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I remember an old hymn from long time back which observed “change and decay all around I see.”  Jettison the latter and focus on the former.  I recognize the time for change.  And that is why I have decided to accept an offer from the Randall County Criminal D.A.’s Office to work in its appellate division.  This election was not taken lightly.  It’s simply an offer made by the Randall County Criminal D.A. that cannot be turned down.  And it’s doing something that I like.  I leave the courtroom to the younger, stronger turks.

The private practice of criminal defense is a jealous mistress -  demanding, seductive and at times, hazardous to your health.  So what will it be like to show up for work and then leave it behind for the day, knowing it will be there tomorrow and the day after and the day after that?  I’ll not know until I experience it.  But after nearly 29 years of doing it on my own, it’s time.  I do know that.

I had a good run with the website.  I hope I stimulated some thought and reflection over the past three years.  But in all fairness, I cannot continue the blog.  It will remain for all to read and if so desired, to comment.  But as of today, I shall post no more.  Auf wiedersehen.

Two recent events marked a resurrection of the debate surrounding that one ultimate act of war - the dropping of the A-bomb over Hiroshima.  First, Tsutomu Yamaguchi died three weeks ago at the age of 93.  He was a rarity among his fellow Japanese.  He not only survived the Hiroshima blast but lived to tell his story after emerging alive when Nagasaki was bombed just days later.  In fact, he was one of what is to believed 165 people who survived both bombings.  These individuals were transferred to Nagasaki after the Hiroshima bomb run to remove them from harm’s way.  Their and Mr. Yamaguchi’s stories make up a good portion of a new book just published which describes in gut-wrenching detail the actual effects of experiencing the atomic bomb blast and its deadly after-effects.  The book, “The Last Train From Hiroshima,” by Charles Pellegrino is sure to jumpstart the moral debate which continues to swirl around President Truman’s decision to drop the bomb.  We’ll get to that in a moment but it’s worth considering Pellegrino’s findings and observations, based on detailed interviews with survivors and the various official histories documented by both the American and Japanese military forces.

Pellegrino found out from survivors that those who lived to tell their tale did so because they were the recipients of blind, random good fortune.  It wasn’t God’s will or divine intervention.  They were in the right place at the right time, sheltered from the searing heat produced by the blast and afterward, from the deadly gamma and infrared rays.  Because of their position, usually behind sound physical structures, they were protected from the flattening effects of the explosion.  But what these survivors witnessed after the debacle defies mere description.  For example, they immediately noticed something very disturbing about those who were exposed to the heat and flash of the explosion wearing brightly colored clothes  with designs.  The heat of the blast permanently branded the clothing designs into their skin.  Those who were wearing any kind of metal, say like a wristwatch, died much quicker than other survivors.  The reason?  When the heat hit, it was so intense that it literally melted the metal into the skin of the person.  This exposed the person to enhanced doses of radiation since the metal acted like a superconductor.  These unfortunate folks died of radiation sickness very, very quickly.  Many people reported that the smell of burning human flesh, quite prevalent over all of Hiroshima, was “quite similar to the scent of squid when it was grilled over hot coals with a few pieces of sweet pork thrown alongside.”  But that is nothing like what Pellegrino describes what the Japanese called “atomic bomb disease.”  (more…)

“Friends may come and go but enemies accumulate.” - Thomas Jones

Friday, January 15th, was not a good day for me.  For that matter, it probably wasn’t a very good day for anyone who has to live by their wits, meaning they work for themselves.  The 15th of January simply means that it’s tax quarterly day.  That last quarterly for 2009 was due.  It always hurts but it was especially painful this time around.  Not only did I have that chit to pay but I got the notice from my insurance carrier on the same day that my next quarterly payment on my catastrophic health care policy was due in another fifteen days.  And I still owe the bank money.  I’ve been going through twenty-nine years of this; I don’t know how much longer I really want to. 

I do know one thing: in that long process, I have been voluntarily transferring what little wealth I accumulated to three entities: the government, the banks and insurance companies.  I can’t keep going on like this.  I’m sure my fellow solo practitioners feel the same and if not, then 1) you don’t give a damn about making the quarterly payments (can’t blame you) and 2) you either don’t bother with individual health coverage or lucky you, your spouse is a wage earner with group coverage. 

Blackie Sherrod once said, “It’s not the income, it’s the outgo.”  How true.  What do I do in the face of yet another increase on my quarterly premium on the health coverage?  Do I kick it up to a 10K deductible?  Do I go even higher, essentially becoming self-insured?  Yet one three or four-day stay in the hospital will break anyone.  Seen the bills for short stays in the hospital lately?  They are mind-boggling.  We can’t keep going on like this.  We really can’t.  I don’t want to bludgeon readers with tired saws but this is not a situation where we have a date in the near future with a reckoning.  It’s here, it’s now and people are going bust, simply because the take from this unholy troika is unbearable.  It’s enough to turn one to a life of crime or at least, the black economy.  (more…)

Consider this: no sooner had the New York Yankees won the World Series, it parted ways with the series MVP Hideki Matsui.  In the minds of Yankee management, he was no longer worth the millions, regardless of his stats.  They dropped him even before the cheering stopped.  Multibillionaire Sam Zell purchased the Tribune Company for God knows how much.  But when the economy turned south, he elected to place the storied company in bankruptcy, without hesitation.  It is a common occurrence that owners of companies that default on their bonds would rather let the concern fail rather than invest more capital into the venture.  In all three situations, economists term the action taken as “strategic default.”  Banks follow suit when they issue new credit cards to people who have already failed to stay current on the old ones.  So why do the Mortgage Bankers Association and President Obama chide individual homeowners who default on their mortgages?  Why does the banking industry talk about the “message” that defaulting homeowners “send to their family and their kids and their friends,” arguing that we have a ongoing responsibility to make good on the loan, even when it is most definitely not in the long-term interest to continue to shovel good money after bad?

Just recently, Morgan Stanley decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings.  It had purchased the commercial real estate at the height of the boom, only to watch the values plummet after the 2008 crash.  No one - not former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., not President Obama, nor any other Wall Street banker - ever accused Morgan Stanley of unethical behavior for letting the property go.  In fact, no one ever thought that such behavior was unethical or immoral in the first place.  But the average American is cut from a different cloth, I guess.  He or she is supposed to honor all debts, even one where there is absolutely no hope of ever realizing a recovery of equity.  What gives? (more…)

There was a shootout at the Las Vegas Federal Courthouse this morning.  The New York Times reports that the gunman, wielding a shotgun, killed one security guard and injured another before being shot in the head and killed by another federal agent.  At the time of the shooting, a bystander happened to be walking outside the courthouse and recorded the gunfire as it erupted.  I lost count but I think there were somewhere between 50 to 60 rounds fired.  The author comments that it’s “a hell of a morning for jury duty.”  Watch and listen to it here.

I had planned on tying it up with a pretty pink ribbon and walking away from the blog today.  After three years of planning and use, some 1400 posts and over 800,000 hits, maybe the site had run its course, meaning maybe I had run my course with this thing of mine.  However, I have to say that enough of you have encouraged me not to drop the site (with a proviso that I slow down a tad) to persuade me that a new approach is needed.  I tell you what I’ll do.  I’ll churn out select pieces, judiciously posted.  In addition, I’ll continue the Significant Decisions page, if only to make me read the opinions carefully and then analyze the holdings.  Finally, I’ll keep up with the obits that merit attention.  Perhaps taking a more measured pace will ensure quality and topicality.  Let’s hope so.  Happy New Year.  Welcome to the modified Hacklawyer.net.

Amarillo has five red light cameras in operation.  Below, courtesy of the Texas Department of Transportation and www.texastribune.org are statistics from those cameras for the period 7/1/08 to 6/30/09.

Coulter at Elmhust: 8116 citations issued generating $426,090 in revenue

Pierce St at SE 11th Ave.: 3164 citations issued generating $166,110 in revenue

Coulter St. at I-40 frontage road: 2852 citations issued generating $149,730 in revenue

Pierce St. at SE 3rd Ave.: 2512 citations issued generating $131,880 in revenue

Ross St. at I-40: 1542 citations issued generating $80,955 in revenue

During this same period, there were a total of 63 crashes at all five intersections.  The Coulter-Elmhurst intersection recorded 9; the Pierce St. at SE 11th Ave. intersection - 9; Coulter St. at I-40 frontage road - 22; Pierce St. at SE 3rd Ave. - 5 and Ross St. at I-40 - 18.  Total citations issued: 18,186 and total revenue raised was $954,765.

Kim Peek, the inspiration behind the autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 movie “Rain Man” died on December 19 in Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of 58.  Peek also served as the subject for two made-for-TV movies which explored the life of a retarded man named Bill.  That character was played by Mickey Rooney.  Cause of death was heart attack.

Peek was born with an enlarged head, caused by a cerebellum which was malformed.  His brain was also missing a crucial piece of nerve tissue which connects the brain’s hemispheres.  Neurologists theorized that this absence of nerve tissue between the two brain halves somehow resulted in Peek’s brain rewiring itself and thereby transforming itself into a brain which operated under one roof so to speak.  Rather than have two sides to the brain, all brain function arose under the command of a giant hemisphere.  And what function it was. (more…)

Hitting the sack last night at 1:00 a.m. after the flight back from L.A. did not make for an easy 6:00 a.m. start.  However, this was entirely foreseeable since I have no one to blame for the late return.  I put together the entire itinerary, including flight times.  And why complain?  Sunday night was spent in a unique hotel just off Sunset Boulevard, literally across the street from The Whiskey A Go Go - yes, that Whiskey A Go Go.  And it’s right off Clark Street, no less. 

So, the California trip’s in the books.  The weather was sublime, Pacific Coast Highway was magnificent, the Queen Mary self-guided tour was neat, Hearst Castle was living proof that that guy really knew how to live and Venice Beach was fascinating, particularly its proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the neighborhood. (more…)