Saturday Evening Music

Soli Deo Gloria:   I trust that my non-traditionalist friends will look away.

George Will on Detroit’s folly

George Will pretty astutely puts his finger on the underlying cause of the disaster that was once the city of Detroit: Detroit’s population, which is 62?percent smaller than in 1950, has contracted less than the United Auto Workers membership, which once was 1.5 million and now is around 390,000. Auto industry executives, who often were invertebrate…

Is Francis hostile to traditionalists?

That is the question prompted by a recent Vatican decree that priests of a certain Franciscan order may celebrate the Old Mass only with explicit permission from the Vatican. This would sen to flatly contradict the policy put into place by Benedict XVI that ay priest may celebrate the Old Mass, at any time, without…

Blog recommendation

If you’re a law geek and you’re not reading Josh Blackman’s blog, you probably ought to be horsewhipped. 

More wisdom from Detroit’s ruling class

Apparently, notwithstanding that Detroit is bankrupt and circling the toilet, the city plans on spending tax payer money to finance a new arena for the Red Wings. Setting aside for the moment that such deals are ALWAYS an economic loser for cities, what on earth are these people thinking? Evidently, they’re not. Detroit had no…

Legalize prostitution?

As anyone who has read these pages more than once or twice – all six of you – might know, I have argued before that the criminalization of prostitution makes little sense. Charles Cooke takes up the argument in, of all places, the pages of National Review: If your political philosophy requires the micromanagement of…

Pope Francis broadens eligibility for Ordinariate membership

Back in March when then-Cardinal Bergolio was elected Pope, I expressed in this space my general optmism over the new Pope’s section, but raised a couple of caveats, including a question about the extent t which the new Pope Francis would support the Anglican Ordinariates initiated during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. It now appears…

Chief Justice Roberts “Long Game”: Is the Chief Crazy Like a Fox?

Interesting pieceby Adam Liptak in the New York Times last week about John Roberts and the so-called “long game”. Liptak’s hypothesis is that Roberts is patiently planting seeds, quietly, with the acquiescence and often approval of the liberal justices, that will enable him to pull the Court to the right slowly over time: The chief…

On the Feast of St. Thomas More

Hourly based flat fees are NOT value billing

I have written in the past about the corrupting influences of the hourly billing system that is predominant in the law firm world, and in support of flat fees and other alternative billing arrangements. Yesterday I happened to read an interesting article by Patrick Lamb – the founder of the Valorem Law Group – on…