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Lawrence R. Velvel is a cofounder and the Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, and is the founder of the American College of History and Legal Studies.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 18, 2012 It Appears That The Madoff Scam Was Not, Repeat Not, A Ponzi Scheme.
For 3 1/2 years I have conceded, as apparently did everyone else that Madoff was a Ponzi scheme. In the last few weeks however, I have come to think that Madoff was not a Ponzi scheme. The reasons for this view are discussed in the attached blog.
(14 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 4, 2008 Attempted Statutory Immunity For The Executive's War Crimes.
The Bush Administration, with McCain's assistance, has obtained statutory provisions immunizing it against liability for war crimes (including torture) in American courts. Will these provisions be an effective defense? Will they pre-emptively deter prosecution, so that we may never find out?
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, February 5, 2007 The Preternaturally Prolific Posner on Plagiarism
Summary For Op Ed News
Symptomatic of the views of the elite in this country, Judge Richard Posner finds reasons to justify or excuse dishonesty.
SHARE Wednesday, September 6, 2006 Eric Lomax's "The Railway Man" And Today's America
The Railway Man, reminds us why Americans of a certain period hated the Germans. The discovery of the concentration camps caused American soldiers to begin to hate the Germans, to regard them all as beasts, and sometimes to take no prisoners but instead to kill the Germans without quarter and without mercy. The camps were, he says, the reason the Americans began to feel they were on a crusade.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 4, 2010 The President Who "Makes Nice" And Lacks Judgment.
The President who "makes nice" and lacks judgment.
Two years ago I thought Obama was one of the smartest men, and conceivably the best speaker, ever to enter the White House. Today my main impression is that, for all his intellectual smarts, he is horribly lacking in judgment. Crassly put, he is a fool.
SHARE Friday, October 12, 2007 The Mainstream Media Annoints Jack Goldsmith A Hero
Although The Conventional Wisdom Of The Pols And The Mainstream Media Have Now Anointed Him A Hero, In Truth Jack Goldsmith Stands Convicted Out Of His Own Mouth As Well As By Recent Events.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Evil Judges And Dumb Politicians
Summary For Op Ed News
Recent events further stoke the idea that federal judges can be evil and most federal politicians are dumb.
SHARE Friday, July 27, 2007 Are We Rome? We Are Rome.
Summary For Op Ed News
Cullen Murphy's book "Are We Rome?" shows an alarming number and degree of similarities between the reasons which caused Rome to fall and the situation in the United States since 1989.
(9 comments) SHARE Monday, June 23, 2008 Prosecuting War Crimes for Today and the Future
Iraq, amazingly enough after Viet Nam, is Viet Nam redux. War crimes trials are necessary to help ensure we do not someday get Iraq redux.
SHARE Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Increasing The Size Of The Supreme Court.
SUMMARY FOR OP ED NEWS
The strident attacks on historian Jean Smith for suggesting an increase in the size of the Supreme Court are insupportable.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 26, 2008 The Momentary and the More Permanent
Starting from at least 1898, if not from King Philip's War in the seventeenth century, this country has often gotten what it wanted via war, and much of its citizenry is brainwashed to think war is the way. We are in dire need of both intelligence and long term thinking.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Is This Country Joseph Welch or Joe McCarthy?
This country must choose between prosecutions and decency, or letting culprits walk, which would reward indecency.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 17, 2008 The Bigger the Company, the More Disastrous the Mistake.
The destruction of the Glass-Steagall Act and of antitrust, destruction which opened the door to gigantic, combined investment/commercial banks, also opened the door to economic disasters made larger and more destructive by the size of the banks involved.
SHARE Thursday, August 16, 2007 The Speech and Debate Clause and Honesty
Summary For Op Ed News
Using the vehicle of the investigation and prosecution of Congressman William Jefferson, Lawrence Velvel discusses the disregarded relationship between honesty and the speech and debate clause.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 4, 2008 Re: Halberstam And History
Summary For Op Ed News
David Halberstam's book on Korea elucidates thoughts and actions in that war which have become constant patterns in America.
SHARE Tuesday, May 29, 2007 The New Big Lie
Summary for Op Ed News
Dean Lawrence R. Velvel assails the politicians in Congress who lie by saying that the troops would not receive protection if Congress enacted a cut off of funds for the war.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 15, 2007 The Couch: Bush Is On It And Congress Should Be
Summary for Op Ed News
Psychiatrists are again analyzing the sociopathic George Bush, and they should be analyzing Congress too. These people are not like you and I.
SHARE Monday, September 25, 2006 A Conference On "Presidential Power In America."
This posting describes the reasons for, topics of, and speakers and panelists at a major conference on presidential power in the United States.
SHARE Thursday, November 30, 2006 Pretending That November 7th Never Happened.
Washington officials, pundits, and legislators are pretending that nothing happened on November 7th and that we therefore can stay in Iraq for a lengthy period. As well, George Bush's statement on the subject create a legitimate question as to whether he is fully sane.
(10 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 28, 2007 We Desperately Need A New Electoral System, New Methods Of Campaigning, And New Types Of People Running For Office
Summary For Op Ed News
Dean Lawrence Velvel says that, especially because of the need for a third party to change the national security state, America needs to overcome the present effects of the Electoral College, to change the method of electing Congresspeople, and to change both the kinds of people who run for office and methods of campaigning.
SHARE Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Eric Lichtblau's Defense Of The Times' Disastrous Failure To Print The NSA Spying Story in October 2004
In his book, Eric Lichtblau defends the Times failure to publish his story on the NSA spying in late October or early November 2004, when the story would have resulted in Bush not being reelected. Lichtblau's effort fails because the failure to publish was due to terrible judgment, lack of knowledge of history, and fear of right wing criticism.
SHARE Wednesday, October 25, 2006 Of The Conference On Presidential Powers, And Stealth Immunity For Bushman
This post summarizes some of the most important points made at a recent conference of experts on increasing presidential powers, and discusses the recent law providing immunity to George Bush for authorizing torture.
SHARE Friday, February 19, 2010 More On SIPC'S And The Trustee's Bubbe Meisse.
More On SIPC'S And The Trustee's Bubbe Meisse.
Plus: Can The Fact That SIPC And The Trustee Have Created A Bubbe Meisse
Be Put Before Judge Lifland At This Time?
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Dr. Demento In The Oval Office
SUMMARY FOR OP ED NEWS
There is increasing coalescence around the view that George Bush cannot disengage from Iraq because this would require him to concede to a gross mistake, a concession that would psychologically destroy his (deservedly) wafer thin sense of personal competence.
SHARE Thursday, September 21, 2006 Bob Herbert's Recent Truths And Their Consequences
Bob Herbert is the first member of the mass media to recognize a crucial truth. To wit, Bush wants no retroactive liability for torture -- a felony -- because he is guilty of this crime. Herbert also recognized that the reason Bush wants military tribunals to try detainees is that civilian courts won't allow evidence to be introduced if it was obtained by torture or is the "fruit" of evidence obtained by torture.
SHARE Wednesday, June 13, 2007 The Times' News Judgment In Its Obits Of June 7th
SUMMARY OF OPED NEWS
Dean Lawrence Velvel excoriates the New York Times' news judgment in putting the obituary of Jim Clark, the brutal Sheriff of Selma, Alabama, at the top of the obit page and giving it one third of a page.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Re: Courts Should Insist That The Political Branches Do Their Jobs
The judiciary should adopt a doctrine requiring the political branches to amass and consider information, facts, history, anecdotes and statistics, instead of allowing those branches to act in ignorance and without basis. This would be a revolutionary doctrine in the current state of affairs, but actually hearkens back to the days of the framers.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 29, 2007 Re: The Presidency Has Become A Great Business Opportunity
Summary For Op Ed News
The Presidency has become a terrific business opportunity which the Clintons have used to full advantage and are poised to exploit still further, while Lincoln turns in his grave.
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, October 6, 2006 America's Moral Meltdown
The dean of a law school discusses the moral disaster that America has become.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 22, 2007 The High Price of Gasoline
SUMMARY FOR OP ED NEWS
Because of the high price of gasoline, a letter sent to a prominent NPR public affairs show about its failure to discuss the operations of the futures markets seems worthy of being put on the public record
SHARE Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Comment on Blog
Professor Alvin Goldman suggests an alternative method - - one not involving a cutoff of funds - - by which Congress could expeditiously end the war.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Tell Me About Michael Bloomberg
Summary For OpEd News
Would Michael Bloomberg be a good choice to head a third party ticket? Lawrence Velvel asks readers to say what they think and know about him.
SHARE Tuesday, January 16, 2007 Two Disparate Examples of The Principle That You Can Depend Upon Most People To Do The Wrong Thing Most Of The Time
The refusal to cut off funds for a failed war, thus condemning thousands to deaths and maiming for no purpose, and the presence on the short list for the Harvard Presidency of a candidate who has in effect condoned academic dishonesty, are two examples of the ever – operative principle of human affairs that you can depend upon most people to do the wrong thing most of the time.