of a prison sentence by giving big money to private parties? That's exactly what happened here: MIAMI ? Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth is going to serve 30 days in jail after pleading guilty in Florida to a DUI manslaughter charge...
Canandian Little Brother is Watching
Posted on June 16, 2009Let's just put cameras everywhere. Every cop car. Every court room. Every judicial chamber. Every prosecutor's office. Let's just make everything public. It's the only solution.
SEC Bans Madoff from Working in Securities Industry: Go Get 'Em Tiger!
Posted on June 16, 2009Several years after being warned that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi Scheme; and several months after people lost billions of dollars; the SEC has finally taken action: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff has been prohibited from working in the securities industry under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission...
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You
Posted on June 14, 2009I read a lot of books, but few are must-reads. Snoop is one of only two books that I would stake my book-recommending credibility on. Yes, you should buy this book immediately. If you don't get anything out of it, I will donate $10 (the purchase price) to your charity of choice.
Russia's Rape of Germany
Posted on June 13, 2009Why didn't we learn this in history class? Relations between Russia and Germany have not been good since Vladimir Putin's nationalist sabre-rattling this summer, but they are about to get a whole lot worse. A new film about to be released in Germany will force both countries to re-examine part of their recent history that each would much prefer to...
Kirk Bernard is a Slime Ball
Posted on June 13, 2009I do not oppose lawyer marketing or lawyer advertising. I even respect a certain amount of hustle. There's a line between hustle and shyster-scum-bag-shameless-slime-ball, though. Kirk Bernard crossed it. After a car crash nearly killed someone's child, Kirk Bernard wrote a blog post: Washington Car Crash Kills Couple from Vancouver and Critically injures Son A five-year-old Vancouver boy and his...
Kirk Bernard is Still a Slime Ball; Also a Plagiarist
Posted on June 13, 2009Kirk Bernard, a Seattle personal injury lawyer, drew the blogosphere's attention last night. His marketing is slimy, shameless, and unsavory. It also appears that he is a plagarist. That is, he passes off the writing of others as his own. In reviewing his blog, here is what appears to be his modus operandi: 1...
"See niggas feared Prince and respected Preme"
Posted on June 13, 2009This song is bad ass even without context. It's a rap narrative of the New York drug scene. It's best appreciated in light of this Wikipedia entry on Supreme Team. I also recommend this book: Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler.
Little Brother is Watching
Posted on June 13, 2009One of the unintended consequences of our surveillance society is that it's harder for police to break the law. What was supposed to allow law enforcement to oppress citizens is actually saving innocent civilians. The case of the Colon brothers is illustrative: NEW YORK (June 13) - When undercover detectives busted Jose and Maximo Colon last year for selling cocaine...
Stephen Louis A. Dillard for the Georgia Supreme Court
Posted on June 12, 2009Stephen Dillard, who blogs as "Feddie" at Southern Appeal, is being considered for the Georgia Supreme Court. He's a longtime e-friend, and good guy, who would be fair to all litigants. Please support him by casting an online vote for him here. (He's about halfway down the page...
J. Calvin Cunningham Rips Off Clients
Posted on June 11, 2009North Carolina J. Calvin Cunningham has been reprimanded by the North Carolina State Bar for cheating clients. This is the kind of stuff that gives lawyers a bad name: A North Carolina lawyer has received a reprimand for billing a divorce client $50 every time he reviewed her bill and every time he sent her a form letter enclosing the...
$1.3 trillion in Wealth Destruction
Posted on June 11, 2009You could spend a lot of time thinking about wealth. Like..... Does it even exist? Take a look at this article, for example: The brute force of the recession earlier this year turned back the clock on Americans' personal wealth to 2004 and wiped out a staggering $1...
California State Bar, in Refusing to Reappoint Scott Drexel, Sends Message to State: We Don't Want Lawyers Disciplined
Posted on June 10, 2009The State Bar of California has sent out a memo: If you want to be the chief lawyer responsible for policing lawyer misconduct, do not actually police misconduct. This is a wink-nod position. Scott Drexel got the memo. From the Daily Journal: SAN FRANCISCO - The State Bar Board of Governors decided this week not to reappoint Scott Drexel, the...
Great Advice for Jobless
Posted on June 10, 2009Stop whining and learn something. If I were jobless, it'd be kind of nice. I'd take a job bar tending or something. Then I'd read books for the rest of my waking hours. It'd be a sabbatical. If I were in need of a law job, I'd spend hours a day becoming a subject matter expert on some area of...
Investing in a Hedge Fund is Like Joining the Country Club
Posted on June 09, 2009Yes, "successful" mutual fund and hedge fund managers are just lucky. Here is the math. Why they don't people invest in a boring fund like Vanguard's S&P 500 Index, or PIMCO Total Return? Because then you don't get to say, "I invest with [insert prestigious hedge fund]...
House Judiciary Committee Votes to Recommend Impeachment of Judge Samuel Kent
Posted on June 09, 2009Details here.
Ricci v. Destefano is a Hard Case -- NOT
Posted on June 08, 2009A lot of people misunderstand the issues in Ricci v. Destefano. This is because you have to know quite a bit about both federal law and constitutional law to understand it. Most do not. Thus, massive confusion. To analyze Ricci, keep a few things in mind...
Life Bias: Better to Live a Slave Than to Have Never Been Born?
Posted on June 08, 2009There must be a term of this. Please educate me. In the meantime, I'll call it the "life bias." Most of us would rather be alive than dead. We'll go to great lengths to remain alive, even if our lives suck. Even most sex slaves don't kill themselves, though most drink and drug themselves to death as they seek to...
High Status/Alpha Body Language
Posted on June 08, 2009Bookmark this microblog before reading on. Interesting article (here) on status and body language. The research shows, as you might expect, that taller people are perceived to be higher status. It's also the case that posture affects one's perception of your status...
Sotomayor is a Multi-Millionaire
Posted on June 08, 2009I am sick of peoples blogging about Sonia Sotomayor's financial situation. Here is the latest, from the ABA Journal: Sonia Sotomayor made more than $205,000 last year as a federal appeals judge and law lecturer. Yet her net worth of $740,000 is relatively low, compared to other justices she would like to join on the U...
Caperton v. Massey Coal
Posted on June 08, 2009The New York Times reports: WASHINGTON ? In a closely watched case involving the confluence of justice, politics and money, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Constitution canrequire an elected judge to step aside in a particular case based on campaign spending in state judicial races...
Calling Anti-Protectionists and Dormant Commerce Clause Wonks
Posted on June 08, 2009I am catching up on case reading, and only just finishing reading NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF OPTOMETRISTS & OPTICIANS LENSCRAFTERS, INC. V BROWN. This opinion did not get the attention it deserved. No amicus briefing. No press coverage upon its release. No blog coverage...
Reality Check: Why are Professional Sports so Dangerous?
Posted on June 07, 2009We hear a lot about the "dangers" of steroids. Yet what is it that really makes sports like football so dangerous? It's the contact, which leads to concussions. In football, a player will receive multiple concussions each year. Why then don't we hear about the dangerous of concussions? It's because concussions are at the very nature of the game...
Legalized Prostitution and Sexual Slavery
Posted on June 06, 2009I'd always said, gee, of course prostitution should be legal. I'm changing my mind. San Francisco has de facto legalized prostitution. You can go to MyRedBook.com to read reviews of "massage parlors." Prostitution is, more-or-less, legal. San Francisco is, not coincidentally, a center for sexual slavery...
Hiding from Truth
Posted on June 06, 2009If one recognizes something as true, then one must take uncomfortable action. Therefore, refuse to recognize the truth. And thus most policy debates and other disagreements begin to make sense.
Charles Bukowski
Posted on June 04, 2009I have not laughed out loud so much since reading Catch-22 over a decade ago. I told my best friend that I no longer needed him. I'd just read Bukowski for fellowship. Some might say he's vulgar. I say that vulgar is all that exists once you embrace reality for what it is...
Did Michael Ireland Sexually Assault a Stripper?
Posted on June 04, 2009Yes, even though limited touching is allowed, it's possible to sexually assault a stripper. Is that what Michael Ireland did? Michael Ireland has filed suit against the club, alleging dancer Sakeena Shageer kicked him 'without warning.' Cheetah Palm Beach manager Rod Kimbrough says that's not quite the way they remember the night...
Men and Women See the World Differently?
Posted on June 04, 2009Holy shit! You mean mean and women see and experience the world differently? In research that we conducted with our colleague Andrew D. Martin, we studied the votes of federal court of appeals judges in many areas of the law, from environmental cases to capital punishment and sex discrimination...
"We Didn't Know He Was Clarence Thomas"
Posted on June 03, 2009How does Justice Thomas treat people when no one is watching? Speaking empathy, how many Supreme Court justices do you think could have immediately bonded with a couple of high school students? Souter? Breyer? Ginsburg? Kennedy? Hah!
Kenny Hulshof is an Unethical Prosecutor; Should be Disbarred
Posted on June 03, 2009Kenny Hulshof is the latest edition to the Mike Nifong Foundation. Details here.
Cognitive Dissonance, Thomas More, and Jurisprudence
Posted on June 03, 2009As a follow-up to this post: Most of you know that Thomas Moe is a saint. He refused to sign an oath stating that King Henry VII's marriage was valid. Signing the oath would have violated God's law. It would have been perfectly legal under man's law. He didn't want to violate his conscience...
Cognitive Dissodance: If Abortion is Murder, What's the Problem?
Posted on June 03, 2009If abortion is murder, what is wrong with killing an abortion doctor? Oh, it's illegal to kill an abortion doctor! If it were World War II, and some Nazis - pursuant to law - came looking for some Jews, would you just hand them over? Would that be moral? That law, after all, is the law...
Congress Moves Fast in Judge Samuel Kent Impeachment Proceedings
Posted on June 03, 2009Congress was not amused.
Congress Should Investigate Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Posted on June 02, 2009Federal judge (yes, he's still on the payroll) Samuel Kent is going to prison. He sexually assaulted his law clerks. Had Judge Edith Jones and the rest of the Fifth Circuit had their way, Judge Kent would still be a federal judge. Here is my post explaining what those judges did to help a colleague...
Samuel Kent Games System Until Very End
Posted on June 02, 2009Texas federal judge Samuel Kent, whose Edith Jones and other members of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals attempted to cover-up, is soon going to prison on charges relating to sexual assault. He is still getting a salary. Initially, he had applied for permanent disability...
No Second Amendment Right to Possess Assault Weapon in California
Posted on June 02, 2009"In this case, we hold that possession of an assault weapon in California remains unlawful and is not protected by the Second Amendment to the federal Constitution as construed by the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller." So wrote the California Court of Appeal in People v...
Scam Alert: Wells Fargo Refund Application Form
Posted on June 01, 2009This scam looked almost plausible at first. It claimed to have originated from refunds@wellsfargo.com. Why did this look plausible? I have been in a fee dispute with Wells Fargo for years. Maybe I finally won? That's how these scams work. Send out a million e-mails claiming to be from major banks...
Stratton Faxon; and Silver, Golub, & Teitell
Posted on June 01, 2009You're not very good at what you do. Nobody knows your name. So you buy someone else's name. When someone types in the name of a well-known lawyer, you pay Google to have them show your name instead. It gets better. Your name will appear above the name of the lawyer whom the potential client was researching...
Good Trips on Travel Safety
Posted on May 31, 2009Great tips here (via Cowen). I would add: When in a cab, I always sit directly behind the driver. If anything goes down, I am going to strangle him or gouge his eyes out. (This is easy to do when behind a person. Simply grab either side of his head, ensuring that each middle finger goes into his eye sockets...
Abu Ghraib Pics Show Rapes of Women and Children
Posted on May 29, 2009Now we learn why Obama will not release other pictures from Abu Ghraib: The latest photographs relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Mr Obama said the individuals involved had been ?identified, and appropriate actions? taken...
Poverty in America
Posted on May 29, 2009How bad is the U.S. economic situation? It's so bleak that people are having to decide whether or not to continue paying for satellite television. It's cliche to say, but true: This article reads like something out of The Onion. Here we go: For families like the Ferrells, however, who were already just a car repair or an appliance breakdown...
Evidentiary Foundations and "Opinions"
Posted on May 29, 2009This pisses people off, but it's illustrative: The next time someone says that global warming is occurring, ask them: 1. Who are the leading experts on global warming? 2. What are their backgrounds? 3. Have their climate models made accurate predictions about future events? 4...
Surrendering Your Mind to Experts: Why Have an Opinion at All?
Posted on May 29, 2009Much of my life is performance art. Try it sometime. Pretend to be a global warming denialist. It's great fun, and very revealing. Some very well-educated people started talking about global warming. I said that I was skeptical. Everyone at the table turned against me...
Keyboard Cat and Police Training Video
Posted on May 28, 2009Greatest thing to ever appear on the Internet?
Criminalizing Comic Book Porn
Posted on May 28, 2009Interesting case for those of you who follow free speech issues. (UPDATE: Read the comments.) Some dude in Iowa is going to prison for collecting comic book images of cartoon children being molested. At first I thought Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition would apply...
Beta Males Find Financial Ruin
Posted on May 28, 2009What happens when you let your wife pressure you into buying a house? Foreclosure. Unless you wife can afford to pay the mortgage, she has no right to demand that you purchase anything. That is the essence of equality. That so many males get in over their heads because of women is proof that we do not live in a...
True or False?
Posted on May 28, 2009So long as everyone agrees to believe the lie, then the lie will remain the truth. A) Sometimes true. B) Always true. C) Never true. D) Other.
Things to Do Before People Die
Posted on May 28, 2009My grandma is going to be dead soon. It will have an emotional impact on me, but what can you do. Man is mortal, and she has lived plenty of decades. This weekend I am going to compile a scrap book of pictures documenting things that have occurred in my life over the past few years since I moved from...
Explaining Why Obama is the Supreme Alpha Male
Posted on May 27, 2009I was having a discussion with a world-famous blogger over Facebook. I explained to his Facebook audience why Obama was an alpha. One person suggested that Obama was not an alpha. He was beta. There is obviously a supreme misunderstanding of the alpha male persona...
Best Summary of Prop 8/California Gay Marriage Decision
Posted on May 27, 2009From Patrick at Popehat: I?ve commented many times here concerning what a silly state you people live in. I find your California notions of easy judicial fiat (the West Coast and the Ninth seem to be most ?activist?) and easy plebiscites by direct vote revolting...
Pro Bono for People Who Do Nothing for Others?
Posted on May 27, 2009Why is it that people who give no money or time to charity think that lawyers should give them tens-of-thousands of dollars of free service? I once asked someone who wanted a free ride: "Do you even give blood, man?" It's one thing to not give money to charity because you're broke...
Is Sotomayor's Impoverished Upbringing Relevant?
Posted on May 27, 2009So Sotomayor grew up poor. According to liberals who did not grow up poor, this matters. For some reason. Why? Supposedly it makes people more empathethic. Well, I grew up pooooooor. Not John Edwards, "My dad was a union manager making middle-class wages" poor...
Prediction Watch: Who Got the Supreme Court Nomination Wrong?
Posted on May 26, 2009All of the law professors said it would be Diane Wood or Elena Kagan. I knew it would be Sotomayor. That so many people got this wrong shows how little people understand President Barack Obama. He sees race everywhere. Race is his obsession. Was the first black President going to miss his chance to nominate the first Latina to the...
Clothing in The Courtroom
Posted on May 24, 2009The topic du jour is clothing in the courtroom. It's all over the law blogs. Some horny old male judges said that when a woman shows some cleavage and legs, the judges have to go masturbate in chambers before being able to pay attention to the woman's argument...
Has Mike Tyson Found Inner Peace?
Posted on May 24, 2009Appearing in the audience at UFC 98, Mike Tyson gave an interview to a Fox Sports reporter. Tyson seems to have some some sort of inner peace. What thing not know about Tyson is that he's an intelligent, thoughtful person. He was an example of what mental illness plus excessive testosterone does to a person...
Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
Posted on May 21, 2009I've never agonized so much over a blog review of a book. Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World had a weird effect on me. I read the book several months ago, and am only now blogging it. What gives? First, it made me very angry. These guys are at MIT, and they didn't know that if you want to...
Honest Signals: Fluency
Posted on May 21, 2009While Honest Signals itself was not a very enlightening book, it did lead to some helpful reminders. Here's a good tip from me. Fluency is an honest signal. Get a guy talking about something he knows. Notice the pace he?ll use. Each person has her own style of speaking...
Transcending Evolution: On Vanity
Posted on May 20, 2009Vanity is the unnecessary obsession with what strangers think of you. A vain person seeks the approval of strangers. In the past, the approval of members of the public may have kept you alive. In modern society, social approval is valuable only instrumentally...
Prosecutorial Misconduct Database or Wiki
Posted on May 20, 2009We really should start keeping track of unethical prosecutors. I identify unethical prosecutors in the subject title of Crime & Federalism whenever I see names, e.g., Juliet Sorensen; Suzanne Sullivan; Brenda Morris; William Sullivan; Greg Damm; Kimberly Frayn; Sean Cronin; Andrea Hoffman; etc...
Suzanne Sullivan is an Unethical Prosecutor.
Posted on May 20, 2009Oh my God. It's happening. Judges are finally doing something about prosecutorial misconduct. Years from now, the Ted Stevens prosecution might be seen as the tipping point: Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently issued an order requiring the Boston U...
Michael Hiltzik, Scumbag, Lies About California Taxes
Posted on May 20, 2009The Los Angeles Times is getting more embarrassing every day. I'll celebrate when they are bankrupt. Being biased is bad enough. But to publish outright lies? That is what Michael Hiltzik's latest column is full of. As a warm-up, Hiltzik starts with a little spin: The most onerous lie is that Californians are burdened by the highest state taxes in...
Want to Rape Children? Become a Catholic Priest
Posted on May 20, 2009When will so-called God-fearing members of the Catholic Church put an end to this? A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades - and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation...
Dolla Got Shot at the Beverly Center
Posted on May 19, 2009This fine young man depicted in this video was shot in the upscale Beverly Center. What a tragedy: Most hilarious comment? From the L.A. Times article's comment section: "hmph! well, you know, there's a recession on. i guess a dolla doesn't go as far as it used to...
Quinn Emanuel Associate Should be Fired
Posted on May 19, 2009"FIRST YEAR ASSOCIATE'S" writing is terrible. He suffers from, "Every thought that enters my head is worthy of being read" syndrome. He's also a bore. Fire him.
25 Rich Athletes Who Went Broke
Posted on May 19, 2009An interesting article on how millions get lost. Some are spendthrifts, but most lost their money in business investments. Everyone wants to be a businessperson. Most businesses fail. Take the money, put it in tax-free muni bonds, and chill out. But, no...
"Message in What We Buy, but Nobody?s Listening"
Posted on May 19, 2009Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior is getting a lot of rave reviews from people I consider smart. That's enough of an endorsement for me to buy it. The New York Times reviews the book here. Much of Spent won't surprise people who have studied sociobiology (which has since been given the more politically correct name, "evolutionary psychology")...
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Market Meltdown
Posted on May 18, 2009I am becoming increasingly bitter. It's because I've realized that almost everyone has a religion. With the Right, it's a belief in holy ghosts that are so powerful that religious people go see doctors for the latest product of rationality. With the Left, it's a belief in Political Correctness...
Are Cross-Gender Searches Unconstitutional Under the Fourth Amendment
Posted on May 18, 2009The Ninth Circuit holds that it's reasonable under the Fourth Amendment for men to strip search women; and for women to strip search men. while prisoners and detainees retain ?legitimate expectations of bodily privacy from persons of the opposite sex,? we are obligated to acknowledge that such rights are ?extremely limited...
How to Spot a Liar
Posted on May 17, 2009Spotting a liar is interesting. Empirical studies show that people cannot tell who is telling the truth. This is true even when those people are no longer people, but magically transform into jurors. It takes a lot of training to spot a liar. There are guidelines, not rules...
Marshmallow-Flavored Strippers
Posted on May 17, 2009There is no such thing as will power. How do you say, "No," to a temptation? The best advice is to avoid temptation in the first place. Yet that is not will power. That is avoidance. Will power is letting a stripper sit on your lap while you get "in the moment," embracing the experience...
New York Times on Minorities and the Market Meltdown
Posted on May 16, 2009When the housing bubble burst, many of blamed government in addition to Wall Street. Wasn't it a bad idea for the government to demand banks loans money to people with bad credit and low incomes - simply because those people were not white? We were told that asking the question was racist...
College
Posted on May 16, 2009It's true that college students are treated unbelievably well by the criminal justice system. Why? Shouldn't we treat people who are in college but screw up worse? Think about it. If a person makes it to college, the odds are that he's had some chance in life...
Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor
Posted on May 15, 2009[In five years of blogging, I've maybe posted maybe half a dozen press releases. When I do post a release, it's never for a fee, or as a quid pro quo for a review copy of the book.] Arbitrary Justice was just released in paperback, though, and it seems promising...
Honest Signals
Posted on May 14, 2009If you can't tell this person is lying, something is very wrong with you:
The Myth of the Rational Judge Lives
Posted on May 13, 2009I think that even most economists now reject the theory of the rational actor as a myth. Do lawyers still follow a version of this myth? Orin Kerr has a post about judging that makes me think he believes in rational judges. Do judges really objectively observe these things called "facts" and "legal arguments"? Is there any empirical support for...
Prosecutorial Discretion
Posted on May 12, 2009People say they trust prosecutors. They believe in prosecutorial discretion. Great. Here's my idea: Make everything a crime. I'm not even joking. Let's just make everything illegal, and leave it to prosecutors to sort out the good and bad amongst us. We trust these men and women, these prosecutors...
Class Action Lawsuit Against Austin, Texas for Equal Protection Violation?
Posted on May 12, 2009Red-light cameras in Austin, Texas have caught many motorists running a red light. If you're a police officer, you - unlike every else - won't get a traffic citation: Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo responded with a powerful statement: ?It is a concern...
How Does Marilyn vos Savant Eat?
Posted on May 12, 2009Dieting advice from the smartest person in the world.
Allen Stanford: Free Because War on Drugs Trumps Financial Fraud
Posted on May 11, 2009How important is the War on Drugs? It's so important that the SEC allowed investors to lose billions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme: Sir Allen Stanford, who is accused of bank fraud, is the subject of an investigation by the BBC's Panorama. Sources told Panorama that if he was a paid anti-drug agency informer, that could explain why a...
Subsidizing Stupidity
Posted on May 10, 2009When the United States has universal health care, we'll all be paying for the operations these morons need.
"Stepping Backward Enhances Cognitive Control"
Posted on May 09, 2009Via Tyler Cowen comes this interesting finding: The way in which we are moving influences how our brain is functioning ? and applying what is known about the relationship between movement and thought poses interesting challenges for designers Koch and his colleagues found that ?Stepping backward significantly enhanced cognitive performance compared to stepping forward or sideways...
Credit Card Company Scams
Posted on May 08, 2009Last week there was an ignorantly hilarious post at the Volokh Conspiracy by Todd Zywicki. Zywicki is opposed to the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights. Let me tell you about some of the practices the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights combats. Then perhaps someone can explain to me how - unless he is being paid as a "consultant"...
The Face of a Sociopath
Posted on May 07, 2009Daniel Hood bound and gagged a teenage girl so that a friend could rape her. I posted about that here. I've obtained a picture of Hood. Now I understand why everyone is willing to let him "move past" the "incident." I regret my earlier post. My earlier post assumed that Mr...
University of Tennesse Pays Violent Rapist, Daniel Hood, to Attend College
Posted on May 07, 2009The University of Tennessee's school colors are orange. How appropriate, given that they've give an athlete scholarship to the star of a real-life Clockwork Orange: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee has signed a prep football star who at the age of 13 was found by a juvenile court to have helped rape a relative...
Bill Hicks' Lost Performance on David Letterman
Posted on May 06, 2009The coward David Letterman finally aired Bill Hicks' performance on the show. The performance was not allowed in 1993 because it might have offended Christians. Because the Christian faith is so strong that any criticism - and the performance was time - on Christianity is a cause of outrage...
Most Surreal Experience of My Life?
Posted on May 05, 2009In a post I'm drafting, I typed: "A reporter in Canada reprinted some cartoons that offended Muslims so much that Muslims started killing people and blowing stuff up. For this, the reporter was obviously charged with a hate crime against Muslims." Ponder that...
Pro-Muslim Media Bias; and a Contemporary Look at Religious History
Posted on May 05, 2009Media bias is a great thing. A recent Independent article notes that 16 people have been banned from Great Britain for being too hateful. The article begins: Sixteen people banned from entering the UK were "named and shamed" by the Home Office today. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since...
Two Good Posts on the Swine Flu
Posted on May 05, 2009First, even if the swine flu "crisis" is over, the "crisis" was a very good thing. Yes, governments did the right thing. Second, yes, a pandemic is a low probability event. It's also a catastrophic one. It would be nice if more people would read The Black Swan...
The Social Psychology of Con Artists
Posted on May 04, 2009A great con artist is a great persuader. A con man must persuade a mark to trust him. Usually a con involves a mark thinking that he is part of the con - a co-con artist. How does a con artist con you? By using principles of social psychology. While social psychology is a broad topic, Influence: The Psychology of...
Bernie Madoff and the Social Psychology of the Con
Posted on May 04, 2009Let's look at the six principles of Influence. Then let's look at Bernie Madoff (hat tip: Alex). Influence lists six main principles of persuasion: reciprocation; commitment and consistency; social proof; authority; liking; scarcity. Reciprocation. Not obviously present...
Next Supreme Court Justice Should Have Empathy, not Sympathy
Posted on May 04, 2009Barack Obama has said that he wants to appoint a Supreme Court Justice who has empathy for the common person. He is spot-on. However, Harvard man though he may be, I wonder: Does he understand the difference between empathy and sympathy? A person develops sympathy from reading about the problems of others...
When "Public" Doesn't Mean "Public"
Posted on May 04, 2009One judge took seriously the claim that courtrooms are public: It seemed like a perfect case to ?broadcast? live on the World Wide Web. After all, what could be more Internet-oriented than a court case about the illegal downloading of music files? So in January, U...
How Religion and Culture (Literally) Enslave
Posted on May 03, 2009People often speak of culture as enslaving their spirit. Yet religion and culture are today responsible for the literal enslavement of women: Specific cultural factors also ensnare victims into extended sex slavery. Parents sent young Thai women to work in the entertainment industry to earn prove to provide for them into old age...
Edification Tip of the Day: Learning While Exercising with iPod Shuffle
Posted on May 02, 2009I have an AirDyne. It's a miserable piece of equipment, which is why it works. I have iPod I use while lifting weights, but the same music that works for weights (gangsta rap and Metallica) doesn't work as well for cardio. (Cardio is the time to grow new neurons and increase your IQ; more on that later...
Who Will Replace Justice Souter?
Posted on May 01, 2009The ABA Journal listed possible nominees for the United States Supreme Court: Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Elena Kagan, U.S. Solicitor General; Seth Waxman, a partner at Washington, D.C.?s Wilmer Hale; Judge Diane Wood of the 7th U...
Lawyers Are People, Too?
Posted on May 01, 2009There's an interesting post at Simple Justice about the perception judges have of lawyers. In sum: No one believes that lawyers actually do things for some reason than getting clients. His post is a lengthy discussion. I think the judges' premise is frustrating...
Issue Framing; and Making Abstract Ideas Concrete
Posted on May 01, 2009Would you eat that much sugar for breakfast? What does 39 grams of sugar look like? A nutrition blog that will inspire you to think of ways to better frame issues; and to bring abstract concepts to life. Check it out.
Why Justice Souter is Way Cooler than Justice Scalia
Posted on May 01, 2009He's giving up one of the most powerful jobs in the world to hang out in New Hampshire to climb mountains and read books and stuff. Seriously. How cool is that? People have a man crush on Scalia. I've never understood it. Scalia's ego needs constant food and water...
American Express Credit Card Scam
Posted on April 30, 2009I've studied credit card scams and abuses in the abstract. I wanted to do an experiment to see how shady credit card company "accounting" really is. My cynical self was astounded. I'll tell you what I did, and then show you what happened. I'm sure some shyster can explain why this "accounting" was the product of "free choice" or "freedom...
Justice as Portrayed in A Bronx Tale: "Now You's Can't Leave"
Posted on April 30, 2009I have never seen a better cinematographic depiction of justice. Have you?
Justice David Souter is Retiring
Posted on April 30, 2009Some liberal woman is going to have a nice night tonight.
How Science Becomes Religion
Posted on April 29, 2009One interesting issue with the social sciences is this: You'll often hear people say, "The data show [insert some proposition.]" Does the data show anything; or do we twist the data to conform to our beliefs? Let's look at a recent headline: "Survey: Women still earn less than men...
Putting Large Numbers In Perspective: What Does $100 Million Look Like?
Posted on April 29, 2009Fantastic video:
"Q&A on swine flu with virus hunter Nathan Wolfe: 'We've created a perfect storm for viruses'"
Posted on April 28, 2009An expert on pandemics explains why even if we shouldn't be worried about swine flu, we should be worried about swine flu.
What is Law?
Posted on April 28, 2009Norm Pattis asks: What is law? His working definition provides: The law ... is a set of rules setting forth the minimum conditions of order necessary for the broadest class of people to pursue their individual ends. Here is my definition of the law: Law is the use of the legal system to impose one's will upon another...
The Power of Fuck
Posted on April 28, 2009The United States Supreme Court is afraid of a word? So sayeth Ken at Popehat.
Don't Call Swine Flu, Swine Flu
Posted on April 28, 2009I wish this were from The Onion. But, no, this is truly how politically correct the United States has become: WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - What's in a name? U.S. pork producers are finding that the name of the virus spreading from Mexico is affecting their business, prompting U...
Swine Flu Dialogue
Posted on April 27, 2009Do all roads lead to Pulp Fiction? Vincent: Want some bacon? Jules: No man, I don't eat pork. Vincent: Are you Jewish? Jules: Nah, I ain't Jewish, I just don't dig on swine, that's all. Vincent: Why not? Jules: Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals...
Political Correctness and Swine Flu
Posted on April 27, 2009The people who are supposed to be looking out for America's best interest have refused to screen incoming passengers from Mexico for swine flu: WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States is not testing airplane travelers from Mexico for the swine flu virus that has heightened fears of a possible pandemic, U...
Time for a Song
Posted on April 27, 2009With airplanes and swine flu flying through our air space, what better to do than listen to some music? If Crime & Federalism had a theme song, this would be it:
Swine Flu and Big Government: Chicken or Egg Problem.
Posted on April 27, 2009Did the government create swine flu in order to control the populace? Or is the government merely using the swine flu to control the populace?
Is the U.S. Government Preparing to Attack Its Citizens Again? 9/11 Part II?
Posted on April 27, 2009Look at the picture and read the stories. A dress rehearsal for another "terrorist" attack? Right, right. There is nothing to fear. 9/11 was totally carried out by people who lived in caves. I think the swine flu pandemic won't get out of hand now. Swine flu was probably created by the United States government to distract us from the...
When Would a Reasonable Person Really Feel Free to Leave?
Posted on April 27, 2009Under the Fourth Amendment, a seizure of a person must be reasonable. What is a seizure? A citizen is seized when a reasonable person in the citizen's position would not feel free to leave. Ultimately, this is an empirical question. That has not stopped the United States Supreme Court from reaching some activist results...
Swine Flu to Cost Trillions
Posted on April 26, 2009I recently got into SEF, a fund that shorts the stock market. I'm hoping my timing was perfect, as this swine flu might devastate the economy: Below are estimates of economic costs of such a disaster: * The World Bank estimated in 2008 that a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and result in a nearly 5 percent drop in...
Mexico City Doctor Claims Swine Flu Out of Control
Posted on April 26, 2009An alleged doctor told the BBC: I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from "under control". As a doctor, I realise that the media does not report the truth. Authorities distributed vaccines among all the medical personnel with no results, because two of my partners who...
Swin Flu Could Become Pademic: Prepare for Swine Flu
Posted on April 26, 2009It's everywhere, and it could get bad. I have some Tamiflu in the mail. Where is yours? When hordes of zombies are infected, what will you do? Stand behind line with the zombies? How will you do that, when you're puking your guts out. Or will send a healthy loved out one out to infect herself or himself? What kind...
Preventing the Swine Flu
Posted on April 26, 2009I'm not tripping out over swine flu, but I'm being careful. Yesterday, for example, I stayed inside while it was busy outside. Once most people went home, I went outside to run my errands. Avoid people and wash your hands. The CDC also recommends: Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze...
How to Obtain Tamiflu
Posted on April 26, 2009I'm looking for a reliable online source I can pass on to you. I haven't found a good one yet. A doctor can call it in. If you're friendly with a doctor, he or she probably will. Prescripting Tamiflu isn't like prescribing steroids or something. It's more like getting a prescriptions for antibiotics...
Tamiflu
Posted on April 25, 2009Does anyone have a good source for Tamiflu? This swine flu stuff might be serious. It seems that if you take Tamiflu within 48 hours of symptoms, you'll be OK. I'd like to have some Tamiflu on hand in case hordes of people are infected. Please leave a comment or e-mail me if you can help.
Marriage-as-Prostitution
Posted on April 25, 2009The Onion does a brilliant job with a commonly-debated issue: What is prostitution? Housewife Charged In Sex-For-Security Scam AKRON, OH?Area resident Helen Crandall, 44, was arrested by Akron police Sunday, charged with conducting an elaborate "sex for security" scam in which she allegedly defrauded husband Russell Crandall out of nearly $230,000 in cash, food, clothing and housing over the past...
California is Bankrupt
Posted on April 25, 2009No one wants to bu California's bonds. The state isn't credit worthy. You mean letting in millions of low-wage earners who consume more in public benefits than they contribute was a bad idea? And that allowing teachers, nurses, and prison guard unions get too strong was a bad idea? No way...
Swine Flu Update for Texas and California
Posted on April 25, 2009Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the U.S. in San Diego County and Imperial County, California as well as in San Antonio, Texas. Internationally, human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in Mexico...
Conservative Hypocrisy: 65% of Right-Wing Bloggers Oppose Free Trade
Posted on April 24, 2009Right-wing blogger David Kopel recently took a poll that asked: Question 2 was "Should Congress repeal the trade embargo on Cuba this year?" One hundred percent on the Left thought so, as 35 percent on the right. I voted No, with the explanation "Repeal if and only if repeal advocates can present a plan in which repeal can help lead...
The Federal Government's Check-Kiting Scheme
Posted on April 24, 2009The United States government is engaged in an illegal check kiting scheme. Well, of course it's not illegal. Just as Social Security, Ponzi Scheme thought it may be, is not illegal. Details here.
Obama to Take on Scam Student Loan Industry
Posted on April 24, 2009One reason higher education is so expensive is because there is too much easy money given to students. Any student with a pulse can get a loan. Colleges and universities know this. They price themselves accordingly. Thus you have thousands of Marxists and other egalitarians earning six figures...
Obama to Go After Credit Card Companies
Posted on April 24, 2009Good for him. A blog with crime in its title could devote itself exclusively to the credit-card industry while remaining on topic.
Stop Corporate Abuse: Threaten to Call the Cops
Posted on April 23, 2009I recently stayed at a hotel that I read online was dog friendly. When I checked in, I had Amicus with me. I went up to my room, went to bed, and woke up the next morning. A woman comes screaming at me as I'm leaving the hotel. "Dogs aren't allowed here!" "Um, OK...
Mental States v. Outcomes
Posted on April 23, 2009Why do people look to the mental states of person rather than the outcomes the person produces? Part of this comes from religious superstition. The Bible provides that: ?But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness...
When Caught in a Lie: Deny, Deny, Deny
Posted on April 23, 2009This is hilarious. People get totally busted cheating on their girlfriends on the radio. The cheaters always deny it. No criminal lawyer will find any of this surprising. "But they have you on video." It wasn't me. Anyhow, this is funny. I haven't laughed so hard in weeks...
Liking Principle and Jury Persuasion
Posted on April 22, 2009According to the liking principle: People like people like them. Jurors are people. How can you show a juror that you are like him or her? Here is one lawyer's idea: [A trial lawyer] also showed some flair with his dress, sporting a tie that featured a wolf howling below a full moon...
The False Category of "Torture"
Posted on April 22, 2009Fire a missile into a building knowing that 100% of the enemy will not die. Fire a missile into a building knowing that some will survive. Some will have third-degree burns. Their skin will peel off of their legs when the clothing that has melted into the soldier's skin is removed...
Blagojevich: Profile in Pathological Narcissism
Posted on April 22, 2009If you look deep enough, this superficial article provides a great look into a pathological mind.
More Good Thoughts on Torture
Posted on April 22, 2009From a former Assistant United States Attorney; good reading. The entire discussion of torture is a great illustration of how morality shapes facts. The torture-related issues should be separate. First, is torture effective in gathering intelligence? Second, if so, should we use it? People don't reason that way...
Good Thoughts on Torture
Posted on April 21, 2009Good post. I've never opposed torture. It has its uses. It was just bothersome to hear hacks claim that water boarding wasn't torture. I've always said, "Yeah, water boarding is torture. So what?" If you know a guilty person has information that would save an innocent party, then the decision to torture is easy...
Tea Parties and Media Propoganda
Posted on April 21, 2009The people at these rallies seem a bit odd. Fair enough. Yet watch this video. Tell me that CNN did not deliberately lie in its coverage of the tea party. CNN is a propaganda agent for the Obama Administration.
Tea Party Protesters Boo Republican Gresham Barrett
Posted on April 21, 2009Think what you will of the people who attend these various tea parties. Maybe they are crazy. Who knows. That said, the media has lied about the tea parties. The people attending these rallies are not pleased with Republicans, either. The tea parties are not part of some Republican conspiracy...
We've Got a Friend in Israel
Posted on April 21, 2009Today it's being reported that Israel has an American Congressperson in their back pocket. Jane Harman of California made a deal with a pro-Israel lobby to sell out American interests in order to further Israeli interests. How lovely. Most Americans do not know this, but Israel blew up a United States naval vessel in 1967...
Coherent Stories are Better than True Stories
Posted on April 20, 2009At a story telling seminar, one lesson stuck to my ribs. It's something I've thought about for the past half-decade. This might be mundane to you. To me, it was life-altering: It's better that a story be coherent than true. We could talk about that idea for hours, from various angles...
The-World-As-Math
Posted on April 20, 2009I never got into hard math. It required some work. As a student, I wasn't interested in work. I could read/write/bullshit with ease. Over the past couple of years - as I've thought more about pluralistic perception - I've appreciated math. Math is everywhere...
Plea Agreement in International Drug Smuggling Cases Better Be International
Posted on April 20, 2009Because the barriers of entry to practice criminal law are low, you often see a lot of hacks practicing criminal law. You see a lot of malpractice. Usually, you feel sorry for the client. "How could the lawyer have been so incompetent?" Sometimes, though, you read a case that scares you...
TicketVoid.Com is Spam; Steven L. Hill is an Unethical Lawyer
Posted on April 19, 2009Colorado lawyer Steven L. Hill has hired a company to spam hundreds (thousands?) of websites, to promote his new company, TicketVoid.com. Spamming is unethical. Moreover, it appears that Steven Hill doesn't even have any experience with DUI law. You may read the details here.
Report on Right Wing Extremism
Posted on April 16, 2009For your review. (It could be a hoax report.) Download Extremismreport
Cognitive Dissonance, Racial Profiling, and Right-Wing Extremists
Posted on April 16, 2009Shouldn't all of these statements be true (or false)? Black people commit more crimes than whites. Therefore, racially profiling should be allowed. Muslim males were responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing. They were also responsible for 9/11...
The Torture Memos Have Been Released
Posted on April 16, 2009Here are the full memos. Some pretty troubling stuff (via Gowder.)
Tour the AlloSphere
Posted on April 15, 2009Free yourself from distractions for the next 6 minutes. Turn off the phone and ignore your e-mail. Watch this video. Inhale the sights and sounds with your brain, as if you were taking a deep breath of oxygen. Whoa:
"My Stroke of Insight"
Posted on April 15, 2009This is a fantastic video. Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor had a massive stroke. What was her stroke like? What insights did she have? This is a must-watch video: She has a great book out, too: For years I have been able to do what she describes - namely split whether or not my left or right brain controlled my...
9/11, Cognitive Bias, and the Official Explanation
Posted on April 14, 2009We all know how the World Trade Center's Two Towers fell down. An airplane hit them. Jet fuel coated fire-resistant iron. There was a fire. The fire-resistant steel lost all strength. The building went into a controlled free fall - just like a building in a controlled demolition does...
Why Sir Thomas More is Burning in Hell
Posted on April 14, 2009Tom Kirkendall has "The Trial of St. Thomas More" videos here. I used to respect Thomas More; and I can quote A Man for All Seasons. Yet here is something most don't know: Thomas More burned Lutherans at the stake. So the man who would "give the Devil benefit of law," burned people to death for not accepting Catholic dogma...
Scientific Bias: Overt and Covert
Posted on April 14, 2009Imagine I promised a $1,000,000 prize to any group of scientists who could prove that 9/11 was caused by a controlled demolition. When researchers proved what I asked them to prove: Would you take their assertions seriously? Or would you say, "This is unreliable pay-for-play...
Storytelling Tip
Posted on April 14, 2009What words and phrases describe a subject's mental state? Lots of fantastic stuff here.
Lies That Scientists Tell (And that You Believed or Still Believe)
Posted on April 14, 2009A list I will update on my whim. Feel free to add to the list: Lie: Until very recently, scientists claimed that steroids "didn't work." The Physicians Desk Reference stated that "anabolic steroids have not been shown to enhance athletic ability." Truth: That claim was so moronic that anyone who believed it isn't even worth talking to...
Obama's Lifting of Cuba Travel Restrictions Violates Equal Protection Clause
Posted on April 13, 2009What about me? WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press...
High Five to Norm Pattis
Posted on April 13, 2009Norm Pattis got an acquittal in a very difficult case. The defendant, a police officer, was charged with stealing funds intended for informants. The story is here.
Less Law in a Lawyer's Blog
Posted on April 12, 2009Norm Pattis is cutting down on his legal blogging, and he explains why. I applaud his decision. One-Dimensional Man may have been about materialism. It's a useful metaphor for lawyers, too.
Frank Ricci and Me and My White Privilege
Posted on April 12, 2009Frank Ricci was a firefighter with dyslexia. He wanted a promotion. He was willing to work for it. He worked several hours a day to prepare for a promotional exam. Since his reading wasn't very good, he hired someone to read firefighter's manuals onto audiotapes...
Federal Judge Sanctions Florida's United States Attorney (Sean Cronin and Andrea Hoffman Are Unethical Prosecutors)
Posted on April 10, 2009Another judge is taking prosecutorial misconduct seriously: In the wake of a prosecutorial misconduct scandal in the corruption case against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in Washington, a Miami federal judge imposed extraordinary sanctions Thursday on federal prosecutors in South Florida for secretly taping the defense team of a physician who was ultimately acquitted in a prescription drug case...
Making an Unconscious Act a Conscious One
Posted on April 09, 2009How can you break bad habits? If that habit is the product of an unconscious act, there is a clever way of breaking the habit. From My Voice Will Go With You: A medically retired policeman told me, "I have emphysema, high blood pressure, and, as you can see, I am grossly overweight...
The Realpolitik of the Stevens Dismissal
Posted on April 08, 2009George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley, the preeminent voice on corruption in Alaska politics, thinks that Attorney General Eric Holder moved to dismiss the Stevens cases to avoid further scrutiny of the DOJ's handling of the prosecution: The decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to drop the case was portrayed as an act of self-discipline by the Justice Department...
Federal Judge Fed Up With Brenda Morris and William Welch II
Posted on April 07, 2009U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has lost all patience with the unethical DOJ lawyers who prosecuted former Senator Ted Stevens: Note to the Justice Department, FBI and IRS: Don't destroy any evidence in the Ted Stevens prosecution. That order came from U...
Need Help From Texas Lawyer
Posted on April 07, 2009Marcus Luttrell's dog was murdered. (Details here.) Four people were involved. Luttrell heard all four of the dog killers laughing and joking. Two of the dog killers are claiming to be "witnesses," and thus have no been identified by the media. Based on a quirk in the law, they might escape criminal prosecution...
Alfonso Hernadez and Michael Edmunds Murdered Marcus Luttrell's Dog
Posted on April 07, 2009The very sad story is here. Four men aged 18-24 went around killing dogs. Two are claiming to be witnesses. If anyone finds out who these "witnesses" are, please let me know so that we can identify them prominently on the blog.
Another Report from the Ted Stevens Case
Posted on April 07, 2009Unfortunately I don't live in D.C., so I couldn't attend these hearings. Fortunately the Legal Times has been providing excellent coverage. The latest: U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said Tuesday that in his 25 years on the bench, he had never seen anything approaching the "mishandling and misconduct" perpetrated by the government in the case of former Alaskan Sen...
Brenda Morris, Other Stevens Prosecutors to Face Criminal Contempt Proceedings
Posted on April 07, 2009Wow. Dissatisfied with the pace of DOJ's internal investigation into the bungled prosecution, Sullivan said today that he would commence criminal contempt proceedings against the original trial team and their supervisor, and appoint a non-government lawyer to prosecute the case...
What is a "Cigar Band"?
Posted on April 06, 2009EBay prohibits people from selling cigars on eBay. In order to get around this prohibition, sellers advertise their cigar products as CIGAR BAND ONLY. See, e.g., this auction: The Value is in the thirteen bands as the cigars were stored well but not for consumption...
Phoenix Police Raid Home of Local Police-Misconduct Blogger
Posted on April 06, 2009This hasn't hit the national news yet. Nonetheless, Prison Planet reports: In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department...
Using Hypnotic Techniques for Persuasion
Posted on April 06, 2009[Editor's note: This post is rough. I am still synthesizing these issues. I hope others will explore these issues with me. I've been reading Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors (here); and My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H...
George Orwell on Metaphors
Posted on April 05, 2009From "Politics and the English Language": By using stale metaphors, similes, and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself. This is the significance of mixed metaphors. The sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image...
Truckers Are Serial Killers
Posted on April 05, 2009It took law enforcement how long to realize this? The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades...
Little Brother is Watching
Posted on April 03, 2009Another average citizen catches abusive government officials on tape (via Kirkendall):
Jurors Aren't Human Lie Detectors
Posted on April 03, 2009This has been a common theme at Crime & Federalism: One of the most important take aways from his book is that there are no definitive signs of deceit itself, only clues that the emotions don?t fit the lines. Though most people are not good lie detectors, I will limit my discussion to jurors...
More on Brenda Morris' Prosecutorial Misconduct
Posted on April 02, 2009Brenda Morris, the lead attorney who committed prosecutorial misconduct in the Ted Stevens case, might have a history of prosecutorial misconduct. I'll investigate later. In the meantime, read this article: Two weeks before tax day, married lawyers Alan and Jean Brown were signing their names to the back of a familiar-looking green and yellow U...
Stevens' Case Motion to Dismiss: Must Read
Posted on April 01, 2009I've obtained a copy of the Motion to Dismiss the Department of Justice filed in the Ted Stevens prosecution. The motion itself is only two pages. You must read it. You may download it here. In the motion, DOJ admits that the prosecutors hid evidence from the defense...
Legal Experts Opine on Stevens Case Dismissal
Posted on April 01, 2009Today, citing prosecutorial misconduct, Attorney General Eric Holder has moved to dismiss the corruption charges against former Senator Ted Stevens. Thus far, legal experts are not impressed. Law professor Jonathan Turley, who has followed corruption in Alaska politics for over a decade, states: The Justice Department will be dropping all charges against former Senator Ted Steven (R...
DOJ to Dismiss Charges in Senator Ted Stevens Case
Posted on April 01, 2009Senator Ted Stevens was a corrupt man. He has probably broken as many laws as he shepherd through Congress. Finally, the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice was able to build a case against him. The case was strong. Unfortunately for the public, Ted Stevens will never see prison walls...
Wrongful Conviction Watch: Man Released From Prison After 12 Years
Posted on March 31, 2009DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack
Legal Nonsense
Posted on March 31, 2009Only the law would make people hire an expensive expert witness to testify that poker is a game of skill rather than a game of luck. Whether the legal system is a game of luck or skill is perhaps a more interesting issue.
What is Incivility?
Posted on March 31, 2009An friend is defending a client who is facing a frivolous lawsuit. There is no debate that the lawsuit is frivolous. My friend has written very polite letters. Imagine, though, that he wrote the following: Hey f--k sticks. This lawsuit is s--t. You are worthless f---s...
Twitter-Bloggers
Posted on March 30, 2009I've recently started using Twitter. Most of the people I follow are bloggers. What do most of them Twitter about? Their blogs! The updates I read look like this: "I have a new blog post." That's all they do! Guys and gals, I already read your blogs. That's how I know you...
Crime and Credit Card Companies
Posted on March 30, 2009Imagine you hired me to work for you. We agreed that you would pay me $1,000 a month. I decided to change the terms of the deal without telling you; or by whispering my raise to you while you were on the phone with an angry client. I'd look inside your office, whisper, "Raise," and you'd shoo me away...
Mental Health and Civil Litigation
Posted on March 30, 2009Norm Pattis has a good post up about crazy litigants. He presents a problem that, alas, might not have a solution. Everyone knows that at least 90% of pro se litigants are nuts. They are called rabid pro se litigants for a reason. What do you do? Not let them file lawsuits? Would that be constitutional? Moral? Should judges mandate...
Power and Control
Posted on March 29, 2009An excellent post on the true nature of government. Here is what happens to an ordinary citizen who does not respect a cop's authoritas. This post also illustrates why it's logically impossible to be politically liberal but claim to care about freedom...
Lovelle Mixon/Cop Killer Rally
Posted on March 27, 2009This video segment raises many interesting issues: When the Klan or other white-sponsored hate groups march, there is usually a counter-march. Where was the counter-march during the pro-Lovelle Mixon rally? Should Al Sharpton and other leaders of the black community be condemned for not sponsoring a counter-march...
Lawyer-As-Insurance-Salesman
Posted on March 26, 2009There is a low probability that you will be convicted. This low probability event would, however, be catastrophic. We must consider the risks. Yes, yes. Uh-hum. Therefore, you need to purchase Trial Insurance. Unfortunately, it's only sold by the State...
Science and Eastern Religious Concepts
Posted on March 26, 2009Every (Western) religious person wants to reconcile science and religion. Why? I don't know. If faith is based on faith, then have faith. Seeking scientific validation is as unfaithful as it gets. Still, the fantastic irony is that science has not reconciled anything with Western religion...
Kiva.Org: The Unchartity
Posted on March 25, 2009You should consider "giving" to Kiva.org. It's not a charity. Rather, it's a program that does everything that the United States welfare system does not do: Encourages the poor to do something other than bilk taxpayers. You can check the site out here...
Cops Don´t Deserve a Defense?
Posted on March 24, 2009Tell a criminal defense lawyer that your client is accused of child rape, and that during the rape, an 8 year old had her vaginal wall torn. He won´t blink. He´ll probably make a joke. Tell him you´re representing a cop, and suddenly he gets righteous: "What's the matter with you?" The speaker is a good friend and a well-known...
The Non-Delegation Doctrine
Posted on March 24, 2009I´m not talking about the con law doctrine. I´m talking about delegating the final edit of your documents. Here is what can happen.
Is Libertarianism Based on Superstition
Posted on March 22, 2009Libertarians do not recognize the right to use physical force to compel another to do something. Yet the brilliant can justly convince the dull to sign contracts. How does this make sense? A moron does not use his free will to sign a contract. A moron has his will overcome...
Are We All Solipsists?
Posted on March 22, 2009If I said that only my mind exists, and that others do not have minds or their own will, people would look at me like I am nuts. Yet people are often saying: I cannot understand how someone could do that - where "that" is some horrific deed. What the person really means is: I could never imagine myself doing...
Blacks and AIDS
Posted on March 16, 2009As the epidemiological data shows, AIDS is primarily a disease afflicting blacks and homosexuals: More than 4 percent of blacks in the city are known to have HIV, along with almost 2 percent of Latinos and 1.4 percent of whites. More than three-quarters -- 76 percent -- of the HIV infected are black, 70 percent are men and 70 percent...
AIG Bonuses: So Sue Me!
Posted on March 16, 2009According to the latest spin, AIG must give out bonuses to avoid lawsuits: In a letter to Geithner dated Saturday, Liddy said outside lawyers had informed the company that AIG had contractual obligations to make the bonus payments and could face lawsuits if it did not do so...
Frederick J. Hanna & Associates Under Investigation
Posted on March 16, 2009Frederick J. Hanna & Associates is, based on all accounts, a scum bag law firm that collects on debt that does not exist or is not owed. In other words, they are thieves. The Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs has begun investigating Frederick J...
Now on Twitter
Posted on March 16, 2009I haven't decided if Twitter is a time suck; a productively tool; a great way to keep in touch; or all or none of the above. I'm trying it out. You can add me here.
John Stossel's Bailouts and Bull Special
Posted on March 15, 200920/20's John Stossel does a great job with a lot of issues here.
Norm Pattis Gets Prosecutor Cleared In Grievance Case
Posted on March 15, 2009Congratulations, Norm.
Connecticut Lawyer Brief Bank
Posted on March 15, 2009This is a really cool idea: Effective March 1, 2009, section 67-2(K) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure requires all counsel-represented parties who file a paper brief in the Supreme Court also to file an electronic copy of the brief with the court. Through a cooperative arrangement with the Judicial Branch, the Appellate Advocacy Committee will post the brief on...
Another Cruel Joke on Humanity
Posted on March 15, 2009Your brain is strongest from ages 22-27. But you haven't lived long enough to actually know anything. Isn't life grand? I'm reminded of the expression: Youth is wasted on the young. When you're young, you worry about adult problems, or want to "grow up...
Juliet Sorensen is an Unethical Prosecutor
Posted on March 13, 2009Judge Richard Posner explains why in United States v. Farinella (which is itself a great illustration of overcriminalization at play) (via Eugene Volokh). In the opinion, Judge Posner notes: "We asked the government's lawyer at argument what an appropriate sanction for the prosecutor?s misconduct might be...
The Upside of a Surveillance Society
Posted on March 13, 2009Who would have thought that it was Big Brother who should have feared the Surveillance Society?
Bernie Madoff is Free
Posted on March 13, 2009So argues Norm Pattis. He makes good points - at least regarding federal prison time. Federal prison is not Club Fed, but it's not that bad. This isn't due to a kind-and-gentle federal government. It's due to the prison population. In the federal system, you tend to be incarerated with druggies, crooks, and scammers rather than rapists and murders...
Credit Card Companies Are Thieves
Posted on March 13, 2009The latest credit-card scam is to change your available credit limit to an amount less than what you currently owe. Details here. This allows credit card companies to charge you over-limit fees. They change the rules in the middle of the game. You were fine one day...
Symanetc/Norton Claims PIFTS.EXE was "Error"
Posted on March 11, 2009I don't know who would believe this. Sheep, I guess. Norton has admitted that it allows the FBI to install spyware on Norton-protected [sic] computers. I guess people will need to use Symanetc products at their own risk.
Twitter for Your Law Office?
Posted on March 11, 2009Why not create a closed-circuit Twitter account for your law firm? Make everyone create a unique profile. Make them all private. Everyone friends each other within the firm network; no one else is allowed to follow. When someone comes in, he or she should update his profile to indicate what case he's working on; and what she's doing with the...
Theory v. Reality of Law
Posted on March 11, 2009Terrific post at Popehat about famed Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson.Legal education is amusing. Imagine taking someone who has just passed the bar and was fully licensed. How many of those folks would you hand a trial transcript over to before saying, "OK...
PIFTS.EXE UPDATE
Posted on March 10, 2009Amazing, if true: It seems that the PIFTS file is mining data from Google Desktop and other google products. This has lead to the belief that someone is trying to track searches made by Norton Users. The information sent to the SwapDrive site (owned by Norton) and Microsoft Search Companion seem to add cerdibility to this also...
Norton's PIFTS.EXE: Norton May Have Installed Spyware on Your Computer!
Posted on March 10, 2009The Register is reporting:Conspiracy theories are running rampant in the absence of a clear explanation of why Symantec deleted threads expressing concern about a file called pifts.exe from its Norton support forums. Many users running Norton Internet Protection began seeing a popup warning on Monday that a file called PIFTS...
Norton AntiVirus Helps FBI Spy on American Citizens With Magic Lantern
Posted on March 10, 2009Magic Lantern is spyware that the FBI uses. It keeps track of every keystroke you make. Norton AntiVirus, a popular software that uses purchase to protect their computers, allows the FBI to spy on you. Here is what one top official said:Eric Chien, chief researcher at Symantec's antivirus research lab, said that provided a hypothetical keystroke logging tool was used...
Wikipedia Covers Up Barack Obama's Past: Wikiality
Posted on March 10, 2009Wikipedia is useful for background facts on an issue. It's totally unreliable about anything that is controversial. People are learning this through the repeated edits of President Obama's Wikipedia entry:Critics noted over the weekend that President Obama's page on the free online encyclopedia had been edited to remove any mention of his links to former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers,...
Overpaying for PACER?
Posted on March 09, 2009Joe Lieberman thinks that PACER is overpriced? WTF?No way. Eight cents a page is a steal. When drafting a complaint in a new area of law, I can grab a complaint off of PACER to read for a few bucks. How much time and money does that save me and clients? Oddly, Lieberman is upset that a government agency is...
Vacation Reading
Posted on March 09, 2009Next week I'll be on an airplane to a tropical place. Until then, no leisure reading. During vacation, I'm going to go through these: Voice Power: Using Your Voice to Captivate, Persuade, and Command Attention [Yep, I'll do every cheesy exercise in the book]; Clear and Simple As the Truth: Writing Classic Prose; The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature...
Never Been on Drugs: Thanks
Posted on March 08, 2009One of the nicest compliments ever paid to me: Someone said to a good friend of mine, "I'm worried about Mike. Is he on drugs?" My friend got a kick out of that. "No, that's just how he is."I find that when people smoke a lot of marijuana, they are interesting to talk to...
Escaping the Tyranny of Categories
Posted on March 08, 2009Here is a fantastic recipe for spaghetti sauce. I don't eat a lot of carbohydrates, though - and rarely eat pasta. If I'm going to eat carbs, I'm going to pizza or cookies. Yet one can find many fantastic uses for the spaghetti sauce when one no longer calls it "spaghetti sauce...
Youth and Perception
Posted on February 26, 2009The older you get, the less frequency your ears can detect. That doesn't mean that those frequencies aren't out there; or that others can't perceive them.Here is an example. (Hat tip: N.D.) It produces a sound that most people over 25 years old shouldn't be able to hear...
Health Care Reform
Posted on February 26, 2009It's pretty simple, if you do the right thing - logically and morally. Eating healthy is expensive. If we truly care about the poor, we should empower them to make the most healthy eating choices.Thus: First, subsidize vegetables and tax corn. Make broccoli cheaper than Doritos...
Liberals, Conservatives, and Dogs
Posted on February 26, 2009Barack Obama got his dog. It's a spazzy breed for even a dedicated dog owner. In other words, he picked the wrong breed.His family's decision was the product of typical liberal/Yuppie/Stuff White People Like self-indulgence. The dog is so cute! That's not how you pick a dog...
Why I am a Eugenicist
Posted on February 26, 2009Can anyone explain to me why it's moral to allow children to be born into family environments like this? A trio of Louisiana nitwits agreed to swap two young children for a $1500 cockatoo and $175, police charge. The deranged exchange was hatched after Donna Greenwell, a 51-year-old trucker, learned that the bird was being offered for sale by Brandy...
Oil Change Myth
Posted on February 25, 2009From the Yet Another Lie We've Been Told Department: No, you don't need to change your oil every 3,000 miles. "Because everything I was ever told was a lie," indeed.
Hot-Dog Stealing Prosecutor Resigns
Posted on February 25, 2009At first I felt sorry for the guy. He got drunk, ate a hot dog, and then stumbled away without paying. Who hasn't done that? Then I saw this:When the officer caught up with Olson, the prosecutor said he didn?t know anything about a hot dog, though he had ketchup and mustard on his shirt, police said...
Midwestern Values?
Posted on February 25, 2009The FBI considers Ohio (yes, the Ohio in the United States) a "hotbed" of child sex slavery: COLUMBUS, Ohio?Teenage girls are being locked in the chains of sexual abuse and forced into prostitution?in Ohio. The FBI rescued 45 suspected teenage prostitutes on Monday?some as young as 13 years old?as part of a nationwide sweep, NBC 4?s Mikaela Hunt reported...
The Only Two Interesting Questions Left to Discuss
Posted on February 24, 2009How bad; and how fast?
Discovery and Metadata
Posted on February 23, 2009Good article in the Connecticut Law Tribune about a right to discover metadata. I've long argued (with no success) that metadata should be available in criminal cases, under Brady v. Maryland. Any document produced by police departments gets invariably more inculpatory, i...
Law Students Having Trouble Getting Bar Loans
Posted on February 23, 2009Bad news for law students. I wonder how this will affect bar passage rates? Law schools, obsessed with U.S. News rankings, cannot afford to have students failing the bar because those students can't afford to study properly for the bar. Hopefully more wanna-be law students will be denied law school loans...
Viewer of Child Pornography Required to Pay Restitution to Victim?
Posted on February 23, 2009This could be a very broad reaching ruling. If it holds up, expect civil actions against the defendants.
Alex Kozinski and Overcriminalization
Posted on February 22, 2009Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute has outdone himself with the latest collection of essays he has compiled. In In the Name of Justice, "Leading judges and legal scholars explore the state of criminal law today and offer compelling examinations of key issues, including suicide terrorism, drug legalization, and the vast reach of federal criminal liability...
60 Minutes Special on Resveratrol
Posted on February 21, 2009The mainstream media was only two years behind the Life Extension movement on resveratrol:
Gary Condit and Chandra Levy: Undone by Randomness and Confirmation Bias
Posted on February 21, 2009Gary Condit was a Congressperson who had an affair with his 23-year-old intern. He was about to break off the affair. The intern was upset, and was considering going public with the affair. Later, Ms. Levy disappeared. Gary Condit must have done it, right? How could he have not? The narrative makes perfect sense...
The Blogosphere Reacts to the NAS's Report on Junk Science in the Courtroom
Posted on February 20, 2009Norm Pattis has posts here, here, and here. Scott Greenfield comments here. Radley Balko's contribution is here. Somewhat relatedly: Here is an August '08 post noting that so-called criminal profiling is junk science.Perhaps the next Blawg Review will have a section linking to various reactions to the NAS Report? Other reactions? Please leave a comment and I'll update this post.
Survivalism Non-Sequitur
Posted on February 20, 2009What is up with morbidly obese white guys stock piling guns and ammo? I understand having a small concealed-carry pistol, and shot gun, and a survival rifle. I know guys who are stock piling thousands of rounds of ammo. Why? Are things going to get so bad that you'll need an armory? If that's what you believe, fine...
The Social Psychology of Bottled Water
Posted on February 19, 2009I remember when I saw a person drinking bottled water on my college campus. It was called Dasini, and it could be purchased from the on-campus vending machine for $1.25. I thought to myself, "What a silly idea." I literally could not compute what I was seeing...
Update on Shady Class Action Lawyer
Posted on February 19, 2009My friend received a response to his inquiry: I tried to call you and left a message. The retainer agreement is the contract between attorney and client. The terms were negotiated before we started the case. The $1000 is the same for every client, and it is our expectation that the Court will accept these terms for the class...
Junk Science in the Courtroom
Posted on February 19, 2009We stop burning witches based on superstition. Instead, we send people to prison. We call that progress.
America is a Nation of Cowards?
Posted on February 19, 2009Attorney General Eric Holder, who is African American, called the American people a "nation of cowards," at least when discussions of race are concerned. I agree, and have been saying the same thing for years. Our society is full of double standards.Why, e...
More Class Bias at the New York Times
Posted on February 18, 2009The same editors who struggled to understand how a person can get by on $500,000 a year could of course not relate to small businesses and other poor people. Yet another reason to hate the Times.
Stevens' Prosecutors Replaced
Posted on February 17, 2009The prosecutors who have behaved unethically and unlawfully in their prosecution of the corrupt Ted Stevens have been replaced by (let's hope) more ethical prosecutors. The Stevens prosecutors committed their misconduct in Washington, D.C., and thus are subject to discipline in the District of Columbia...
Kenny Glenn to be Charged with Animal Cruelty
Posted on February 17, 2009KSWO is reporting:Two teenage brothers accused of beating a cat will meet Tuesday with investigators and the Comanche County District Attorney. The courthouse was closed Monday for Presidents Day, but Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley said the teens will face charges of animal cruelty from District Attorney Robert Schulte's office...
New Criminal Law Blog
Posted on February 17, 2009Please say hello to the Broward Law Blog (via SHG).
Class Action Lawyer Scamming Clients?
Posted on February 17, 2009A close friend was recently solicited by a Las Vegas lawyer to join a class action lawsuit. The lawyer has asked for a $1,000 retainer. This seems highly unusual. The class action lawsuit has already been filed. The lawsuit was filed On October 22, 2008...
Religion's M.O.
Posted on February 17, 2009Deny a scientific fact. Deny, deny, deny. Burn a few people at the stake. Imprison a few people. Once the scientific idea has tipped into the mainstream, accept the scientific idea:The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution should not have been dismissed and claimed it is compatible with the Christian view of Creation...
Stanford International Bank: Ponzi Scheme Stopped by Bloggers
Posted on February 17, 2009Stanford International Bank was a Ponzi scheme. The SEC investigated Stanford International Bank for three (count 'em, three!) years. Nothing happened. Finally some bloggers decided to do some research. Bloggers get results:HOUSTON (Reuters) - Federal agents entered the Houston office of Stanford Financial Group on Tuesday, according to a Reuters eyewitness on the scene...
Dangerous First Circuit Libel Law Case
Posted on February 16, 2009Let's hope this one gets taken en banc and reversed.
Kenny Glenn Has Been Arrested
Posted on February 16, 2009Kenny Glenn may soon find himself in jail:An animal abuse story that has sparked outrage across the country has Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley saying that two local boys are responsible. The teen was filmed beating and torturing a cat, and uploaded it to YouTube over the weekend...
Is Stanford International Bank a Ponzi Scheme?
Posted on February 15, 2009First Madoff. Then Agape World. Now Stanford International Bank? Details here. UPDATE: Tom Kirkendall has an interesting post entitled, "Houston's Madoff?" Stanford International Bank is indeed looking like Madoff Investments.Where was the SEC? If you owned the SEC, would you keep it in business? Wouldn't you at least fire the executives?
Update on Kenny Glenn Story
Posted on February 15, 2009Kenny Glenn lives in Lawton, Oklahoma. His hometown is covering the story:In a disgusting case of animal abuse, a cat being abused was filmed by the culprits and posted on YouTube. A teenaged boy slammed a cat against a wall and repeatedly struck it. It was a hot topic on the internet all day Sunday and bloggers think it happened...
Kenny Glenn: Cat Abuser
Posted on February 15, 2009A masked teenager had a friend film him beating a cat. They uploaded this video to YouTube. Anonymous went to work. People scoured the Internet, and found out the identity of the masked teenager. It is none other than Kenny Glenn. His video exploits are available here...
Why I Want to Finish in Third Place
Posted on February 15, 2009Would you rather finish in second or third place? Would you rather win a silver medal or a bronze medal? The right answer seems intuitive. What's there to think about? A silver medal is objectively better than winning a bronze medal. So what chump would want to finish in third place!The answer, surprisingly, is: The chump who wants to be...
Summary of Prosecutorial Misconduct in Ted Stevens Case
Posted on February 14, 2009I've uploaded a copy of the defense motion to dismiss in United States v. Theodore Stevens. It's available here. It's astounding reading - even after appropriately discounting it, given that it was written by defense counsel. Here is one specific instance of prosecutorial misconduct that occurred in the case: Senator Stevens was similarly prejudiced by the government?s disclosures regarding whether...
DOJ Lawyers William Welch II, Brenda Morris, and Patricia Stemler Held in Contempt of Court
Posted on February 14, 2009I've been following the exploits of Brenda Morris, the lead prosecutor in the Ted Stevens case. She and her boss, WIlliam Welch II, have engaged in several acts of prosecutorial misconduct. Finally a federal judge stood up to them:In a status hearing Friday, U...
Brenda Morris (along with William Welch II) is At It Again
Posted on February 14, 2009[Ed's note: I drafted this post on February 6, 2009. Recent developments reminded me to publish it.]Brenda Morris (along with William Welch II) was the lead prosecutor in the case against then-Senator Ted Stevens. In October, 2008, the federal judge overseeing the trial took Ms...
Judge Convicted for Private-Prison Kickback Scheme
Posted on February 13, 2009It doesn't get much worse than this: At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom...
Who Can Catch a Liar?
Posted on February 13, 2009Hartford Superior Court Judge Trial Referee Robert Satter (h/t) has admitted what the science has said for years: People who have no training in truth detection do no better than chance (i.e., it's random if they are right or wrong) at detecting deceit...
Merrill Lynch Bonuses
Posted on February 12, 2009If you read my archives, you'll see I was one of the blogosphere's first - and only - Enron skeptics. I still believe that Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were wrongfully convicted. No hater of business am I. That said, someone needs to go to prison for this:Greg Farrell, FT: In spite of operating losses of $41...
The Kindle 2 Has Been Officially Released
Posted on February 11, 2009I never thought I could do e-books. I fell in love with a friend's Kindle. I wasn't able to get one during the holidays, since they sold out before I realized what I was missing out on. The Kindle 2 is supposed to be even better: Books in under 60 seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no...
Boycott Nordstrom
Posted on February 11, 2009Here's why; and here. Incidentally, William O. Ferron, Jr. and Seed IP Law Group PLLC are representing Nordstrom in this oppressive and possibly frivolous action. The docket history is available here:
Book Banning in 2009?
Posted on February 11, 2009The United States government has banned children's books that were written before 1985. Details here.
Thank-You Note to Former Boss?
Posted on February 11, 2009If not, why not?I've had one horrible boss whom I will never thank and hope to never see. I've had a great boss, too, who taught me a lot. Sure, he made a profit; but I made money, too, and learned some stuff. So why not give thanks?
When Not to Appeal
Posted on February 10, 2009One of two things happened. One: The clients are crazy, and told their lawyers to file this appeal, even though doing so was self-destructive. The lawyer must have thought, "This is moronic and self-destructive, but if the check clears, I'll do it." Two: The lawyers were idiots...
Criminal Law Double Standards: "Technicalities"
Posted on February 10, 2009We recently lost a troubling appeal based on a technicality. The client, a 28-year-old man had been convicted of statutory rape. He met a girl on MySpace who claimed to be 19 years old - and she looked and acted it. In the client's state, the age of consent is 16...
From the Things to Do Before I Die Department
Posted on February 09, 2009My buddy and I keep planning on attending one of these events. The next one, I'm there. Period:
Verizon CBCS Collections Scam
Posted on February 09, 2009Two years ago, I received a letter from CBCS, an Ohio based collections agency, informing me that I owed Verizon $290.21. I knew this to be false. Over a sixth month period, I disputed this collection action with the credit reporting agencies, CBCS, and Verizon itself...
Amazon.com Pricing Scam? Price Goes Up After Book Put Into Wish List?
Posted on February 09, 2009This could be my imagination. I could be fooled by randomness. I don't know. Right now, I want answers. (UPDATE: In contact with Amazon.com people. Will report my results.)I added Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment to my wish list...
$500,000 a Year is Living in Poverty
Posted on February 08, 2009Yes, really. At least according to the New York Times.
Memory Metaphor
Posted on February 07, 2009Take a moment to reflect on whether the following statement is true or false: "Memory can be likened to a storage chest in the brain, into which we deposit material and from which we can withdraw it later if needed. Occasionally, something gets lost from the 'chest,' and then we say we have forgotten...
Cash4Gold is a Ripoff and Scam?
Posted on February 06, 2009That's how it seems: Cash4Gold.com?s Super Bowl commercial features pitchman Ed McMahon, who intones, ?Heeeeere?s money!? Traffic to the company's website multiplied by a factor of 10 in the wake of the ad. Its offers to buy jewelry, touted in a Super Bowl commercial, don't always translate into big bucks for customers...
Will $100 Shut People Up? (Applying the James Randi Challenge to Life.)
Posted on February 06, 2009I've grown impatient in my old age. When people state a stupid opinion or false statement of fact, I no longer argue with no. I do not appeal to reason. Instead, I offer a wager. I say, "OK. I'll bet you $100 that you are wrong." (My best friend and I wager large Papa John's pizzas whenever one of us...
Repeating Stuff is a Good Idea
Posted on February 06, 2009I repeat things, because repeating things is a good idea. From "The impact of repetition-induced familiarity on agreement with weak and strong arguments": Repeated statements are perceived as more valid than novel ones, termed the illusion of truth effect, presumably because repetition imbues the statement with familiarity...
How to Survive a Nuclear Attack by Terrorists
Posted on February 05, 2009Must-watch video of the year (via Kirkendall). Full of practical tips. Open your mouth during blast so your ear drums don't burst? Who would have guessed? Anyhow, this is a must-see for everyone, and especially anyone who lives in a big city. The first half of the video is a summary of the threat...
Barack Obama is a Federalist?
Posted on February 05, 2009Any conservative who does not applaud this is a hypocrite:Drug Enforcement Administration agents this week raided four medical marijuana shops in California, contrary to President Obama's campaign promises to stop the raids. The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr...
Abolish the SEC
Posted on February 05, 2009If this is the best they can do, why do we keep them around?
Frank Pignatelli Goes Down
Posted on February 05, 2009The drug-dealing lawyer who sold out his clients has been exposed.
Why Blog?
Posted on February 04, 2009Scott Greenfield has a thoughtful post about a shift in the blogosophere. Namely, blogs contain less analysis and more "Hey, check this article out" posts. What's missing? There's no analysis, no opinion, no depth of thought or connection to the larger issues surrounding the piece...
How to Herd Humans
Posted on February 04, 2009This also explains why there will always be a thin blue line, and also why you can never trust any group (doctors, lawyers, dentists, real estate agents, cops, secretaries, congresspersons) to self-police: Vasily Klucharev, at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found that the brain releases more of the reward chemical dopamine when we fall in...
Macroeconomics is Still a Scam
Posted on February 04, 2009This video is hilarious, and so true. Economists want us to trust them. Yet, like witch doctors, they won't actually make any concrete - and therefore falsifiable - predictions. If you cannot make falsifiable predictions, then you cannot say that your discipline is a science!
The Power of the Blogosphere
Posted on February 04, 2009This is the best post about blogging you'll read all year: If Harry Markopolos had taken all of his evidence about Bernie Madoff and put it on a blog, instead of submitting it to the SEC, there's a good chance that would have been the end of Madoff right there...
Animal Slavery
Posted on February 04, 2009Why I don't go to the circus. (Via Mystal.) It's hard to make predictions about future generations. I suspect that in 100 years, circuses will be illegal.
Woman Sues Denver for Not Enforcing Immigration Laws
Posted on February 03, 2009I've done the research, and these are impossible cases to win. I don't blame the plaintiff for trying: An Englewood woman who was inside the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Aurora when an illegal immigrant allegedly caused an accident that killed three people has filed a nearly $1...
Spot the Alpha
Posted on February 03, 2009Even Barack Obama gets sucked in: (Via, What About Clients?)
Real-World Survivalism
Posted on February 02, 2009Here is a series of posts published by a student who lived through Argentina's economic meltdown. Things might get bad in the United States. The articles are good because they cut through the usual survivalism B.S. Most of us will not be living in bunkers or trading silver bullion at at trading store...
Don't Buy a Used Car
Posted on February 02, 2009Holy crap: SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The national wave of auto dealership closures has come crashing down on thousands of people who are on the hook for used-car loans that dealers were supposed to absolve. When a car buyer still owes money on a vehicle he is trading in, the dealer promises to pay off the outstanding loan, then resells the...
Frank Pignatelli Sells Out His Clients?
Posted on January 30, 2009Whoa. Looks like I was late to the party.
Google Scholar and Book Browsing
Posted on January 29, 2009I just ordered this book after reading this excerpt on Google Books. If you want to preview a book before buying, check out Google Books.
Availability Bias and Water Landings
Posted on January 28, 2009Out of several million commercial flights, how many emergency water landings have there been? One. That's it. Statistically speaking, none of us have any change of drowning after an airplane we were on crashed into the ocean. It is literally more likely that lightning will strike you several times than it is that you will die while flying on a...
Where is the Catholic Outrage?
Posted on January 28, 2009When gay people dared to get married, Catholics took to the streets. They protested. They showed their outrage. Where are those Catholics now? INDIANAPOLIS - Church documents show the Archdiocese of Indianapolis knew about alleged sexual abuse by one of its priests while it was occurring but reassigned him to other churches and never notified police, The Indianapolis Star reported...
Agape World, Inc. was Ponzi Scheme
Posted on January 27, 2009Another couple of dozen people lost everything: A New York businessman sought by federal authorities in connection with a suspected $380 million Ponzi scheme has been arrested and charged with one count of mail fraud. The businessman, Nicholas Cosmo, founder of Agape World in Hauppauge, surrendered at the Long Island Rail Road train station in Hicksville, N...
Kindle 2.0 Coming Soon?
Posted on January 27, 2009Amazon.com's e-book reader, the Kindle, may be re-released in upgraded form on February 9th. Rumors here.
Am I My Neighbor's Keeper?
Posted on January 27, 2009This sad story involves people not accepting responsibility for their neighborhoods: Officials in central Michigan say a 93-year-old man who owed more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills froze to death inside his home -- where the municipal power company had restricted his use of electricity...
Obama's Alphaness in All Its Glory
Posted on January 27, 2009Can anyone imagine George W. Bush doing this:The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.Suck it, conservative betas. Go cry yourselves to sleep...
Entrepreneur.com and Agape World
Posted on January 27, 2009Entrepreneur.com recently wrote a favorable profile on Agape World, which has now been revealed as a Ponzi scheme. Does Entrepreneur.com even investigate companies before giving them the Hot 100 stamp of approval? How many investors did Agape fleece because of Entrepreneur's favorable press coverage?Here is the link to the favorable profile...
More on the Agape World Ponzi Scheme
Posted on January 27, 2009A Long Island, New York businessman was arrested for perpetrating a $380 million Ponzi scheme. I did some research, and came across some interesting information. People were on message boards asking about Agape World. Here was one (unedited) post:Has anyone invested with Agape World Inc? They provide bridge loans, and offer investors 13-14% returns...
Arizona v. Johnson was Released
Posted on January 26, 2009SCOTUSBlog has the summary. I haven't been doing much Section 1983 blogging because there's not much left of the law. It's been dying, and the vultures are circling.
More on Legal Ethics
Posted on January 26, 2009Why hasn't this lawyer been disbarred? What is the goal of legal ethics, anyway? Is it to protect the public from unscrupulous lawyers, or to protect the status symbol of being a lawyer? In other words, is the goal of legal ethics to protect the public, or to protect lawyers?
Another Lawyer Falls for Nigerian E-Mail Scam
Posted on January 25, 2009Richard T. Howell Jr. is a Houston lawyer who got scammed by some Nigerians working out of an Internet cafe. He is speaking out, presumably to warn other lawyers with bad judgment not to send hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to complete strangers. He and Gregory Bartko should start giving CLEs...
Rethinking the Psychopathic and Sociopathic Personalities
Posted on January 24, 2009Published over a decade ago, The Millionaire Next Door forced us to reconsider our conception of a millionaire. Millionaires were not people you'd see on television, or people who made money through the dot.com era. They were regular people who, day after day, made mostly sound financial decisions...
Describing the Psychopath's Inner Reality
Posted on January 24, 2009The psychopath is unfamiliar with the primary facts or data of what might be called personal values and is altogether incapable of understanding such matters. it is impossible for him to take even a slight interest in the tragedy or joy or the striving of humanity as presented in serious literature or art...
Pretend Not to be Biased
Posted on January 23, 2009Reporters have personalities. They have biases. They vote, they eat, they shop. Why, then, is the New York Times telling reporters to lie? As is often the case in life, the Times seeks to elevate perceived objectivity over actual objectivity. If the Times were really concerned about its reputation, it'd hire conservative news reporters and editors...
Rikers Island's Fight Club
Posted on January 23, 2009If inmates are going to fight each other, anyway, why shouldn't we guards get in on it? Officers Michael McKie, Khalid Nelson and Denise Albright called their fight club "The Program," and the teens they recruited as enforcers were "The Team," officials said...
$15 Billion in Bailout Bonuses for Merrill Lynch
Posted on January 22, 2009Someone please explain to me why Henry Paulson hasn't been tried for treason?
Truth, Justice, and Cuban Cigars
Posted on January 22, 2009Can you imagine a world where American citizens are allowed to smoke Cuban cigars? I can't. Cuba is our enemy. Buying cigars from Cuba is like buying poppies from Al Qaeda. Thankfully our government, which is going through an economic crisis, still has the resources to prosecute people who smuggle Cuban cigars into this country...
Mike Tyson
Posted on January 21, 2009People watch this video and laugh (crude language in video). I see a tormented soul. He was falsely imprisoned once for rape. Many women tried falsely accusing him again. He had to set up a surveillance system in his home to protect himself. Police would be at his house monthly, investigating yet another false rape allegation...
eBay and the Endowment Effect
Posted on January 21, 2009When bidding in auctions, our rationality is aggressively attacked. First, we must fight what monkey wrench the endowment effect throws into our own brains. We humans tend to value things more when we believe those things to be ours. That's my chair, and therefore I will overestimate it's fair market value...
Pot-Head Question of the Day
Posted on January 20, 2009Why is money worth anything? Answer: Because everyone has agreed that it is. You could view that as a banality. Or you could think about that question for years, and still have it blow your mind every time. Speaking of mind blowing, check out this article on prison currency...
The IRA/401(k) Black Box
Posted on January 20, 2009No, you don't just put money in, which is then magically transformed into more money. Times infinity. That's not how it works.
The Onion Called It
Posted on January 20, 2009Be sure to read the date when this article was written.
Adam Liptak on Judicial Pay
Posted on January 19, 2009Adam Liptak, in this New York Times editorial, discusses some of the empirical research on judicial pay. The research proves, not surprisingly, that federal judges are not underpaid. They might actually be overpaid. Is anyone be surprised?Arguments in favor of judicial pay are "just because" arguments...
Obama and his "Manly" Conservative Haters
Posted on January 18, 2009A right winger who blogs about how manly he is because he lifts weights or something, linked to yet another stupid article about Barack Obama. Here are my thoughts on Obama's haters:That article was laughable, especially his last point: "The problem is [Barack Obama has] never had to make a truly tough decision...
Lawyer Prosecuted for Giving Legal Advice?
Posted on January 17, 2009Holy cow. How did this case miss the blogosphere's attention? A lawyer facing criminal charges for advising 10 nurses they could quit their jobs at a Long Island, N.Y., nursing facility gave "objectively reasonable" advice and cannot be prosecuted, a Brooklyn appeals panel has ruled...
Fan Letter
Posted on January 16, 2009One habit I have fallen out of is writing "fan letters." Whenever a book or article would move me, I used to send the author a quick note. It takes less than five minutes, and people appreciate the gesture. I met one of my best friends after reading one of his columns...
Vitamin Water Lawsuit
Posted on January 16, 2009The Center for Science in the Public Interest has sued Coca-Cola for selling Vitamin Water. CSPI's claim is that Vitamin Water is not good for you. No duh. In a Platonic sense, CSPI has a point.Vitamin water is not good for you. It is loaded with crystalline fructose - a euphemism for high fructose corn syrup...
The Scam that is Called "Legal Ethics"
Posted on January 16, 2009A lawyer in California completely blew an appellate deadline, almost totally preventing his client's case from being heard. When the Court of Appeals warned the lawyer that he had to file a brief or else his client would be screwed, the lawyer did nothing...
Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke Should be Hanged
Posted on January 16, 2009Just when you thought Paulson and Barnanke couldn't commit further acts of treason, they outdid themselves: Here is a shocking report about the Bank of America bail out.
Sarasota-Based Hedge Fund was Ponzi Scheme
Posted on January 16, 2009Investors in a Sarasota-based hedge fund could be out $350 million, and the man behind it has vanished. Managers of the fund are telling clients that their money is gone, and they do not know if any will be recovered.Fund principal Arthur G. Nadel, a prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic circles, disappeared this week...
"The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making"
Posted on January 14, 2009It takes a lot for a book to wow me. Especially considering that I've been studying critical thinking and cognitive bias since 2000. Yet this book, published in 1993 (!) has wowed me: The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making.It pulls together most of the research on cognitive bias into a slim volume...
Going Back to School?
Posted on January 14, 2009Norm Pattis has a great idea:I just learned that the University of Connecticut School of Law is starting an International Human Rights Clinic in the spring semester. The clinic will be taught by Professor Mark Janis. I have applied for permission to audit the course...
On Time and On (Not) Respecting One's Elders
Posted on January 14, 2009From an e-mail I just sent: I view time as more of a social construct intended to enslave our souls. Yes, it's biological reality that we will die. We can call that "time" or "age" or whatever. But time is used more as a method of social control. If you're x-age you must engage in y-behavior...
Test Your Testosterone Levels: For Happines, For Life
Posted on January 13, 2009I've never had my IQ tested, since what good would it do? If it's high, then what? I can go to MENSA meetings to hang out with people who, having accomplished nothing in their lives, talk about how smart they are? The oily-faced Chesters can keep their high IQs...
Most Bad Ass T-Shirt of All Time?
Posted on January 13, 2009It seems so: Using Wordle, my wife created a tag cloud of my blog. Then she went to Zazzle.com and made this shirt. Pretty, cool, 'eh?
Norm Pattis is Blogging Again
Posted on January 12, 2009Connecticut lawyer Norm Pattis has returned to blogging. He originally blogged at Crime & Federalism. Then we both quit, though I kept paying the light bills (or he did; I can't remember) in case one or both of us returned. For his first return, he blogged at his own site...
Alberto Gonzales Walks Into a Bar
Posted on January 12, 2009Alberto Gonzales, a rabbi, and Hindu priest were traveling and had to stop for the night at a farmer's house. Having only 2 extra beds, someone had to sleep in the barn.The rabbi agreed to go but soon returned because a pig was in the barn and being unclean he could not stay in the same space with it...
Free Jury Consultants
Posted on January 12, 2009Here's a post advising a lawyer who is looking to pay $5,000 for a jury consultant. Depending on what one needs, that can be done. Still, jury consultants are everywhere. You just need to know where to find them.It's amazing hearing lawyers talk about their cases with other lawyers...
Why I Don't Respect "Science" or the Washington Post
Posted on January 12, 2009Scientist are amazed (yes, really) that the most successful traders on Wall Street have the highest testosterone levels. Really? Wow! Amazing! It's a good thing I waited my entire life for science to prove that! What will science prove next? That estrogen makes you brooding? The "scientists" and the Washington Post, of course, have to reconcile political correctness with biological...
Why This Libertarian Voted for Obama
Posted on January 11, 2009According to The Right Coast's Mike Rappaport, we are now "in a cold war with Iran." Yeah, I missed that memo, too.After a trillion or so spent fighting Iraq, people like Rappaport (who never served a day in the Armed Forces, by the way) have decided we need to become afraid of yet another country...
"My Genome, My Self"
Posted on January 11, 2009I must get one of these done.For four-hundred bucks, you can get a whole bunch of relevant informaion from 23andMe. My Health Care Flexible Spending Account allows reimbursements for "genetic testing to determine possible defects." I wonder if that covers 23andMe? Anyone know the answer?
Warren Buffett v. Henry Paulson
Posted on January 10, 2009Compare the deal Warren Buffet made with Goldman Sachs vs. the one Henry Paulson (who used to work at and has many friends at) made with Goldman Sachs. Why hasn't Henry Paulson been prosecuted for treason? He should literally be in prison right now. Yet people are obsessed with Blagojevich's penny's worth of corruption.
Summary of Skilling Case
Posted on January 08, 2009Tom Kirkendall has a fantastic summary here. I started reading the opinion, until I saw that the Fifth Circuit ignored the blatant prosecutorial misconduct.Here is what the media did not report: A lot of people within Enron did not believe that Skilling actually committed many of the crimes he was charged with...
Can Charisma Be Learned?
Posted on January 08, 2009The Boston Herald explores whether charisma can be learned. I've met many powerful and rich people. Only two were charismatics - Arnold Schwarzengger and Gerry Spence. Everyone I know who has met Bill Clinton have noted his charisma.People who have charisma are few because they are alpha males who love you...
Judge Samuel Kent is Screwed
Posted on January 08, 2009If you haven't heard much about the prosecution of federal Judge Samuel Kent (a federal judge who most assuredly deserves a pay increase) who was recently charged with sexual sexual assault, it's because the trial court issued one of the most restrictive gag orders ever...
Chickenhawks: Set to Music
Posted on January 08, 2009Bush will soon be gone. But, alas, we'll be left with these loathsome animals:
Sending Wall Street to Jail
Posted on January 06, 2009Fortune has a very interesting article about who might be prosecuted - and why - available for your reading pleasure.
Oscar Grant Shot by BART Police
Posted on January 06, 2009This graphic video shows a BART police officer murdering a young black man, Oscar Grant. (Via Paul.) Here is a better angle of the shot:
"The Gray Lady Is A Tramp"
Posted on January 05, 2009I wonder if the New York Times isn't failing because it has alienated right-wing readers? Ms. Torre, while overstating how bad the Times is, does make a good point: Why publish the McCain-lobbyist (non)scandal on the slimmest of evidence while ignoring the John Edwards' love child story - which was supported by eyewitness and video evidence?I used to think it...
The Logic of Judicial Pay Raises
Posted on January 05, 2009The Washington Post has an embarrassing editorial filled with non-sequiturs and poorly-reasoned arguments. It begins, rather, confidently, that "There is no question that federal judges deserve substantial pay raises." Really, none? I know a lot of smart people who, in good faith, believe that a salary of at least $169,000, with health benefits, a generous pension, and lifetime job security...
Government Bailout to Protect Bernie Madoffs
Posted on January 05, 2009Imagine you're a hedge fund broker about to be exposed as a fraud. Your clients are demanding their money. But you don't have it. You've spent it all, ala Bernie Madoff. What do you do? Like Madoff, you could admit that you're broke, and turn yourself in...
Ultimatum, Human Rationality, and Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
Posted on January 04, 2009People are irrational, as the game Ultimatum proves. In Ultimatum, there are two players and a pot of booty. Each player has total power to make one move, and there is no negotiation. The first player gets to propose (only once) how to split the booty among the two players...
The Greatest Scam in the History of the World?
Posted on January 03, 2009You decide. And why aren't all of these people in prison for fraud? This comment nails it: This is a big part of why the anti-capitalist, anti-Wall-Street screechers are so wrong. Besides the pesky problem of predatory borrowers is the added failure of greed-damning malcontents to distinguish between regulation and criminal justice...
Assholes and Alphas
Posted on January 01, 2009One reason that alpha males and alpha females act like bullies is we let them, and actually subtly encourage them to, get away with it. Studies by Standford's Lara Tiedens and her colleagues [show that] strategic use of anger and blame can help push yourself up the hierarchy and knock others down...
Is Legal Ethics About Protecting Clients?
Posted on December 31, 2008If this post gets noticed, I expect it to be controversial. Some will use emotion or make other bad arguments. But those arguments all fail, when you look at lawyering from the client's perspective. If you were a client, what conduct would harm you most:1) You gave your lawyer a $5,000 retainer...
Last Book Blogging Post for '08
Posted on December 31, 2008Finished, "What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People," which is really good and which I intend to blog later.Other than drafting a complaint and doing a motion to suppress, doing some light reading for the next couple of days: Traffic : why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us) The...
Gerry Spence on Intellectuals
Posted on December 31, 2008My reading list varies between that of a law professor, or graduate student in psychology or philosophy; so I'm not anti-knowledge. Yet I, like Gerry Spence, don't think highly of intellectuals. If you were going to run for political office, would you really care about what John Rawls had to say? If you were going to organize a society and...
Fantastic Financial Advice for 2009
Posted on December 31, 2008This post is great. Note that, unlike every other commentator, Karl Denninger has published his predictions for 2008 - showing which ones were right, and which ones were wrong. How many other "financial advisers" are doing this? Will you continue to listen to people who have cost you money, and who will not hold themselves accountable? Insanity is doing the...
When Should a Lawyer's Conduct be Relevant to His Law License?
Posted on December 31, 2008At Simple Justice, there is an interesting post about a New York lawyer who solicited sex with a 13-year-old girl. To Catch a Predator Style, the lawyer had explicit chats with someone purporting to be 13-years old. He agreed agreed to meet her. Instead, he was greeted by law enforcement...
Your Own Private Aussie in Idaho
Posted on December 30, 2008Regulars know about Amicus, an Australian Shepherd. We've found his clone. In Idaho. If we had the space, I'd be on a plane tomorrow. Alas, we don't. Maybe you do? His name is Buster, and there is more information about him here.
Calorie Restriction and Life Extension
Posted on December 30, 2008Every study done on any species has shown that calorie restriction expands lifespan. A recent study (via David Lat's Facebook) was done on earth worms:Sometimes it?s not what you eat, but when you eat it. At least when it comes to longevity diets. For some time, scientists have known that animals kept on a strict diet live longer than their...
Crime & Section 8
Posted on December 30, 2008You mean when you move dead beats into a neighborhood, rather than being uplifted by the nicer neighborhood, they bring the neighborhood down? Who would have thought?As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution,...
Argentina: The Most Delicious Place in the World?
Posted on December 29, 2008It seems so. (Via Gowder/Wolfson.)
When Socialism Met Capitalism
Posted on December 29, 2008A few days ago I noted one major hole in John Rawls' theory of justice, namely, corruption. This New York Times article offers more evidence of the problem of government redistribution:A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown,...
Irrational About Retirement
Posted on December 27, 2008How many years will it take you to save for retirement? How many decades? If it will take you 40 years to save for retirement, why won't you spend a few hours learning about how to best protect your retirement? Even simpler: Spend just a few minutes reading this article...
Sentencing Madoff
Posted on December 27, 2008Who here has ever had to worry about paying bills? I have. What sort of feeling is that? Imagine we could take that feeling and put it into a pill. We then forced people to take that pill. The difference is that, with our special pill, the pain would never go away...
New York Times Prohibits Criticism of Caroline Kennedy
Posted on December 26, 2008On Dec. 16, 2008, in a post entitled, "Caroline Kennedy Will Confirm Existence of Media Bias," I noted: I eagerly await the mainstream media's treatment of Caroline Kennedy. Given her (non)qualifications, it should be scorched earth treatment, right? If Caroline Kennedy is not burned by the media, then the debate over media bias will be over...
A Skeptic Gets Fleeced
Posted on December 26, 2008A guy who literally wrote the book on gullibility lost a bunch of money by investing with Bernie Madoff. Here is his story.He lists a lot of reasons for why people are gullible. He omits the most-important one: Ignorance of psychopathy and sociopathy...
The Law As Fiction?
Posted on December 26, 2008An economist who did not predict the biggest economic downturn in decades, has this to say of law:At risk of offending my many friends in the legal academy, I think that law is a shockingly phony discipline. Virtually everyone - liberal, conservative, Marxist, libertarian, or whatever - imagines that the law conveniently agrees with what they favor on non-legal grounds...
Sherdog SpyWare?
Posted on December 23, 2008Sherdog.com, a mixed martial arts website owned by Jeff Sherwood, has for years allegedly infected visitors' computers with spyware. Check out this site for more information. I wonder if it's possible to bring a class-action lawsuit against Sherdog? I suppose that damages would be too individualized...
Obama to Decriminalize Marijuana?
Posted on December 23, 2008He's certainly smart enough to understand why decriminalizing marijuana is the only rational and just thing for the government to do. There is hope, indeed.
Read This Post F*ckface
Posted on December 23, 2008We all know, at least at the margins, that there is a right way to phrase requests. Telling your employee to, "Print some copies, monkey," probably isn't the best way to achieve compliance. And, unsurprisingly, there is a science to phraseology. Some phrases are scientifically-proven to be persuasive than others...
Body Language Pop Quiz
Posted on December 22, 2008Can you spot a fake smile? Take this quiz to check yourself. And, yes, I got them all right. How did you do? If you didn't get at least 18 out of 20, there's a quick fix. I'll post it in the comments after people have had a chance to play the game.
I Must Have This
Posted on December 22, 2008Where can I purchase one of these? My Googling skills have failed me. It's called an angled bookshelf.
My Amazon.com Wislist
Posted on December 22, 2008No, I am not looking for freebies. Some of these books are on hold at the library, and I've bought a few already (I need to clean the list up), so purchasing them wouldn't be helpful. But if you check out the blog, you might want to check out what I've been reading, too...
Was Marie Douglas-David Any Different from a Prostitute?
Posted on December 22, 2008Why is being a trophy wife legal, but being a prostitute not legal? Does anyone really believe that this woman married that man for love? While married, he gave her money. She gave him sex and attention. It's an exchange that should be legal. Yet for millions of women who work in the oldest profession, it's not...
Barack Obama as Alpha Male, Part 342
Posted on December 22, 2008Harvard Law? Check. President of the United States? Check. Smoker? Check. (Yes, smoking is cool.) Need more evidence? Well, here you go....
What is Rawls' Answer to Corruption?
Posted on December 22, 2008This column illustrates why I'm a libertarian:It's easy to look at the Blagojevich case and see a failure of personal ethics. It is about character. But it's also about how government itself creates the very conditions for corruption. Think of all the special privileges governors can bestow: subsidies for stadiums, public-works contracts, special taxes and fees, not to mention myriad...
Albanian Proverbs
Posted on December 21, 2008I was going to write a post entitled, "The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom." I thought the phrase cliché, so I entered it in Google. While the phrase is cliché, it did bring me some wisdom. (Because there is wisdom in clichés?)These Albanian Proverbs are amazing...
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
Posted on December 21, 2008We all work and live with other people. But do we really understand other minds, other personalities, other people? It seems not.The people who trusted Bernie Madoff lost billions of dollars. How could he have done such a thing, they ask themselves. He was so charming...
Bailout Protected Bernie Madoffs
Posted on December 20, 2008Had the economic good times remained, Bernie Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme would have never been revealed. Fraud is easy to hide when people aren't worried about their money. A person earning regular 10% annual returns falls asleep.When the stock market fell, people began withdrawing their money from Madoff's fund...
Affirmation Bias Could Cost You Money
Posted on December 17, 2008Who remembers the cries that oil would soon approach $200 a barrel? Today it closed at $40 a barrel:NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped to their lowest in more than four years on Wednesday after OPEC announced a record supply cut that dealers said may fail to fully offset slumping world energy demand...
Influence in Action
Posted on December 17, 2008My phone rings. It's my spouse.Me: Hey, babe.Her: Our mail man just left us a nice card.Me: That was nice.Her: We should get him something.Me: [laughing] You know what he just did, right? He gave us a card hoping we'd give him a tip. It's the recriprocity principle...
Six Things Science Can't Explain
Posted on December 16, 2008Science doesn't have the answer to many questions. While not every New Age idea should be accept simply because science cannot solve some mysteries; it's good to remember that a hand full of sand is just that. Separating bogus claims from true mysteries is wisdom.
Michigan Court of Appeals Feels Budget Crunch
Posted on December 16, 2008The Michigan Court of Appeal's website has announced the following:COURT CLOSURE DATES Due to budgetary constraints, the Court of Appeals will be closed on the following dates pursuant to the order of Chief Judge Henry William Saad. Friday, December 26, 2008Friday, January 2, 2009 These closures are in conjunction with our regularly scheduled holiday closures on Wednesday, December 24, 2008Thursday,...
Bernie Madoff and Social Security
Posted on December 16, 2008Great point made in the comments: "Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi Scheme," Mr. Markopolos, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1999. I have to dispute that with Mr. Markopolos. I'm pretty sure that "Social Security" is a much larger Ponzi scheme, which would make Madoff Securities at least the second largest.
Don't Feeze Me, Bro
Posted on December 16, 2008"Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future." Get frozen today; wake up tomorrow. Sounds great, right? No way.As Arthur Clarke noted, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...
The Fascinating Story of Charles Ponzi
Posted on December 16, 2008Mental Floss Blog has Charles Ponzi's story here.
Caroline Kennedy Will Confirm Existence of Media Bias
Posted on December 16, 2008I eagerly await the mainstream media's treatment of Caroline Kennedy. Given her (non)qualifications, it should be scorched earth treatment, right? If Caroline Kennedy is not burned by the media, then the debate over media bias will be over. People of good faith will no longer be able to disagree about the existence of a pro-liberal bias...
Does Bernie Madoff Have Victims or Accomplices?
Posted on December 15, 2008Everyone acted surprised when Bernie Madoff's hedge fund was exposed as a Ponzi scheme. The evidence now suggests that many of Madoff's supposed victims were really co-conspirators. They weren't victims, they were crooks. When you invest money in a Ponzi scheme, you reap a return on your investment from subsequent investors...
Crime & Federalism Updates Via Kindle
Posted on December 15, 2008That's what I've been told. I don't have a Kindle (yet), so I don't know anything about that. If you have a Kindle and check out C&F, then you should be able to receive updates via Kindle.
Why You Should Send Thank-You Notes
Posted on December 15, 2008A thank you is powerful. My spouse got her first job at a large law firm because of a thank-you note she had written. Not thanking people has cost people jobs and business.I've referred thousands-of-dollars of business to people. When I don't receive a thank-you note or e-mail, I remember...
Legal Ethics
Posted on December 14, 2008Scott Greenfield has a good post on legal ethics. He notes two problems with legal ethics. First, lawyers don't report unethical conduct. Second, bar associations don't punish unethical conduct.Every month the legal newspapers and bar association journals state who has been suspended from practicing law or disbarred...
"Down in the Data Mines"
Posted on December 10, 2008When I was 10 or 11, I saw my dad?s tax return. He made $10,000 that year. There were six of us, but it was better than being on welfare - which we had been on for the three years beforehand. When I was a kid, I used to dig through dumpsters for aluminum cans...
Is Body Language Junk Science?
Posted on December 07, 2008Michael Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society, puts Jo Ellan Demitrius to the test: There is a line in there from social scientist Carol Tavris so-called skeptics often say, and which I loathe. She says of body language research: ?There is no scientific research showing that anybody can tell with 90 to 100% accuracy whether somebody is lying or telling...
Kop Busters Reveals Conservative Hypocrisy
Posted on December 06, 2008It's been shown thousands of times that police lie under oath. That they violate the very Constitution they are sworn to uphold. Conservatives, while proclaiming an allegiance to law and order, never speak out against the lawless police. Why not? Because conservatives do no care about the law...
Barbara Shea v. Connecticut Statewide Grievance Committee
Posted on December 06, 2008Is the Connecticut Statewide Grievance Committee under a legal duty to remove truthful but damaging information about a lawyer from its website? That's the situation in which Greenwich attorney Barbara Shea finds herself, according to a recent article from The Connecticut Law Tribune...
Greedy Investors Lose Millions
Posted on December 05, 2008Do you feel sorry for these "victims"? I don't. Although the story doesn't say; I'm willing to bet that every victim was promised unreasonably generous returns on their investments. If you want to steal from someone, it's pretty easy. Promise them more money than they could reasonably expect to obtain from another investment...
Is Sarah Palin the Turkey?
Posted on December 02, 2008Recently a YouTube video of Sarah Palin surfaced. In it, Palin is seen pardoning a turkey. Behind her, other turkeys are being hacked up. Many have used this video to mock Palin. But who is the real turkey? The real turkeys are you and me. It's silly to the point of frivolous for an elected official to pardon a turkey...
The War on Drugs and the Economic Crisis
Posted on December 01, 2008Someone should write an op-ed stating how much the War on Drugs costs. One could focus on marijuana specifically. I don't feel like writing an op-ed, or even a lengthy blog post. Outline of argument: When in an economic downturn, government should cut costs...
ABA's "The Blawg 100"
Posted on December 01, 2008The American Bar Association has listed what it considers to be the best 100 legal blogs. It's a pretty good list. Check it out.
20,000 Troops Inside the U.S. by 2011
Posted on December 01, 2008The future is now: The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials...
Lois Feldman is False-Rape Claimant Waiting to Happen
Posted on December 01, 2008Lois Feldman got really drunk at an Iowa Hawkeyes game. She then had sex with a man in a public bath room. But it's not her fault:?I don?t know what happened,? Lois Feldman said. ?But I don?t deny that it did happen because obviously there are police reports...
Eliminating Demand for Prostitutes and Child Pornography
Posted on November 29, 2008If you're found with child pornography, you should expect to spend some time in prison - often many years. Judges sentence the convicted to prison even when the convicted did not produce the pornography itself. Possession alone will get you years. Why?Judges and prosecutors insist that if people would stop downloading child porn, then the demand for child porn would...
"Thinking Outside of the Box"
Posted on November 26, 2008If you're using that phrase, you are thinking inside the box. George Orwell's discussion of dead metaphors explains why:Dying metaphors. A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" (e...
The Pain of Independence
Posted on November 26, 2008Does fear alter perception? That issue remains hotly debated, though anyone who has wondered if he was going to make payroll has probably noticed himself, despite reflection, making mistakes he wouldn't ordinarily make. What can be said: Departing from the group is literally painful, and this can be demonstrated using brain imaging...
More Proof of Obama's Alpha Male Status
Posted on November 26, 2008During the election, conservatives were talking about how "manly" John McCain was. Those same people worshiped George Bush's "manliness," too. Give me a break. Anyone who is not a beta can clearly see that Obama is way more alpha than Bush or McCain. I just watched a couple of videos that provide concrete proof...
Obama Reminds World: He is Alpha
Posted on November 26, 2008When asked whether he was appointing too many people from the Clinton Administration, he told reporters: "[U]nderstand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me." Awesome.
"Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Current Financial Crisis"
Posted on November 26, 2008Brilliant. (Via).
Corruption at University of California, Berkeley
Posted on November 25, 2008Public universities remain good stewards of public money:The University of California plans to review hundreds of double-dipping pensioners, many of whom were rehired for their old jobs - occasionally at a higher salary than before they retired.The university's use of retirees drew attention in April after UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison left with a lump sum $2...
Recession Hits Golddiggers
Posted on November 25, 2008Are you going to spend less money on your mistress this Christmas?
Abolish Life Tenue for Increased Pay
Posted on November 25, 2008Even though millions of Americans are out of work, federal judges - who make more than all but 5% of the entire U.S. population - feel that they are underpaid. The President of the American Bar Association, who feels that judges should be richer than all but 1% of the population, notes:"While many Americans are struggling financially today, few of...
Wal-Mart Steals Millions; Pays $3 Fine
Posted on November 25, 2008If I walked out of Wal-Mart with $8.40 in unpaid merchandise, I'd be arrested. When Wal-Mart walks away with $8.40 of my money, no one goes to jail. (Via Kashmir Hill.)Wal-Mart is notorious for calling the police on even the pettiest shoplifters. Many police departments have refused to serve as Wal-Mart's private police force, telling them that they won't respond...
Really Bad Opening Arguments
Posted on November 24, 2008I've read quite a few trial transcripts, and now that some cases have concluded, I can share with you some really bad trial lawyering. Here is an actual quotation from an opening statement in a criminal case:Now, I'm a fighter. I am saying this for the ladies on the jury...
How Not to Persuade
Posted on November 24, 2008Let's say you're representing Lori Drew, a middle-aged woman who manipulated a 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, into killing herself. (Backstory, if you need it.). Do you make this argument to the jury: "Megan dished it out the same way that she got it," [Lori Drew's defense lawyer] said...
Credit Card Debt Securitization
Posted on November 22, 2008Subprime mortgages were converted to mortgage securitization. Anyone who has followed the issue knows that much. (Here's a primer if you need one.) Here is something few have mentioned: Other debt was securitized, too.People would tap into their homes for equity...
On Trusting the "Experts"
Posted on November 22, 2008Thanks to the power of the Internet, we have a record of what so-called experts had to say about the coming depression. The ignorance is amazing: First Amendment be damned: Everyone on that video arguing against Peter Schiff should be prohibited from publicly sharing their opinions for at least 6 months...
Being a Brain-Wise Therapist: A Practical Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology
Posted on November 20, 2008Our memories are all stories. What did you do for summer vacation? That's a story. When you were in school, your teacher may have asked you to write out that story.What was your happiest moment? When was your first kiss? When was your first time? Those are all stories...
Barack Obama as Alpha Male
Posted on November 19, 2008He seems like a really cool dude. He drove a rusted-out car for years; and lived in a crappy apartment, even as a U.S. Senator. Check the interview out. He's also a fitness buff. While many of his ideas are disastrous, his inherent manliness might mitigate the worst of them...
Perception Creates Reality
Posted on November 18, 2008Do you see any faces in the rock formations? Better yet: Can you not see the faces? If we had never seen a face, would we believe that the formation of rocks were faces? (More cool optical illusions here.) Do you see the triangle? Can you not see the triangle? In reality, there is no triangle...
Douchebag Files Lawsuit
Posted on November 18, 2008Did no one tell the man that truth is an absolute defense to defamation?
Malcom Gladwell: There is No Absolute Reality
Posted on November 14, 2008Not really, but sort of. Since taste (which is one aspect of perception) is subjective, is there a "true" Spaghetti Sauce? Retailers who make Spaghetti Sauce fail, since people do not want Spaghetti Sauce. They want what they perceive to be spaghetti sauce...
China Buys Gold as Inflationary Hedge
Posted on November 14, 2008China is betting that the United States Dollar will decline in value: The mainland is seriously considering a plan to diversify more of its massive foreign-exchange reserves into gold, a person familiar with the situation told The Standard. Beijing is considering changing its asset allocations during the financial tsunami in order to build up gold reserves "in a big way,"...
Rules, Exceptionalism, and Favortism
Posted on November 14, 2008The New York Police Department's rule preventing it from hiring convicted felons is a good one. Should they grant an exception for a war vet who has paid his debt back to society with interest? Seems like the answer is an easy, Yes. Given New York's history of corruption, how many men like Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez would be hired under...
My Bailout Letter to Congress
Posted on November 13, 2008Dear Congress:I have student loan debt. I dutifully make my payments each month. This needs to change, at least if you want the American economy to survive.You see, I am sending all of this money to banks. They are not loaning any money to anyone. There's a credit freeze...
Media Cannot Be Trusted On Financial Matters: Tom Krisher and Ken Thomas Are Industry Shills
Posted on November 13, 2008There are now billions of dollars up for grabs. Lobbyists are being paid millions to bring these billions to their clients. Lobbyist feed stories to journalists.Journalists are fools on financial matters, as anyone who has read the stories surely knows...
Second Depression Worse Than The First?
Posted on November 13, 2008So says former Goldman Sachs head:The economy faces a slump deeper than the Great Depression and a growing deficit threatens the credit of the United States itself, former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead, said at the Reuters Global Finance Summit on Wednesday...
Are Economists Witch Doctors?
Posted on November 13, 2008Where is $200 a barrel oil? How many other predictions were false? How many forecasts by "experts" were false? False, false, false!Who here knows anything about cold reading? James Randi describes it here. Cold reading works because people don't remember wrong guesses - only right ones...
Liar's Poker Author on the Market Meltdown
Posted on November 12, 2008Micheal Lewis on his first job on Wall Street, and on Wall Street in general: To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which...
Victim Impact Testimony: What Does A Life Look Like?
Posted on November 11, 2008Do see this moving video (via Law.com; story; see warning, below) presented during the sentencing phase in a death-penalty case. It's a lot like the types of presentations plaintiffs lawyers in wrongful death cases present. These always touch me, though I have seen many...
Will Barack Obama End the Cuba Embargo?
Posted on November 10, 2008Cigars and rum? That's change I can believe in. Know what's hilarious? The law making it illegal for me to purchase Cuban rum and cigars is called the Trading With The Enemy [sic] Act. Because Cuba is our enemy? Can you believe the stupidity? Ordering Cuban cigars is pretty easy, due to the Internet...
"Gang Leader for a Day"
Posted on November 10, 2008Looks fascinating: Honest and entertaining, Columbia University professor Venkatesh vividly recounts his seven years following and befriending a Chicago crack-dealing gang in a fascinating look into the complex world of the Windy City's urban poor. As introduced in Steven D...
The Case of the Missing Two Trillion
Posted on November 10, 2008Where did it go? It really is true that you can steal more money with a briefcase than with a gun.
White Trash Parody Blog
Posted on November 10, 2008This blog is genius. Here are her money-saving tips; more here. And, yes, white trash people do view auto accidents as a "jackpot."
Fantastic Storytelling
Posted on November 09, 2008This guy is good. Notice his intonation. His gestures. His use of pauses. Would you want to listen to this man speak? Would you want to listen to the average lawyer speak? You'd think, then, that the study of narrative would be a high priority for every litigator...
Hedge Fund Managers on the Market
Posted on November 09, 2008People who, unlike economists, actually make their living betting on markets, are not optimistic: One said he was sickened by the crisis, while another admitted shock and embarrassment at the severity of the market slump and the losses his firm suffered...
Economists and Chickenhawks
Posted on November 09, 2008This is sobering.What's interesting is that "experts" in the United States keep saying, "That won't happen here." When you ask them, "Why not?" how many have a good answer? Even with all the benefits of hindsight, today's economists don't even know what caused the Great Depression...
Blacks, Prop 8, and Intellectual Consistency
Posted on November 09, 2008Blacks voted overwhelming in support of Proposition 8. They were the only racial group who, beyond the margin of error, voted in favor of discrimination against gays. What does this mean?Does it mean blacks qua blackness are homophobes? Or does it mean that poor people are religious; black people tend to be poor; therefore blacks tend to be religious...
Best Thing on Television
Posted on November 09, 2008Benny Hinn is the lead emcee for this segment of TBN's Praise-A-Thon. Some people watch sports or sitcoms for amusement. There is nothing better on television. Great one-liners: "I'm going to lay hands on your seed!" "The Gospel is free but the means to deliver the Gospel is expensive!" He's about to start lining people up again, to knock them...
"Tips For Clueless People Who Get Mugged"
Posted on November 09, 2008It's probably better to read this before you get mugged.
The Disappearing Male
Posted on November 08, 2008Scientists are finally starting to realize that xenoestrogens, which I have known about and been avoiding for over a decade, are destroying males. Way to not like political correctness get into the way of science.If you're already a male and would like to continue feeling like one, avoid xenoestrogens like the poisons that they are...
The Onion Asks: What is Reality?
Posted on November 08, 2008Read this article (real). Then watch this video (fake - or is it?): Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
Liberal Racism
Posted on November 08, 2008"Barack Obama's winning the election shows that we aren't racist. We love black people. We love them so much that we hate ourselves! But don't you dare let the black kids invade our nice schools."
Blacks and Mormons; Religion's Track Record
Posted on November 07, 2008Most thinking people, when considering whether or not they should listen to somoene, look to that person's track record. Has that person been right (or wrong) before? How wrong was that person? Was the person wrong about a really big issue?Until very recently, Mormons discriminated against blacks...
Interesting Juxtaposition
Posted on November 05, 2008On the night America elected the first black President, over two-thirds of blacks voted to deny gays equal rights. Will blacks get a free pass on their homophobia? After all, no other racial or ethnic group opposed equal rights for gays. Blacks are alone in their dedication to discrimination...
Is There a Constitutional Right to DNA Testing?
Posted on November 04, 2008The Supreme Court will decide, having granted review in a case I blogged about here. I think there will be two competing themes. First, how does the Court get around Heck v. Humphrey? Under Heck v. Humphrey, a state prisoner may not bring a §1983 action challenging "the fact or duration" of his confinement...
Obama's Change?
Posted on November 04, 2008I keep people hearing that Obama will bring "change." Well, what does that mean? I think that's a worthless abstraction. So let's make it concrete.What, specifically, is Obama going to change? Be specific. For example, "Obama will withdraw the troops from Iraq by Jan...
Government Borrows 550 Billion Dollars
Posted on November 03, 2008How else did we expect to give bonuses to people who ran companies into the ground? Monopoly money.
Childhood Obesity and Child Abuse
Posted on November 03, 2008Someone explain to me why giving your child a chronic and preventable illness isn't child abuse:The number of children who take medication for chronic diseases has jumped dramatically, another troubling sign that many of the youngest Americans are struggling with obesity, doctors say...
Is YouTube Homophobic and Sexist?
Posted on October 31, 2008The below video went viral. It depicts a scantily-clad man (he appears to be over 18, and I'm willing to wager he's gay) dancing to a recent Beyonce hit: "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)." You may watch most YouTube videos without having to log into YouTube...
Obama: Selfishness a Virture (Sometimes)
Posted on October 31, 2008Barack Obama, taking heat for his "spread the wealth around" comment, had this this say:"The point is, though, that -- and it?s not just charity, it?s not just that I want to help the middle class and working people who are trying to get in the middle class -- it?s that when we actually make sure that everybody?s got a...
Bailout Money Going to Wall Street Bonuses
Posted on October 30, 2008You know the $125 billion that our leaders gave Wall Street to unfreeze credit markets? $108 billion of that is being held for employee bonuses. Really. Now, not everyone on Wall Street caused the meltdown. It was a few high-placed executives (people like our current Treasury Secretary)...
Democrats Coming After Your Retirement Accounts
Posted on October 29, 2008I realize that Social Security isn't going to be there for me when I retire; and that my Social Security payments are nothing but an additional income tax. I realize that there is literally no money in the Social Security Trust. Literally. Fine. While the Social Security scheme is crooked and corrupt, I have been able to tolerate it for...
Convert Your IRA to a Roth IRA
Posted on October 29, 2008Many of you probably make too much money to do this. Those who don't, though, should give it serious consideration.
Congress' Pension Plan
Posted on October 29, 2008Some members of Congress (mostly Democrats) have decided that I shouldn't have a 401(k), but instead should rely on Social Security and an new "guaranteed" retirement account. Should we take them seriously in light of their benefits package? Or should we resist the scoundrels' efforts to ruin our retirements? It is increasing becoming a contest of us against them...
Is Legal Writing Getting Worse?
Posted on October 28, 2008For as long as I can remember, people have talked about how bad legal writing is. People are now saying that it's getting worse. (More.) But when was it ever good?Every law student is forced to read old judicial opinions. Those are terrible cases to read...
The Ominous Parallels
Posted on October 28, 2008Today the Dow was up 10%. Brokers and bankers and government officials have been telling us that now is the time to buy. What were people saying about the market in 1929?Wave of Buying Sweeps Over Market as Stocks Swing Upward Radio Flashes High; General Motors and Steels Soar By Laurence Stern The atmosphere of doubt and caution which Wall...
Nouriel Roubini; Fooled by Randomness; Economists; Epistemic Humility
Posted on October 27, 2008Nouriel Roubini is an economist famous for predicting the current market downturn. Because of his accurate predictions, everyone is swinging from his sack. Should we, though?There are thousands of economists in this country. Many of them have made predictions...
Obama on Warren Court: "It wasn't that radical."
Posted on October 27, 2008Yes, Barack Obama is liberal. Super liberal. Ideologically, he's a socialist. If that's your thing, that's your right. Believe what you will. But please stop lying about the man. OK? Also, we're told that opposing abortion is outside of the "mainstream...
Shame on Elie Mystal
Posted on October 23, 2008I have a sense of humor. I am not politically correct. That said, some jokes are off the table. Like "jokes" about developmentally-disabled people. Even if they were funny (they aren't), such "jokes" are wrong. Apparently Elie Mystal, a leftist who is always claiming that blacks gets discriminated against, doesn't care about the discrimination other groups face:
Baby Boomers and the Market Meltdown
Posted on October 22, 2008The next time some "Baby Boomer" goes on about supposed Gen-Y slackers, have them riddle you this: Generalizations about the 79 million people born between 1946 and 1964 are overdone and easy to debunk. Boomers went to Woodstock, voted for George McGovern and, so the thinking goes, cared deeply about the Rolling Stones...
Inverse of the Shoe Shine Boy Stock Tip?
Posted on October 22, 2008Some rich guy supposedly pulled out of the stock market just before the Great Crash. How did he know to pull out? A shoe shine boy gave him a stock tip. The rich guy thought, "If shoe shine boys are in the market, then we're in a bubble that's about to burst...
The Guardian Claims McCain Wasn't Tortured
Posted on October 20, 2008And I thought American media was bad; or that the Swift Board crowd and chickehawks were scum. This takes scumminess to a whole other level.
Countrywide Paid off Senator Christopher Dodd
Posted on October 20, 2008Why isn't the mainstream media all over this story?
Stimulus Package to Involve Credit Issuance?
Posted on October 20, 2008In a post explaining why the economy is down (consumer spending has been limited because people can't play shell games with their credit card balances and home-equity loans), I noted one possible solution: Maybe give everyone consumer credit - enough to stimulate the economy, but not enough to lead to excessive inflation...
What Makes This Recession Different
Posted on October 20, 2008Here is some fearful data that relates to this previous post about home-equity loans.
Why Libertarians Should Vote for Liberals
Posted on October 20, 2008This was exactly my thinking before the market meltdown: No libertarian can hope to see the party of torture, denials of habeas corpus, indefinite detention without trial, and boundless unsupervised executive power returned to office. If our core root liberalism, if our roots in the struggles of common law against absolutist king or in John Locke or in Montesquieu or...
Deregulation Caused the Market Meltdown?
Posted on October 19, 2008Was it deregulation, or too much regulation, that caused the market meltdown? Best line: "Are the politicians saying, 'Sorry, we made a mistake?' No. Now they tell us government must do more."
Going Out of Business
Posted on October 19, 2008It's happening.... After 59 years in business, the Mervyns department-store chain called it quits Friday -- promising a huge going-out-of-business sale just in time for the holidays. And there is plenty of competition for a close-out Christmas. Linens 'n Things Inc...
Chuck Schumer's Cronies Paid Him to Cause Bank Run on IndyMac
Posted on October 19, 2008You know how Senator Charles Schumer is one of the guys who are going to bail us out of this economic crisis? Well, maybe you should read this before voting for Barack Obama. So Obama was paid off by Fannie and Freddie. Barney Frank was sleeping with a high-level executive at Fannie Mae; he also fought John McCain's efforts to...
Hedge Fund Manager's "I Quit" Letter
Posted on October 17, 2008A hedge fund manager who quit his job sent out the following insightful letter: Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding...
Paulson to Bail Out Hedge Funds?
Posted on October 16, 2008The bailout keeps getting better:In a separate interview on Bloomberg television, Paulson refused to rule out the possibility that some of the $700 billion program could be used to shore up giant hedge funds, largely unregulated pools of investments, or insurance companies...
Dow Drops 733 Points; Consumer Spending Down
Posted on October 15, 2008People are starting to realize that it's not an a bank credit freeze that has halted the economy. It's consumer spending, stupid: Despair over the economy sent Wall Street plunging again Wednesday, propelling the Dow Jones industrials down 733 points to their second-largest point loss ever...
Stock Market Remains Unsound; No More Paying Off Credit Cards With Home Equity Loans
Posted on October 15, 2008People aren't buying anything, because they don't have credit. Thus, retail sales are down, along with the Dow (story):Volatility battered Wall Street again Wednesday after a disappointing retail sales report reminded investors that country is either in a recession or moving toward one...
Paulson Plan Guarantees Nothing
Posted on October 15, 2008You know those hundreds-of-billions we just gave to rich Wall Street bankers? The money that Main Street banks didn't want or or need? Well, it didn't actually buy us anything: "The truth of the matter is, they can't put a gun to their head and say you have to lend this money," said Charles Horn, a former official at the...
Pelosi Seeks to Spend 300 Billion More; Record Federal Deficit
Posted on October 15, 2008Once you let the camel's nose under the tent, you'll soon find camel shit on your cot: Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are drawing up plans to toughen oversight of the financial industry and considering introducing another economic-stimulus package in the wake of the government's decision to buy stakes in major U...
More Proof that Paulson is a Crook
Posted on October 15, 2008Wells Fargo did not want to be, and did not need to be, bailed out. Main Street banks do not need to be bailed out (story): Community banking executives around the country responded with anger yesterday to the Bush administration's strategy of investing $250 billion in financial firms, saying they don't need the money, resent the intrusion and feel it's...
Wells Fargo Did Not Want Bailed Out
Posted on October 15, 2008The Wall Street Journal is reporting: ?It was Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Treasury headquarters. Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke had called one of the most important gatherings of bankers in American history. For an hour, the nine executives drank coffee and water and listened to the two men paint a dire portrait of the U...
Why I'm Not in the Army
Posted on October 14, 2008If you're in the Army, you must regularly deal with stupidity like this: WASHINGTON - More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let an Iraqi puppy come home with a Minnesota soldier, who fears that "Ratchet" could be killed if left behind...
Liberal Tolerance?
Posted on October 13, 2008You'd need to go to a KKK rally or Westboro Baptist Church sermon to find this much hate:
Save 30% at eBay with Live Search CashBack
Posted on October 13, 2008Even with all the doom-and-gloom, there is some good news. You can save some serious cash. You can save up to 30% on certain products on eBay. You must use the Buy-It-Now Feature, and pay with PayPal. Here's how it works: Go to www.live.com. That is Microsoft's search engine...
GM to Restrict Car Loans to Those with Credit Score of 700 or Above
Posted on October 13, 2008Reports of the death of the credit freeze have been greatly exaggerated:PRESS RELEASE: GMAC Financial Services Statement on Automotive Finance Purchase Policy DETROIT, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- GMAC Financial Services today implemented a more conservative purchase policy for consumer auto financing in the U...
Why Nationalizing Banks is a Terrible Idea
Posted on October 12, 2008The United States government is discussing nationalizing banks. (Story here.) How can this be a good idea. Consider the following scenarios: Scenario 1. The government nationalizes banks. It appoints an oversight board, comprised of members of Congress, people appointed by members of Congress...
Is the Era of Easy Credit Over?
Posted on October 12, 2008Yahoo! Finance reports on the chilly car-credit market here. They ask if the era of easy credit is over forever. Who can say? It's really a nonsensical question to ask. If we go into a full scale depression, what will the economy look like in five years? Or ten years? What happens when irresponsible and entitled Baby Boomers who have...
John McCain Tried to Reform Fannie-Freddie (Again)
Posted on October 11, 2008The evidence keeps coming in. John McCain realized that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were going to lead to a market meltdown. Here is a letter he wrote in 2006. While McCain was trying to save America from Fannie and Freddie, Barack Obama was on Fannie and Freddie's payroll...
Income Taxes Will Increase Under Obama or McCain
Posted on October 10, 2008I got good news, and I got bad news. If you keep your job (good news, right?), you'll pay higher taxes. Details here.
Cook County Sheriff Refuses to Serve Eviction Notices
Posted on October 09, 2008The Cook County Sheriff said that he will no longer serve eviction notices (story): CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said Wednesday he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures...
Wiretap Program Nabs Phone Sex
Posted on October 09, 2008Remember the wiretap program that was essential for national security? Well, here's the "intel" the program has gathered.
Minorities, Fannie-Freddie, and the Market Meltdown
Posted on October 09, 2008Interesting turn of events. Liberals have said (correctly, I think) that you can't blame minorities for the subprime market meltdown. That is true. Who is the blame? That's easy, really. Fannie, Freddie, and Wall Street. So here's the interesting turn of events...
Brenda Morris Commits More Prosecutorial Misconduct in Stevens Trial
Posted on October 09, 2008Last week it was reported that prosecutor Brenda Morris, in violation of law, withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. She has continued behaving lawlessly: Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out two big pieces of evi