If you were a US appellate judge, and rated one of the top twenty legal thinkers in the country, you might feel that maintaining one's dignity was worthwhile. However, professor and judge Richard Posner felt otherwise, as he appeared in avatar form in 'Second Life', one of those massive multiplayer online games. There the good judge got to deal with "several aliens, mutants, babes in 6 inch stiletto heels...and a human sized raccoon". More here.
Maybe British judges will be bidding to appear in 'I'm a celebrity' etc on the basis that they will be getting down with the people....
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There used to be a really good show on TV in the US starring a retired judge - Judge Wapner, if memory serves.
He had a courtroom and people would come on for their cases to be settled by him. They agreed that any decisions he came to would be legally binding. It was a really good format, very well edited and quite rivetting as these were real people in real situations. Actually, Wapner was a very good judge.
That may have been the first reality TV ever.
Mr Croydonian,
As much as His Grace seeks to apologise for being manifestly off topic, there is a discussion about matters Croydonian of which you really ought to be a part:
+ Cranmer
V - a thoroughly laudable initiative. I am wholly in favour of alternative dispute resolution, as is much of commerce generally. Private justice is a great deal cheaper and quicker than public justice.
I have duly weighed in Your Grace.
Getting down with the people? Only for a fat fee! Sadly the judicial system in this country would improve if they had big brother voting.
Anyway, after being accused on Hitchensblog of having pubescent girlish desires for Peter Hitchens when I mentioned PH was offered dinner after work (you don't even have to offer your body to Mail journalists these days) I've decided to confess to the world that I do indeed have a tawdry little crush on Peter Hitchens, who comments on this blog. Peter, I may be 5'2" and 14 stone but it's all yours honey! And BTW, I think your comments are hilarious on Guido's blog. So sorry I missed you all on Doughty St. I've tried to find the watch again thingy but failed miserably :-(
I was asked to be on a TV programme with a court framework where people brought their relationship crimes and we were supposed to debate them. No time (or interest)
I think Verity would be a superb Judge. I see crime dropping of rapidly, Christ I’d be careful.
I much prefer the US situation as I understand it where the politicisation of judicial appointments is explicit .Here it proceeds by a sort of cultural osmosis whereby the absurd illusion that justice and politics are separate allows the Liberals to hide in their wigs .
Even now with the stench of their failure hanging in the air it is surprisingly difficult to criticise the judiciary.
VERTY`s take on the relative merits of the systems would be interesting I `m sure. Enjoyed the gun details and still chuckling about the freedom of cats V .
Not offered dinner by me I might add - there's a dinner for the speakers at some debates. But Mr Hitchens - I'd share my curly fries with you if you say the word!
P-I'd share my curly fries with you if you say the word!
Outrage !!I offer sonnets sighs and swoons and get nuffin!!Avoid this tender trap PHITCH.She will lure you with her oh so fragrant fries and next thing you know you`ll be sitting in IKEA wondering what happened to your life.
Damn!! Newmania knows me too well. I'd best get back to the kitchen then. Rub down with a warm oven glove??
I saw Ruth Kelly on QT last night (all prettified, did you see?) and noticed she's Secretary of state for communities or something. Whaaat the hell is that? Must look that up. If Nulab are trying to Americanise our democratic system they could have at least chosen the Wendy's standard of excellence rather than McDonalds.
Judge Wapner was on five days a week, one case per programme. He was absolutely excellent. Not only did he know the law, but he had a very incisive legal mind, was articulate and did not take any nonsense. "I will not have this behaviour in my court. Either straighten up or I'm throwing this case out." And he tried all kinds of cases - divorce, property disputes, petty theft - all kinds of things, and both parties had agreed to be legally bound by his ruling. He really moved things along. The show was hugely popular.
I am a fanatic about electing people who are in key positions in society, and I like the American system of electing judges. When you get higher up the food chain - for instance, the Supreme Court of a state) , you do come across "liberal" (doolally) judges, but most judges are sensitive to the concerns of those who elected them. Criminals get banged up for 20 years with no chance of parole. Murderers in some states get the death penalty. I loathe the idea that people in key positions get appointed by politicians. It's a vile system.
(That said, the American Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president. But as there is only a vacancy every eight or ten years when one of the judges retires or dies, it's not too critical.)
BTW, Rena last night said she'd been to the US and had family in the US (vis-à-vis guns), but she didn't say which state. The US isn't a big homogenous lump of glop and that she expressed amazement that someone would defend the practice of individual gun-ownership tells me that her family lives in the liberal NE. Yuck! (Well, New Hampshire's OK. They have guns and Mark Steyn, but I'd stay clear of the rest of them. They don't have the death penalty, either.)
V-but most judges are sensitive to the concerns of those who elected them,
That sounds like a wonderful idea to me . If we could ally that with a police force in some way accountable to the people whose houses are getting burgled we might really start to get somewhere. David Cameron called the Police rhe last unreformed Public Service. I thought atthe time ..hallo this looks good . It all been downhill since and I `m left with "Better than Broon s`pose" to "inspire" me
Glum
Verity would most certainly be a hanging judge.
Phillipa
I noticed the Mk2 Mrs kelly , shame she still sounds like Brian Blessed when she opens her mouth
PH - yes, despite being made over I still think her husband has 'issues'
I saw Gordy Broon in the House on wed and found I could still be amazed at the brass neck of these politicians.
Newmania - did you read the story of the Magistrate who resigned because, out of conscience, he could no longer follow new directives ?
What probably goes on on the head of mr kelly send shiver down my spine (the bad Kind)
Mr Mania , where is mrs mania from south america?
South London PHITCH of Trinidadian an Welsh descent .Nice girl , you’d like her.
When I introduced her to my father he started the ball rolling with this conversation. Knowing she was bought up by one parent he remarked
" Well we don`t have to ask which one fucked off do we !" oops and true of course ...but they are great chums , which proves she is a fine bird
Also she counts among her ancestors, Henry Morgan and the poet George Herbert so one lot probably carted the other lot from Africa.
I am not (obviously) a racists , as I was called on Guido ,I have strong views on immigration policy and an attachment to the culture of this country . Mrs N perhaps even more so . So no being politically correct around me !!!
Mr mania
(+:
your dad sounds like my grandfather , all the tact of a chemical toilet
another thing
my first night ij london i was n the off license (where else) and i heard this broad femalcokney accent
"bloody immigrants , im a nurse and they just come over here etc etc" female alf garnett
I turned around and she was black (+:
I though "im going to like it down here"
Gosh, where are we now?
Vis a vis the Hitchens of the Mail, I think his brother is a far more amusing writer (if a bit of a pinko sometimes).
N - thatall sounds a bit tawdry, doesn't it? Sub-Springer. Way back when I was a would be lawyer, one of the set texts was 'The Politics of the Judiciary', which purported to show that judges were inherently small and large C conservative. Sounds risible now. Naturally I am in favour of electing judges.
V - sounds like he was rather good at this sort of thing. I've been able to discover very little about RV, although one google hit tells you how to get autograph.
Newmania - did you read the story of the Magistrate who resigned because, out of conscience, he could no longer follow new directives ?
No sorry Phillipa I must have missed that ;any more clues ? C usually knows everything
Who is RV?
Electing judges? I'm in favor of hanging judges.
Newmania says, re elected judges: If we could ally that with a police force in some way accountable to the people whose houses are getting burgled we might really start to get somewhere.
Well, you can, of course. Elected police chiefs. Responsible directly to the voters. Britain is a very undemocratic country.
Sorry, another outbreak of initials - Rena Valeh.
S - Judges who hang, or hanging teh judges?
Electing judges, sheriffs and an almighty bonfire of unelected quangos would be an excellent step towards rebalancing civil society.
C hitchens is indeed more "human"
I took the "P Hitchens" ID after a frankly bizzare series of emails I received from the great man himself, he objected to something I had said about him and got really arsey.
My revenge was to make him look like an even bigger twat than he actually is.
You wouldnt believe how many people thought I was really him.
Peter - and the whole business has added enormously to the gaiety of the blogosphere, delighting all save The Other One.
Tejus oh Tejus are you out there coooee
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6161691.stm
Read and weep
rammalamma-small-dingdong ?
N - oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
Phillipa has also knows something of the "Other One". and is not on the best of terms ...I`ve never quite worked it out
PH - he saw me across a crowded room, grabbed his coat and literally ran away. My ego hasn't recovered yet! I mean, this journalist spent time watching an execution and has spent an evening with George galloway. Eek!
Croydian - I nearly went to this lecture by CH (http://www.chickyog.net/2006/11/26/hitchens/ ) Lucky escape maybe.
Just been over at the Guardian site. Polly Toytown's articles are usually controversial to commenters, but her references today to Big Broon's towering intellect etc etc have attracted almost complete derision, just 1 or 2 "agreers". (She, also, thinks we make WAY too much fuss about crime.)
P - how thoroughly oafish of him. He does sound quite the charmer, doesn't he?
Kate - nice to see another Croydonian here. The 'towering intellect' stuff is indeed highly amusing. Now if only the Stockwell muggers had the initiative / energy to target the area around Clapham Common, maybe La Toynbee could become a liberal mugged by reality.
phillipa
He also always looks like somebody has just given him a dirty sanchez then stuck a metal spike up his arse.
What did you do to offend him?
He wrote something in an email to me that was apparently intended as a joke but I didn't think was funny. I asked him to apologise. He refused and it's gone on from there really. Last time he saw me in London he literally ran. I hate arguments but it seems there's nothing I can do to mend fences. I wish there was.
What's a 'dirty sanchez' bytheway?
Hmm, not good. Too much ungallant behaviour at the moment.
A dirty sanchez is an imaginary sexual act, and given that I try to keep this place reasonably respectable, I will not go into detail. You will find it is in wikipedia, but caution is advised.
Thanks C.
I have to say something about the words 'ungallant' and PH in such close proximity though. I had surgery early this year and had a number of problems including a pulmonary embolism. All I could do for a while was sit upright on a hard chair with the PC for company and being ill I wasn't on form and didn't have anything much to say except ouch! PH kept writing to me throughout and couldn't have been more supportive. He just wasn't aware quite how ill I was at the end and that I couldn't cope. He couldn't have known just how unfunny his joke was. Oh well.
imaginary" C you need to get out and about more (+:
And its not sexual, its an oafish "go on do something back" male challenge.
I have a friend who does such things, once we were out having a drink, nice saturday summer afternoon the old school friend we were with goes for a pee and my friend decides it would be funny to wipe his dick around the rim of the other guys glass (just to reassure you the other bloke has a similar sense of humour) anyway as he was doing it a wasp stung him on the hand.
Divine retribution.
Phillipa
Its very easy to get the wrong end of the stick via email communications.
barmy as the other hitch is I think chances are he is a decent man.
Slightly barking but good hearted, I find it hard to believe he is a coward though.
Philipa - That is to the imposter PH's credit. I learnt my lesson with off colour jokes some years back when trading epilepsy jokes in company, and discovering after the event that one of those present had a brother who had died as a result of it.
PH - Hmm...
PH - no I didn't think for a moment that the other one was a coward. Just that I must be really really ugly or certainly less attractive company than either George Galloway or watching some criminal fry. Crikey! Maybe I should ask Ruth Kelly for some makeover tips!
5'2" and 14 stone
Phillipa, sorry but any man would run from that
Oh well, I'll just to adopt a pseudonym myself and think up some better measurements.
I think I'd steer clear of the Ruth Kelly makeover. She has the worst haircut of any woman in public life since Shirley Williams.
nobody beats mike fabricant for ludicrous hair, maybe james trafficante US politician and now US felon and wig devotee
Ruth Kelly bad hair ..true true.. but when the kid slides the Ruth Lea onto the table the man knows he is beaten.
BTW Phillpa ( 5ft 2 ha!)AKA Big Ulvana , is a "hairy"woman who after 50 hard years in the Ukranian circus has retired to tend her weeping sores. I may take a certain charitable interest her.It may indeed sometimes appear that I have unwholesome designs upon her.
Only a desire to help a poor hairy women in her painful dotage I assurre you.You`d best leave her to me .....
( yuk yuk yuk)
Ho hum ...no she is pretty cute obviously ...stuck at home baby sitting . I `ve said goo ,, I `ve tried ga ?
.....on my own again ....
...on my own again
lol..
Phillipa
Despite the fact that you are 5'2" and 14 stone it seems I like you anyway.
Can I borrow money off you now? (+:
PS
Phillipa , try a visit to the village of scotton Pinkey (via blogger.com)apart from cross dressing and serial killing its a lovely place to live.
Regards
Nick
(oops my real name)
NICK!!!!!!!!
Aha , Hi Nick nice to meet you !!!!
Leave Phillipa alone she has horrible personal habits such as picking her nose wart on the tube and stroking her luxuriant grey moustache. Can`t a malodorous old refugee be left to her rat broth and beetroot .I have taken upon myself the painful duty of taking her soup and peeling her garments off once a month. She will be upset and confused by further assistance wishing only to write poisonous bile to local villagers , acquire bed sores and cough up phlegm.
I mean this kindly .
No probs Newman
Im always kindly disposed towards a bloke with less hair than me , even better if like you its greyer than a badgers arse! (+:
NICK_ On P ? twas joking ;seems nice but could indeed be a smelly peasant for all I know. See her on Boris and Fortean which can be quite fruity
That picture makes me look a twat , I didn`t do it and I can`t get it off. I `m not that grey , fat or stupid ..IMHO.It honestly never occurs to me that anyone would bother looking.
Are you about to drop the PHITCH ?Hmmm your fans will want the old stuff....still
Peter Hitchens - Noooooo don't drop your pseudonym, you'll deprive a struggling world of what little virtual pleasure they can eke out of a grey future that's already taxed to death (and they'll blame me). I've already accepted your challenge to move to a place where serial killers live - though they'll have to find neck first before they can strangle me, it's in there somewhere.
Please keep being the wonderful persona that has delighted us all and I'll go back to my soup and TCP (it does smart but I'm excited by the smell).
There is indeed rather a lot of bad hair out there, both natural and in the form of syrups. As a sidetrack to a sidetrack, I think it is rather mean the way that some, maybe all, felons in the US are not allowed to wear their wigs while in custody. I know it happened to Michael 'Drexel Burnham Lambert, X-shaped desk' Milken.
gary glitter had to lose the syrup while in jail shame they didnt take fuckers head off at the same time.
If you are in custody, you are in prison as a punishment, not a temporary change of address. That should mean no wigs, no TV, no porno, no muslim loos or any other comforts of home.
For the sake of the guards, I would allow them deodorants.
P - It was his Ho Chi Minh style beard that got me.
V - Another laugh out loud at that one.
its no secret that I have been a a guest of her maj
when I was in the best food was for the muslims they got a decent curry from rusholme everyday , not being able to pull the "im a muslim" scam I had to settle for second best , vegatarianism , except sunday when i became a carnivore again,a well known scam that is allowed for in the portiosn of chicken they deliver to your wing.
just for veritys sake i will also share this
i have a friend who isjust on the home stretch of a 10 year sentance, he is allowed out 3 days a week to study , gets 4 home visits a month has a mobile phone and email facilities ,even i think thats a bit soft.
Verity- Ho ho ho and ha ha ha .
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