Welcome to our new place. It’s not quite finished yet, but most of the important stuff is here. Pull up a pew, grab a beer (or three) and join in the conversation.
Two of us are lawyers and long-time bloggers, while one of us is a journalist and cartoonist. We came together in May, 2008 with a plan to do something a bit interesting on the writing front, and to try out some new ideas. Feel free to wander around and enjoy what we’ve got on offer.
Do be aware that there are three of us, and that we don’t always agree. This blog is many things, but an echo chamber it ain’t.
skepticlawyer is Helen Dale
I’ve just completed the BCL at Oxford University, with an emphasis on jurisprudence (although my coursework interests were all over the place – everything from evidence to criminology to constitutional law). I’m now embarking on the MPhil, which involves a thesis and journal publications.
I started my blogging life at Thoughts on Freedom, the Australian Libertarian Society blog, and then wrote for Catallaxy, one of Australia’s bigger political blogs. I’ve also had a hand in preparing Missing Link over at Club Troppo. Despite all sorts of rash promises, I’ve only ever blogged at large group blogs where other people (thanks to Jason Soon and Sukrit Sabhlok) have had to do all the difficult stuff.
As should be reasonably obvious, politically I’m a classical liberal/libertarian. Put crudely, this means ‘economically right-wing, socially left wing’, although there’s a bit more to it than that.
I’ve also written a novel (for which I won the Miles Franklin Award, eons ago) and done opinion-editorial hackwork, but these days lawyering takes up most of my time.
Legal Eagle
I am a lawyer, sometime academic and PhD student. I live in Melbourne, Australia.
I’m passionate about the law (nerdy but true). I think that the resulting trust can be a beautiful thing. I am a wife and a mother of a daughter and a son. I like to draw and create art in my spare time.
I try to keep an open mind and I read blogs with many different viewpoints. I have included links to many types of blog (legal “blawgs”, personal blogs, political blogs of all stripes).
I used to have my own blog (The Legal Soapbox) which had a broadly centre-left approach, although I prefer to think that I am my “very own wing” rather than “left wing” or “right wing” (you can read about what this means here). Consequently, my posts have been cited by other blogs of many different political persuasions.
Like skepticlawyer, I’ve also had a hand in Club Troppo’s Missing Link, although I’ve always run my own blogs in my own way.
DeusExMacintosh
I used to write mainly for computer magazines (though there was also a memorable six months spent on a paranormal magazine with Uri Geller) until I became disabled. Since then I’ve been kept pretty busy fighting through the morass that is the benefits system, managing a neurological disability and looking after my Assistance Dog. At one stage of the process I accidentally became a Disability Equality Trainer.
My blogging is limited to Skepticlawyer where I photoshop our weekly satirical cartoons – an homage to Private Eye – though you’ll find me commenting over at Hoyden About Town reasonably regularly (they just don’t post enough LOLdogs). I am plotting my return to university.
Personal interests include British politics/constitutional issues, baroque music, business and/or finance and probably religion as I’m a Quaker.
I couldn’t say where I fall on the political spectrum. I fall on a lot of things.
Having grown up in Australia, I now live in Edinburgh, Scotland and like 80% of the British population am working on a novel.
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We also host various guest posters on stuff that takes our interest. This seems to be mainly trading and economics at the moment, but is always open to change.