Ipso Facto – Musings and more

Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Cantor: Please stop pretending that you speak for me, and the approximately half of the citizenry who vehemently disagree with you. Both of you, and especially Mr. Boehner, have developed the fiction of prefacing a statement of your beliefs with the phrases, “The American people want [or don't want],” [...]

Mr. President: Please do not blink now. The Congressional Republicans are playing a potentially cataclysmic game of chicken. They can taste the victory of imposing fundamental, ideological change on what this country stands for, in the guise of concern for a deficit, one they built in the past 12 years. Please do not give into [...]

I did not send the tweet. I broke no law. It really isn’t anyone’s business whether that picture is of me, since I did not send the tweet and I broke no law. [Updated 06/07] Well, he might get away with “I broke no law,” though the ethics committee investigation will tell us more about [...]

Be forewarned that further down in this post I am likely to get at least a little maudlin.  Late spring for academic law librarians typically features two types of events.  First, commencement ceremonies for the graduating students at our institutions, and secondly, making plans to attend one or more of the educational conferences held during [...]

Bye-bye to the first decade of the 21st century. Surprisingly, I don’t have much to say about the passing of 2010. The year had a few highlights, but many more low points, in public life. You can read about them at any news site of your choice. I have some hope for a better 2011, [...]

Caren J. Biberman, who recently argued that the 50/50 split of special interest section (SIS) dues in the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) gives too big a share to the association, and that letting the board of directors raise said dues is undemocratic, has now posted a petition form for those who agree with [...]

If members of the press would end their camp-outs at the church headed by Rev. Terry Jones, it might help the rest of us convey the message that we are prepared to ignore his wacky ideas and move on with our lives.  It would only remove one of his motivations, as he appears to be [...]

I’ve been a technogeek most of my life – pretty much since I pushed a touch-tone phone pad at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.  In this digital age of the iPad, Netflix, and other new consumer technologies, it is clear that technology has changed much of what we do each day.  There are arguments [...]

The flare-up over Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s gratuitous use of the N-word during a call on her radio show last week provided a brief distraction from the overboard media coverage and political controversy over the proposed Islamic center in south Manhattan.  By now the circumstances of the call that led to her use of the word [...]

Yesterday’s decision on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 will engender plenty of commentary from those on both sides of the issue.  I’ll add my own thoughts here, though I harbor no illusions that I will change anyone’s opinion.  I merely want to state my own and also my concerns about the political fallout should [...]