It will not surprise you, Gentle Reader, to learn that quite a lot of people think I’m “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” Neither will it surprise you to hear that that doesn’t bother me. I’m a retired engineer. Most non-engineers consider my sort to be problematic company. Their reasons are fairly consistent. …
Category: justice
Dec 26 2024
The X Travesty
679 Mount Sinai – Coram Road Mount Sinai, NY 11766 December 26, 2024 X Corp. 865 FM 1209 Building 2 Bastrop, TX 78602 Dear Sirs and Mesdames: On December 23 of this year, you suspended my fully paid-for Premium-Plus X account. The email announcing that suspension gave as the reason “Inauthentic accounts.” Yet I …
Dec 25 2024
A Christmas Present I’d Like To Return
X has done it to me again: Twice in less than a month – and whatever their “careful review” might consist of, if the above is literal, then I’m out over $180 for the Premium-Plus access I’ve already paid for. What’s their reason for this bit of larceny? And it’s apparently …
Nov 03 2024
Awakenings
Yes, I’ve used that title before. Twice, in fact. But third time’s the charm, I hope. A word of warning, Gentle Reader. This one will get rough. Moreover, you may not sense it coming. But when it does, you’ll be in no doubt of it. If you can stand to have every …
Sep 22 2024
Still Think The U.N. Is A Force For Good?
Ask an Israeli Jew: (Sep. 18, 2024 / JNS) Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Wednesday. The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to …
Aug 27 2024
“It’s Not Fair!”
If you’ve ever had responsibility for preschool children, you’ve heard that phrase. Likely you heard it enunciated in one of those inimitable juvenile shrieks that no adult throat can reproduce. It’s the juvenile plaint. Nothing else comes close. Fairness, of course, is one of those words. There are as many definitions as there …
Aug 08 2024
Crime, Punishment, And Lawsuits
About a year and a half ago, there was an assault on a teacher’s aide in a Florida high school. You may have heard about it. The teacher’s aide, Joan Naydich, is a middle-aged, middle-size white woman. The attacker, Brendan Depa, is a giant teenager: 6 feet 6 inches tall, 270 pounds worth of …
Mar 15 2024
The Easiest Sin
Happy Ides of March, Gentle Reader! If you enjoyed your Pi Day – we did – then perhaps you’ll also enjoy this commemoration of the day, in 44 B.C., when a group of civic-minded patricians decided to take an aspiring dictator “off the ballot” in a rather final and unappealable way. It’s a recipe …
Mar 02 2024
This Happened In A “Public” High School
First, a brief excursion into stupidity from a nominally intelligent person: Don’t get me wrong: vigilantism in any form is wrong… Show me the difference – moral or practical – between vigilantism and the State’s version of “justice.” What palm of morality goes with a badge or an office in a “public” …
Feb 07 2024
Evil: A Little Something To Lighten The Mood
[“Heavy” topics can be usefully leavened with humor, if the humorous material is relevant. Herewith, a piece I wrote back in 2010, about a distant culture with a…peculiar view of criminal self-indulgence. — FWP] The Scourge: A Report From Epsilon Eridani III Those boys over at NASA have not been idle. Oh, no, …
Dec 11 2023
Adverse Possession And Easements
This story out of England, which from the headline might appear an unconscionable travesty of justice, reveals facets that raise uncomfortable questions: The property originally belonged to Doris Curtis, who died in the 1980s and left her house to her son, Colin. Mr. Curtis moved out in 1996 to live in another inherited …
Dec 06 2023
A Growing Hunger
“If the law is too mild, private vengeance comes in.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson No, I’m not entirely well, but a plaintive comment by a regular Gentle Reader that he was experiencing “Porretto withdrawal” has – temporarily, at least – restored enough of my energy and determination to write something substantial for him…and …
Oct 04 2023
Is This A Dictator In A Judge’s Robes?
This supposed jurist has a unique belief about his judicial powers: In one clip circulating on the Internet, New York District Judge Arthur Engoron told college students that he has a tool for juries who get it wrong as he sees it. He’s the tool, but says the tool is “judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” …
Sep 11 2023
Sovereign Immunity
[The following piece first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 on June 14, 2016. And before you ask: No, I haven’t been to the kzinti homeworld since then. – FWP] Some years ago, a friend of mine who sought to pursue an action against his township for mistakenly demolishing his house was told, in …
Jun 30 2023
The Totalitarians And The State Of Fear
My acquaintance with the works of the late Michael Crichton isn’t deep. However, I have read what many consider to be his best novel, State of Fear, and was greatly impressed by his insight into the desires and methods of contemporary power-seekers. A fearful populace, that shrinks from terrors real and imagined, is …
Jun 28 2023
Assertions Are Not Evidence
I have a grueling day before me, so I must dash off a quickie and bid my Gentle Readers a good day. However, we do have a newsworthy story before us. Concerning the death of accused teen-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Justice Department Inspector-general Michael Horowitz has issued a “report.” It does nothing to …
Jun 22 2023
Powerful Or Powerless?
Anyone who follows the storms of political commentary will be aware that the Left is angry that the Supreme Court of the United States is currently moderately conservative. (I make it roughly 5.33 conservatives to 3.67 left-liberals, as Chief Justice John Roberts has proved that he cannot be trusted.) This morning, John Hinderaker comments …
Jun 22 2023
The Hunter Biden Saga
Yes, it’s been going on for quite a while now. Many are asking whether it’s genuinely important or one of the Establishment’s diversions. I’m no longer sure. But of this I am certain: developments are telling us in the plainest possible manner that the American ideal of classlessness has been overthrown. There is now …
May 08 2023
Owing To The January 6 Trials…
…and much else, including such events as the death of black thug Jordan Neely at the hands of a public-spirited Marine veteran, the legal principle – yes, Gentle Reader, it is a principle, not just some libertarian’s half-baked notion – of jury nullification has re-entered the national discourse. It’s actually rather strange that …
Apr 29 2023
Forms Of Community Service
I found this gem at Kenny “Wirecutter” Lane’s site: [He] had a video rental store, that kept getting broken into, so he slept there for a couple nights. After about a week, someone broke in, a couple of 17 or 18 year olds. The story he told was that one of them grabbed …
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