As we watch poor old Uncle Sam decline into full-blown dementia, Canadians understand that things in the neighbourhood are going to get ugly. Our once trusted friend has gone weird on us. At first we may even have been a bit frightened, but now we’ve got our elbows up and are ready to take the…
Recently I gave a talk to a high school law class, and of course the inevitable question came up, “How can you defend someone who you know is guilty?” That’s actually a wonderful and important question, because it opens a window into the heart and soul of our criminal justice system. In fact, it goes…
Lawyers will tell you that there are no facts until a judge says so. Until then, all you have is evidence which, if accepted as valid, becomes the foundation for the court’s “findings of fact”. Clients often are shocked when they tell you their story and you keep pushing back, asking for support, dates, times,…
Our English language may not be the craziest in the world, but it must surely be in the running. Take, for example, the word “close”. If you mean “to shut”, as in “close the door”, the word rhymes with “those”. But if you mean “nearly”, as in “close to home”, the word rhymes with “dose”….
Just a little while ago I spent a precious afternoon with an old friend, a friend from so far back that he knows stuff about me that nobody else knows, stuff I’d just as soon he kept to himself. You understand – you were young and foolish, once. Decades ago our ways parted geographically and…
Some of us are still trying to parse exactly how Donald Trump managed to get re-elected, and still can’t come to grips with the fact that the President of the United States of America is not normal, nor are his congressional and senate supporters normal. Think these people are playing politics in the usual fashion?…
“Money is what money does.” This economic fundamental explains how trillions of dollars can disappear overnight, just by simply stopping “doing”. Many of us think that somehow our governments have piles of gold equivalent to the paper notes in circulation, but there’s not a chance. There’s not enough gold on earth to back the world’s…
In my early days of legal practice, long before I had figured out anything, I was consulted by a client who wanted to sue nearly everybody in the world for suffering fibromalgeria. I’ll call her Abigail. Now, Abigail was a rather sympathetic soul, and my heart went out to her. She might have been pretty…
As everyone knows, America’s Republicans are striving to find ways to reduce spending so as to dish out yet more tax savings for the very rich. Those tax savings, in turn, will make their country stronger and wealthier, they say, because of the “trickle down effect”. This assumes that what trickles down from the outhouses…
There’s not a lot of good press about the Donald’s daddy. Apparently he was not a nice man, nor was he a very good father. That’s not to say he didn’t mean well for his children. But in raising kids, as in life, it’s not the intention that matters, it’s what you actually do. And…