Book Review: Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight...
If this book were human, it would have a tripartite personality, not unlike the "United States of Tara" or "Cybil".Karl Rove's Courage and Consequence is part personal, political, and polemical. Each...
View ArticleBook Review: War (2010) by Sebastian Junger.
My dad and I attended some basketball games at the university he taught at. One season, the school's team featured a player who was listed in excess of 7'5". He looked good on paper or walking through...
View ArticleBook Review: No One Would Listen (2010) by Harry Markopolos.
What would morally outrage you more: a person robbing a bank or a security guard (who was tipped off) slumbering through it?As one flows from nefarious intent and the other from incompetence or...
View ArticleBook Review: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (2010) by Michael Lewis.
Describing one of his subjects--a gentleman who foretold the credit-default swap debacle--author Michael Lewis wrote, in The Big Short, that he was one who spoke in terms of stories instead of...
View ArticleStreet Scene.
I happened upon a street evangelism scene at the beach the other day.Having been required to do this exercise for a college class (and otherwise), I was especially curious to observe the technique. An...
View ArticlePleading the Fifth.
In constitutional law class this week we were discussing the incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states. This includes the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Consequently, I had...
View ArticleAny Question?, Part I.
I argued in an appellate court last week.My client was the appellant, so I went first. At the conclusion of my sub-five minute presentation, I inquired if the panel had any question.None. At this...
View ArticleAny Question?, Part II.
As predicted in Part I, the court of appeal issued its published decision in my client's [the appellant] favor. The appellate opinion reversed the trial court by a 3-0 vote.The case involved two...
View ArticleBook Review: Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (2010).
Despite "produc[ing] a thousand words a printable copy every day and sometimes more" (p. 350), Christopher Hitchens appears a reluctant writer of memoir.He admits his reluctance upfront: "When I first...
View ArticleAny Question, Part III.
Here are excerpts from my appellate reply brief. One can see from "Any Question, Part II" (see December 16, 2010 post below), the court of appeal drew from the reasonable intepretation theme and relied...
View ArticleYear in Review, 2010.
Books Read (in no particular order)1. The Case for God (2009) by Karen Armstrong (reviewed 1/10/10);2. In-N-Out Burger: A Behind the Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain that Breaks All the Rules by...
View ArticleYear in Review, 2011.
Books Read (in no particular order)1. Fate, Time and Language: An Essay on Free Will (2011) by David Foster Wallace.2. Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think...
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Year in Review, 2012.
Books Read (in no particular order)1. Losing It: In Which an Aging Professor Laments... (2011) by William Ian Miller2. Inside Scientology (2011) by Janet Reitman3. The New New Rules (2011) by Bill...
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Year in Review, 2013.
Books Read (in order read)1. Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens (2011)2. Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony by Jeff Ashton with Lisa Pulitzer (2011)3. Free Will by Sam Harris (2012)4....
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Year in Review, 2014.
Books Read (in order read)1. Catching the Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort (2009)2. You Herd Me! I'll Say It If No One Else Will by Colin Cowherd (2013)3. I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with...
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Year in Review, 2015.
Books Read (in order read)1. An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside the Heart of the Right-Wing Media by Joe Muto (2013)2. The Lost Painting: The Quest For a Caravaggio...
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Year In Review, 2016
Books Read (In Order Read)1. Raw: My 100% Grade-A, Unfiltered, Inside Look at Sports by Colin Cowherd (2015)2. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura...
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Year In Review, 2017.
Books Read (in order)1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. (2007 rev ed.)2. A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston (2016)3. The Small Big: Small Changes That Spark Big...
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Year In Review, 2018.
Books Read (in order)1. A Criminal Defense by William L. Myers, Jr. (2017)2. A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape by Masaji Ishikawa (2017) 3. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by...
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Year In Review, 2019.
Books Read (in order read)1. The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture by David Mamet (2011) [cd unabridged]2. America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges (2018)3. Bright-Sided: How...
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Year in Review, 2020.
Books Read (in order read)1. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow (2019)2. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949) [cd unabridged]3. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (2019)4. The War of Art:...
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Year In Review, 2021.
Books Read (in order read)1. Live Not By Lies by Rob Dreher (2020)2. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (2018) by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin3. The Professor and...
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Year In Review, 2022.
Books Read (in order read)1. The Brethren by John Grisham (2000)2. The Premonition by Michael Lewis (2021)3. Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill with...
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Year In Review, 2023.
Books Read (in order read)1. Freezing Order by Bill Browder (2022)2. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (2005) [cd unabridged]3....
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Year In Review, 2024.
Books Read (in order read)1. Killing Floor by Lee Child (1997) [cd unabridged]2. The Wager by David Grann (2023)3. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann...
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