The Sin of Boredom

I recently read a comment by an online poster that I found to be perfectly crafted and thoughtful. I will reprint it below, but first, some preliminary comments about the age of the Internet (and public shaming thereon) as it relates to rape accusations in particular. There seems to be a generally category error - or perhaps equivocation would be the more accurate word - when people discuss constitutional protections, and particularly due process, in the context of informal punishment and public shaming. The same error occurs in discussions of "free speech." There are two very distinct levels of each concept: one, the formal legal level, and the other a more broad and informal scope of conceptual exploration. But because individuals tend to use the same terms ("free speech," "due process") regardless of the intended level at which a topic is being discussed, arguments often devolve into impotent screaming matches in which people are basically reduced...

After Ron Book (aka The Vinegar Man) of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust announced to multiple national media outlets before Hurricane Irma that he would be "Baker Acting" all homeless people who refused to go into a shelter - that is, admitting them for an involuntary 72-hour mental health examination  - I sent him an email letting him know that my office wouldn't be tolerating such an abuse of the Florida Mental Health Act. You may know that one of the areas of law in which my firm specializes is wrongful Baker Acts. (He even invited several news outlets to witness people getting taken away under these unlawful Baker Acts, because what's a little more indignity on top of unconstitutional detainment. And yes, they take people away in handcuffs, even though they're not technically under arrest or going to jail).  Well, The Vinegar Man went full South Florida on me. If you don't know what that is, think "smug, oily, self-important asshole,...

( Let me preface all of this by noting that I am not saying that Vivitrol has never worked or could not possibly work for anyone. If you’ve found relief from addiction by way of Vivitrol, more power to you; nothing here is intended to rain on your sober parade. These are simply some observations about how the efficacy of the medication on any wide scale has simply not been demonstrated, and how each new bit of information that comes out seems to indicate that it’s simply not a good treatment for opioid and/or heroin addiction. Let me also point out that I would prefer kratom to be available as a first-line treatment for opioid abuse and dependence, but that’s another article entirely. ) Vivitrol is a once-a-month, extended-release shot of naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist that has been approved by the FDA since 2006 to treat alcohol dependence. As you probably know, opioid receptor antagonists block activity, while agonists activate receptors (buprenor...

Note: I wrote this back in January or February, when there was that big stink about Milo being invited to speak at Berkeley (this was before his pedophile-sympathizing implosion). I have to whip it out occasionally when a trans rights person claims I am being uncaring or a "bad ally" for rejecting some of the movement's language policing.... I just heard Troy’s interview on Here and Now. One would think that Berkeley would teach its students to think more logically and rationally than he is ostensibly capable of doing. At one point, after the interviewer played Milo’s statements personally and viciously attacking a transsexual student during a talk at another school, Troy essentially states that, well, Milo has been called names… so of course he’s going to call other people names! Firstly, what one person does never serves as an excuse for another person’s behavior. This is not a moral or ethical manner of thinking or behaving. Nobody else’s vitriol...