One of the reasons I really liked working at the Supreme Court was that it was a bastion of intelligent eccentricity. Many of the judges were unusual people, but they were also intelligent, compassionate people. I know that at least some judges were aware of their eccentricity. One judge (now retired) came in to my [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Law, Society
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Tagged Department of Justice, depression, eccentricity, eccentrics, fairness, Frank Vincent, health, human resources, job interviews, judges, judiciary, magistrates, mental health, petty tyrants, Rob Hulls, role plays, Supreme Court of Victoria, temperamentally unsuited, Victoria
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We’re not in the habit of handling shout-outs on behalf of third parties, but we happen to think that this one is worthwhile and serious, and it wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t engaged in considerable vetting before hand (one reason why skepticlawyer in particular hasn’t been around much lately, quite apart from my encounter [...]
Legal Eagle’s post on screaming children and deafened passengers on a long-haul flight put me in mind of an interesting (offline) conversation I had with Lorenzo a month or so ago. On LE’s post, I made this comment: I do think we have taken social disapproval of parents disciplining their children in public too far, [...]
Henry Kissinger once said of Saddam that ‘we knew he was a son of a bitch, but we thought he was our son of a bitch’. I think it’s fair to say that Saddam ruled his country with spectacular nastiness, but that he also did enough to garner the support of a significant chunk of [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Economics, Law, Popular culture, Religion, scotland
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Tagged Anthony Shaffer, Charter Cities, Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Henry Kissinger, Highland Clearances, Paul Romer, Robin Hardy, Saddam, The Wicker Man, Tradition
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Bettina Arndt wrote a piece in the SMH the other day which Paul Norton at LP has described as a “Bondi cigar“, and I must say I’m inclined to agree with Paul’s assessment. Jason Soon alerted me to the piece in the first place, and I must say I’ve stolen his heading for my post [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Children, Feminism, Law, Marriage, Motherhood, Politics, Society
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Tagged Australian politics, Australian Prime Minister, Bettina Arndt, Children, choice, Cohabitation, de facto marriage, Divorce, family law, Feminism, Julia Gillard, Marriage, Motherhood, prime minister, relationships, sexism
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Heath Gibson reminded me in a post this morning that we have a renewed opportunity to persuade the Labor party to drop its ridiculous bid to impose net censorship. As he notes, because of the change in leadership, the party can now back away from previous policies without losing so much face (as it has [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Australian internet filter, Internet, Law, Personal liberty, Society, Technology
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Tagged Australian internet filter, freedom of speech, internet filter, Julia Gillard, Law, policy, psychology, Technology
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This is going to be a longer and much sharper post than I had originally intended. What first came to mind was an open letter to the new Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, pointing out a simple £50 million cost saving to the welfare bill, but then yesterday the new coalition government handed [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Britain, Economics, Law, Personal, Politics, Society, Taxation
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Tagged budget 2010, coalition, conservative party, deficit, disability, disability living allowance, DLA, employment support allowance, Iain Duncan Smith, incapacity benefit, welfare
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The new independent fiscal watchdog has downgraded the economic growth projections for the UK economy. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts the economy will expand 2.6% in 2011, down from the 3% to 3.5% estimate given in Labour’s last Budget. The lower figure will likely increase the impetus of the coalition government to cut [...]
The appointment of judges in the common law adversarial system is always a controversial issue. There is a tendency for governments to choose appointments who are perceived as sympathetic to their political cause. This tendency is not confined to the more progressive governments, either, despite the fact that howls of “tokenism” seem to be louder [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Academia, Law, Politics, Society
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Tagged appointment of judges, Bernard Teague, Clarence Thomas, confirmation hearing, courts, Elena Kagan, Ian Callinan, judges, judiciary, Marcia Neave, partisan appointments, SCOTUS, sonia sotomayor, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Victoria, United States, Victorian Court of Appeal
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