Category: Crime & Justice

Weighted Blankets

On August 29th, 2010, millions of viewers witnessed the HBO film Temple Grandin win seven Emmy awards. Until then, many people didn’t know who Dr. Temple Grandin is. Grandin has autism, and is probably the best known advocate for those with this developmental disability. She is also a renowned animal scientist, known for her ability […]

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Evil Does Exist

A beloved relative who spent decades selflessly serving other people passed away this month. Hundreds of emails poured into her grieving husband’s inbox reminding him of the amazing positive impact she had on their lives. A memorial service was held, and later, a burial. When the husband arrived home from burying his wife of nearly […]

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Raisin

Somebody hold me back. Seriously. Never am I more tempted to get medieval than when I see helpless children and animals getting hurt. I wouldn’t do that unless I was directly intervening to stop abuse, but I am tempted. Today in the news I was horrified to see pictures of an 8 week-old kitten whose […]

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Men and Domestic Violence

2010 has been the year of betrayals, breakups, and divorces. I continue to be shocked at the number of relationships falling down around me. While there are two sides to every story, it seems to me that it is becoming increasingly common for one party in a relationship to carry the majority of the blame. […]

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Psychopaths/Sociopaths

Last night on ABC, a Nightline Prime episode titled “Secrets of Your Mind” aired. I came upon it just as I reached for the remote to turn the TV off. It was a thought-provoking show that sparked an interesting water cooler conversation today. Unfortunately, the show furthered a common myth about psychopaths, that “psychopath” is […]

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Iago

Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? -Othello While reading a legal newsletter I subscribe to this week, I came across an article about Iago, the villain in Shakespeare’s Othello. Dallas lawyer Michael Maslanka asked What Can Lawyers Learn From ‘Othello’?

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Hypnotic Milfoil

On Sunday I went swimming with family at a local lake. I hadn’t been swimming at that particular spot before, and found that the milfoil was horrible. The kids covered themselves in it and I took pictures of them rising from the shallow water like lake monsters. When we got home, we smelled so bad […]

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Documentation

Typing furiously before he got home, I decided to make another copy. I cut the entire document, many months of notes, from the hard drive and pasted it on the disc whirring in its slot. At that point I knew that a record of all of the threats, all of the frightening behavior, and my […]

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