Since it’s a quiet day today, particularly noting the absence of New York news on the criminal justice front, I’ve posted about few things that have been bouncing around in my head, and have the time to deal with a few points raised by readers/commenters that have come in by email, with the assurance that I have faithfully reproduced the emails except to the extent that I have decided to change them completely to suit my own purposes.

Greenfield,

I realize that I’ve never contributed anything to your blawg and only go to your blog because one of your posts deals with something I actually care about, but I disagree with you about your use of one word in a post having nothing to do with the point of the post and I want to write about it at great length and argue with you about it all day long.  What’s your problem?

For some bizarre reason, some people confuse a blawg with a public forum where they have the right to hijack a thread because of some peculiar personal peccadillo.  I generally don’t get involved in deleting comments, except those that needlessly attack others or try to use my blawg to promote commercial ventures.  But after allowing someone to make their point, enough is enough. 

If you want a place where you can post all day about some tangential nonsense, get your own blog.  I’m not under any obligation to spend my day arguing with every nut who shows up here.  There are many readers who contribute to the conversation here, and raise significant and interesting points.  Then there are people who show up only to argue about nonsense.  You hit the nail on the head when you say that you’ve contributed nothing to the discussion. 

Greenfield,

You post an awful lot of stuff, but do you think you could take a few minutes and correct the typos, or the obvious errors, or the occasional misstated facts?  It really doesn’t seem that it would be too much of a burden to get things right.

You are absolutely right, and I am ashamed.  The problem is that I hate editing myself.  I love it when other people edit my work, on the other hand.  In the first few posts when I started this blawg, my wife read my posts and corrected them.  She just loves to correct anything I do.  It’s a symbiotic relationship.  But then she stopped reading my posts regularly and that was that. 

Writing a blawg is not the same as writing legal briefs.  This blawg is an opportunity to deal with news, issues and ideas.  It’s not about representing clients, and it’s never going to receive the level of attention and detail that goes into my legal work.  If I were blawging for self-promotion, I would polish my posts carefully as a marketing tool.  But my posts are intended to add to the wealth of ideas in the blawgosphere, and I unfortunately leave behind a few typos that spellcheck doesn’t pick up. 

Sometimes I make a factual error.  Unlike typos, this is a problem and I try to correct it if it’s significant to the point of the piece.  I rely on my sources of information for blawg posts, as opposed to doing thorought background research as I would for my legal work.  This is one of the reasons why blawgs do not provide legal advice.  But still, I certainly don’t want to include erroneous information and when I make a mistake, let me know and I will fix it, even if it makes me look like an idiot.

I don’t think that these detract too greatly from the discussion, so I don’t let this bother me.  I’m sorry that it bothers you, and I hope that you will be able to look beyond the occasional error to the point that I’m trying to make.  On the other hand, if you see a mistake, I would be thrilled if you would let me know so that I can correct it.

Greenfield,

I posted a comment and you didn’t respond to it?  What am I, chopped liver?

Well, in the figurative sense, yes you are.  Some comments just don’t call for a response.  Others ask questions that aren’t really relevant (and sometimes just plain dumb).  And sometimes, there’s no nice way to respond to a comment, so in the exercise of discretion, I let it go.  I invite all comments, but that’s not a guarantee that I (or anyone else) will respond.  Sorry that you feel like chopped liver, but it happens.

That’s it for now.  If you have anything to add, feel free to send me an email.