Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 19, 2009, 11:56 am
Here is an article from Pacific Business News showing just how dramatically the number of jury trials has dropped off in the State of Hawaii, where only 17 civil jury trials were completed in the stat...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 18, 2009, 10:34 pm
As a follow-up to my post below, here is a scary video about the rise of Christian fundamentalist threats to the President veiled in the prophetic language of the Bible. I agree with Frank Schaffer ...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 18, 2009, 4:09 pm
In an interview with Barbara Walters yesterday, Sarah Palin was asked whether she agreed with the Obama administration's position that Israel should curtail Jewish settlements in the occupied terr...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 16, 2009, 5:23 pm
According to this report, Syrian President Assad is willing to move forward with peace talks with Israel, and Turkey is available to mediate, but there is "no Israeli partner willing to move forward."...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 16, 2009, 12:55 am
The new movie The Men Who Stare at Goats is a comic take-off on the true story of an Army program to incorporate New Age concepts into the military. In the movie, Jeff Bridges plays an Army Colonel w...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 13, 2009, 6:36 pm
Here is part of Congressman Jerry Nadler's statement on the Justice Department's decision finally to try some of the alleged 9/11 plotters in New York courts: New York is not afraid of terrori...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 13, 2009, 1:47 pm
We can only speculate as to why Carrie Prejean settled her lawsuit against the Miss USA Pageant, because she has refused to reveal her reasons on the grounds of mediation confidentiality. I of course...
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Joe M. posted an article on Law Offices of Joseph C. Markowitz - Nov 12, 2009, 12:55 pm
Congress is currently considering legislation that would reverse the Supreme Court's decisions in Iqbal and Twombley, discussed here previously. These decisions have significantly raised the stan...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 12, 2009, 10:00 am
Once again, Carrie Prejean instructs the nation in etiquette, in this case telling us that it is "inappropriate" to ask questions about the parties' motivations in entering into a settlement. ...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 10, 2009, 3:07 pm
Disclosures that Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood killings, may have had contact with a militant cleric in Yemen, and that he had posted inflammatory material on the Internet, have led ...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 9, 2009, 12:54 pm
There was an interesting op-ed piece by James Mann in the LA Times on Friday arguing that President Reagan's behind-the-scenes courting of President Gorbachev was much more important in causing th...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 8, 2009, 9:45 pm
Yesterday, at the Southern California Mediation Association's fall conference, I heard Ken Cloke give an inspirational talk about using mediation to solve some of the world's most difficult pr...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Nov 5, 2009, 3:01 pm
My father, who was a psychiatrist, was a big believer in using metaphors in therapy.  He was interested in dreams because he believed they can serve as metaphors for issues that people are trying...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 4, 2009, 6:46 pm
I was a little disappointed with the documentary "By the People" which premiered on HBO last night. Although the film did manage to capture some of the behind the scenes flavor of the Obama campaign,...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 2, 2009, 6:11 pm
From TPM, a fairly hilarious compilation proving that sometimes the news is just wishful thinking on the reporters' part:
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Nov 2, 2009, 1:18 am
The surprising news this weekend that moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava not only dropped out of the Congressional race in upstate New York but endorsed her Democratic rival Bill Owens instead of her...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 30, 2009, 3:08 pm
A study reported in The Jury Expert (brought to my attention on Phylliss Pollack's blog), which consisted of observing 62 mediations, then coding and analyzing the particpants' statements, and...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 30, 2009, 12:35 pm
In the interest of fairness, since I posted a clip a couple of weeks ago in which Jon Stewart took apart CNN, here is Jon Stewart viciously dissecting Fox News. He also gets in a little dig at MSNBC ...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 29, 2009, 7:23 pm
Mediation may soon be shown in a more glamorous way thanks to USA Network, which is developing a new tv series called "Facing Kate" for Sarah Shahi, in which she will be playing a lawyer who decides t...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 28, 2009, 12:24 am
Perhaps because I have two teenagers, I find myself thinking about how to motivate people who generally find my suggestions stupid or old-fashioned. As a mediator, I face this situation less often, b...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 27, 2009, 6:24 pm
Whatever you do on this site, please do NOT click on the "help" button that is located just under the heading at the top of this page. (It's under the "t" in "Mediation's" if you have trouble...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 25, 2009, 4:15 pm
The Huffington Post's Sam Stein and Ryan Grim are reporting that President Obama is now actively opposing the idea of a public option with an "opt-out" provision, favoring instead the idea of a pu...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 22, 2009, 11:42 am
It has been my goal in writing this blog to try to keep the tone always civil, respectful and positive. Feeling that there are already plenty of critics out there, I decided back when I set up this s...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 21, 2009, 10:49 am
Monday night: It's the bottom of the ninth inning and the Dodgers are hanging on to a 4-3 lead in the crucial fourth game, in which the Dodgers have the chance to tie up the National League Champi...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 20, 2009, 12:53 pm
Yesterday, the State Department announced a new U.S. strategy toward Sudan, the culmination of months of review. The idea seems to be something of a carrot and stick approach, perhaps less punitive t...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 19, 2009, 6:59 pm
It's just getting harder and harder to tell what's real news and what is staged. Today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce retracted its previous position on global warming, and announced that it wa...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 19, 2009, 4:13 pm
My cousin who was visiting last week told me that she has never understood the appeal of watching a professional baseball game. We figured out that her difficulty in appreciating the game may come fr...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 19, 2009, 10:51 am
It is sometimes disheartening for serious news aficionados to watch the public being consumed with interest in a non-story, or to see supposedly serious news outlets pandering to this interest. One w...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 16, 2009, 1:17 am
Maybe some of the people spreading hate would feel a touch of shame if they saw this kid ask why so many people hate the president. Maybe hate-mongers would also wonder about the effectiveness of the...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 14, 2009, 5:35 pm
Today the Dow Jones Industrial average broke 10,000. Banks are reporting healthy profits. As of yesterday, five committees in Congress have reported out landmark health care reform legislation. And...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 13, 2009, 11:24 am
There is a reason why people who watch the Daily Show are generally better informed than people who watch cable news networks. Jon explains why CNN does not do real journalism here: The Daily Show W...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 12, 2009, 2:27 pm
The surprising choice of President Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace prize, coming so early in his term, has led to some interesting commentary on what exactly constitutes a noteworthy achievement in p...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 10, 2009, 11:19 pm
The surprise award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama has touched off an interesting debate on his accomplishments. There is no real dispute that it is still early in President Obama's term...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 9, 2009, 11:15 am
Last night the 28 year old prodigy Gustavo Dudamel made his triumphant debut as the new director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (and I have tickets for the same program tonight), with giant screens ...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Oct 8, 2009, 11:18 am
T-ball on the White House lawn was a great innovation by the last administration. But how about inviting 150 middle-schoolers for an astronomy demonstration, hosted by Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride and oth...
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Joe M. posted an article on Law Offices of Joseph C. Markowitz - Oct 7, 2009, 6:07 pm
Senator Al Franken succeeded in getting his first piece of legislation passed, an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that would prohibit defense contractors from requiring employees to submit ...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Oct 5, 2009, 12:46 pm
Last night's season final episode of Entourage contained some good examples of the intangible factors that sometimes create, and then break, logjams in negotiations. First Ari Gold had to persuad...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Sep 30, 2009, 5:04 pm
Yesterday, truth serum was surreptitiously administered to the members of the Senate Finance Committee after they emerged from voting down two public option amendments to their committee's propose...
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Joe M. posted an article on hope and change - Sep 30, 2009, 1:17 pm
The President is meeting with top advisers to consider how to move forward in Afghanistan, in light of the report of General McChrystal, which said that a new strategy and greater commitment is needed...
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Joe M. posted an article on Mediation's Place - Sep 30, 2009, 12:55 am
Settlement offers as well as demands frequently carry a time limit: For example, "If not accepted, this offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday," or "If we cannot resolve this matter to our client...
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Joe M. posted an article on Law Offices of Joseph C. Markowitz - Sep 25, 2009, 5:35 pm
It is common practice, at least in California, for parties to serve written objections to nearly every interrogatory and document demand to which they respond. Notwithstanding those objections, parti...
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