Forgetting Lawyer's Most Fundamental Role

Can he be brought up on an ethics violation for conduct detrimental to the administration of justice? Oh, it looks like he's not a lawyer, so, no.

US defense official shocked by law firms defending Guantanamo detainees

Sigh.

Fafblog's swansong entry is so apropos: Now They Hate Us With Our Freedom!

Fear and Tactics

The Ideological Animal

Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects' childhood personalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arresting patterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers and were rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, and resilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by their teachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blocks hypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of tradition and authority, and they found it in conservative politics.

So, I think this is pretty clear why the politics and tactics of fear work so well on conservatives. They're already afraid.

I know how difficult it is to deal with change. No one likes change. Change is scary. Do you think I like change? Of course not. I'm a primate like everyone. So what makes me different from a conservative? I think it may be this: I believe in my ability to survive change. I'm a primate with a superiority complex.

And I have no reason to trust a man who lies to take care of me. You know who I'm talking about.

Great Discussion

On authoritarianism and Jose Padilla here.

One-Liner for Law

Kim at Cinnamon Swirl challenged a few of us recently to come up with a one-sentence summary of our fields. What would we write down for posterity?

Well, I've been thinking about it since (actually, I've been thinking about what I came up with since before she suggested this), but my problem was coming up with something that wasn't too pithy. It's great to say "law isn't justice" or "laws are made by people", but is that meaningful for a post-apocalyptic society that's lost all knowledge of the legal field? Best to unpack it a little more.

Here's what I arrived at:

Laws are made by imperfect people in the pursuit of justice and harmonious relationships amongst themselves; laws are not justice, but the tools by which we try to achieve such.

Or, maybe "laws are imperfect, one-size-fits-all tools used to create resolutions to unique disputes between individuals; leave wiggle room when making a law, you'll need it to find justice."

Story of our generation

Japanese Mark Coming-of-Age Day

Japan is facing a labour shortage and a pensions shortfall. This is the year that millions of the country's baby boomers start to retire.

Many of them who have had jobs for life will be looking forward to a relatively comfortable retirement.

The generation who have just entered adulthood will probably find life is much harder.