Upstate New York Family Lawyer Blog

Guess what?

What You Thought Was Your Government is lying to you. Uh-huh.

Oh, and you know what else?

What You Thought Was Your Government is also spying on you. Seriously, dude.

And, for those of you who happen to go abroad and exercise your First Amendment rights in ways that What You Thought Was Your Government may not approve, well ...

What You Thought Was Your Government is killing you, too. For real, man.

Surprise!

Now, you have to ask yourself, why on earth would What You Thought Was Your Government be lying to you? What did you do to be lied to?

And, stranger still, why would What You Thought Was Your Government be spying on you? After all, what the hell did you do to be spied on?

And, most chillingly of all, why would What You Thought Was Your Government be killing you without a trial, a hint of due process, or so much as a fart in the direction of the Bill of Rights? KILLING. YOU.

Well, I'm glad you're finally asking these long overdue questions. I'm glad that you're finally waking up. I'm glad that you are suddenly curious. Because it's about damned time!

But I don't think you're going to like the answers. And you probably should have woken up a lot sooner than you did.

Because the answers are all the same: THIS. IS. NOT. YOUR. GOVERNMENT!!!!! This is THEIR GOVERNMENT, the government of those who now seek to lie to you, to spy on you, and to kill you.

Wake up, you reality tv-addicted nation of sheep! Wake the hell up! Look at what is being done in your name! Look at what is being done TO you, in your name!

What You Thought Was Your Government has been lying to people and spying on people and killing people for years and years and years. For generations even. But that was being done to Other People. To People Outside Your Nation's Borders. To foreigners. People you didn't have to think twice about. Because What You Thought Was Your Government could do all that hard thinking for you.

Continue reading "#383 A Nation Of Sheep" »

Well, it's been a great run and, hey, if I don't see or hear from you tomorrow, have a Merry Oblivion, since, as we are all well aware, the world is supposed to end.

Or not.

I tend to side with The Nots actually. You know, those 99.9999% of us who are sane enough to realize that, duh, there is no scientific evidence that the world is going to end tomorrow.

Is the world going to end? I have no doubt that it will. Will its end occur tomorrow? I have no doubt that it won't. We were all born and we are all going to die; so it goes with worlds, though over a much, much longer scale of time.

And, quite frankly, if the world were to come to an end, it's very likely that we would already have found at least an inkling of evidence to support such a wild hypothesis. Something, say, like an asteroid slamming into the earth at unimaginable speed and energy levels. An E.L.E. An "extinction-level event" if you will. Yeah, yeah, I know you know what I'm talking about, you saw "Deep Impact" (good movie) and you may have seen "Armageddon" (awful movie).

Continue reading "#261 It's The End Of The World As We Know It, And I Feel Fine!" »

Breathe the free air again, my friends.

Where do I begin? First, I'd like to thank my bachelor of arts degree in political science from Siena College for allowing me to call the Electoral College exactly (which I will never let my wife live down). I nailed the exact vote (332 to 206) and the exact series of states for each candidate. As the evening began, with Mitt Romney ahead in both electoral votes and the popular vote, my family thought I was crazy. All I would say was this: "I did the math and my math is correct - Obama is going to win the electoral and squeak by in the popular." They laughed. Surprise! The Electoral College decides the victor, not the popular vote. I thought we all learned this the hard way back in 2000!?

Second, after channel surfing for the first few hours of the evening, I found that CBS and CNN probably had the best coverage, so I ping-ponged between the two every couple of minutes (much to the hostility of my family). The rule in our house is a simple one: on election night, I have total control of the remote. All other days of the year I hand off the remote to my wife or my son. Never on election night. Never.

Continue reading "#227 Breathe The Free Air Again, My Friends!" »

Call me a cynic (and, indeed, I know you will!), but when one lives this far inland - and several meters above a small floodplain (the Mourning Kill flows through my property), it's hard for me to take seriously all of the alarmist "run for the hills" chatter about Hurricane Sandy. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know: better safe than sorry. Sure, sure, I get it. Look, we vacationed through Hurricane Irene last year, on the ocean shoreline in Maine, and let me tell you that I have a newfound respect for the unfathomable power of nature. I am now fully aware of what a hurricane sounds like and how terrifying its winds can be. And, yes, I'm grateful that I was not a resident of Vermont or the Schoharie Valley during the terrible time of Irene. I suspect it's the once bitten, twice shy mentality of hurricanes.

Continue reading "#216 Hurricane Sandy" »

It is not a pleasant thought, realizing how fragile we are. How each day could be our last. So we pretend. We pretend our days stretch out to the horizon, as far as the eye can see. It's how we get through our lives.

I have been quite busy of late, unable to write any blog posts. Duty calls and it has been calling quite a lot. However, just as I got down to writing my belated post for Martin Luther King Day, I got word of a death in the family. Not in my immediate family, mind you, but a close and beloved relative in my extended family. Someone I've known for a very long time.

My father's cousin's wife died. Her name was Roberta. A death that is perhaps a bit attenuated, one might think - as I might think, of anyone else - but every family is different and every member is valued in different ways, very often according to their personalities. Pull a thread and it might not matter all that much. Or you might unravel the entire garment.

Continue reading "#77 Fragile" »

Having defended numerous people against a wide array of criminal charges, as a criminal defense attorney, you can pretty much imagine how I feel about district attorneys. Nevertheless, I continue to be impressed by the incredibly principled stands that District Attorney David Soares has taken over the years - and especially the one that he is taking now, relative to the right to peaceably assemble on lands owned by the City of Albany.

And because of his principled stand, he has apparently received death threats. A district attorney receiving death threats!

That the Albany County GOP Chairman and the New York Post are apoplectic over Mr. Soares' refusal to prosecute citizens for exercising their constitutional right to peaceably assemble on city property tells you everything you need to know about the twisted priorities of Republicans and their pseudo-journalistic toadies.

Standing up for what is right is never an easy thing to do. It is only made that much more difficult at a time in our nation's history when so many are so ready, willing, and able to surrender hard-won freedoms for the false security of a national surveillance state.

Continue reading "#50 Credit Where Credit Is Due: Thank You, David Soares!" »

Well, well, well ... It seems that Governor One Per Cent has had an early visit from The Ghost of Christmas Future. And because the Ghost of Christmas Future has shown Ebenezer - I mean, Andrew - the premature death of his political career should he not heed the winds of change, Governor One Per Cent had a Come To Jesus Moment. It was either that or rank Clintonesque triangulation (which is much more likely), but, given the spirit of the season, I suppose I should accept his sudden change of heart - and overnight zealousness to ram through a bill with minimal debate - in the spirit of forgiveness.

But, wait, there's less!

If you feel as though you have somehow entered an absurdist comedy, you're not alone. When a bill to INCREASE taxes sails through the Republican-controlled Senate 55-0 (and 130-8 in the Democratically-controlled Assembly), and the Senate Majority Leader, Dean Skelos, is quoted as saying "We're cutting taxes, in my opinion", something very strange is afoot.

Continue reading "#47 Danger: Triangulation Ahead!" »

It's a wonderful thing when a real firebrand takes the First Amendment at face value and actually exercises those rights to the fullest extent. You know - like the Founding Fathers had hoped. It is even more wonderful when that firebrand is lauded for it and wins a major award.

Of course, the irony of the situation is that I am speaking about Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, and WikiLeaks, an effectively Australian entity. These days, it seems, one has to leave America or turn to foreign citizens to fully understand what freedom of the press means.

So, what did WikiLeaks win? It won the Australian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, the Walkley Award for most outstanding contribution to journalism.

I would say more but my favorite constitutional lawyer pretty much says it all in today's column.

I think most people find it exceedingly difficult speaking truth to power, if only because they are so fearful that those in power will use any means, lawful and unlawful, to crush dissent. Such paranoia will often dissuade most people from exercising their constitutional rights. But not Julian Assange.

Continue reading "#28 Thank You, WikiLeaks, For Exposing Governments As Liars!" »

We live in interesting times. And because they are so damned interesting, it's time for another random rant.

Most of the time, I find myself in court or on the phone with attorneys or clients. Or I will spend the majority of my day in my office, with the door closed and the phone on vibrate so that I can get as much of my paperwork done as possible, without interruptions. I also tend to work from 9:00am to about 9:00pm, so I rarely watch television.

But I do touch base with key web sites on the internet from time to time. And, lately, I'm not at all happy with what I am discovering is happening in this country.

As the title of this post alludes, I've got Rage Against The Machine making my ears bleed as I ponder one of my favorite Langston Hughes masterpieces. And I am seething.

Why? Because of this:

Continue reading "#21: Calm Like A Bomb: "... Or Does It Explode?"" »

I'm normally a very quiet kind of guy. And like most people, I have a temper. However, it's one that I almost always keep under control.

But not now. Not today.

Because I'm angry. REALLY angry. That's right. You heard me.

Because I have this thing about freedom of speech. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a big deal. Yeah. Actually, I think it's a really, really big deal. And it's important enough to me to interrupt the casual flow of this blog with a rant. Because, but for my own freedom of speech, this blog would not exist.

I'm about to break one of the three (3) cardinal rules that I try never to break. I call these rules the PRS triplets. What are the PRS triplets? They are politics, religion, and sexuality. Venturing into any of these three areas is always problematic, in general, and it is never a good idea to do professionally. It instantly creates an Us versus Them dynamic and mentality and suddenly all thinking loses its grayness and becomes artificially black and white. And if there is one thing I hate more than anything else, it's thinking in black and white. Gray is the order of the day. Life is far too complex to be reduced to black and white, right and wrong, us and them.

Continue reading "#14: Theory Versus Practice" »