The Senkaku Islands (China) also known as Diaoyu Islands (Japan) are the Excuse, not the Reason The Senkaku Islands, also known as the Diaoyu Islands, are a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea. There is no civilian population and no economic assets are located on the islands. Japan obtained control of them from the U.S., who had…
Nationwide, there have been recently two slayings in which homeowners, believing themselves to be threatened by an intruder, shot and killed someone who turned out to be a non-threatening after-hours visitor to the home. In one case, the victim was a young woman apparently under the influence of some (disputed) amount of intoxicants, who was…
As noted in a previous post, Locke’s First Treatise of Government is an extended refutation of Robert Filmer’s manuscript Patriarcha or the Natural Power of Kings. Today, Filmer’s arguments supporting absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings appear so absurd that it would not be possible to recite them at any length without being…
A mortgage foreclosure in Pennsylvania is the culmination of a lengthy series of personal and financial events. For each mortgage foreclosure, there is a story of how one person, a couple, or occasionally, a group of people, arrived at this unhappy state. Each time I am called about a mortgage foreclosure, if my caller is…
When middle class people commit crimes and become involved in the criminal justice system as defendants, they form a very distinctive group. First, they have no prior criminal record whatsoever. Typically, the offense(s) which they are charged permit of no defense with respect to the underlying acts. Generally, they have ‘snapped out’ for some reason,…
HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVES, OR LIVING WILLS By Thomas Wolpert, Esq. Pennsylvania now employs a term ‘Advanced Health Care Directive’ that used to go by a more common term of ‘Living Will.’ The same general thought is also captured in the phrases ‘Durable Health Care Power of Attorney’ or ‘Health Care Agent.’ The importance…
My mother used to say that when all else failed, ‘read the instructions.’ In the current political confusion, it helps to go back to primary sources. John Locke is a primary source for American political thought, a British philosopher of the 17th century whose political writings were a major influence with the American revolutionaries. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and a Letter Concerning…