larryvelvel's Podcast

In this posting on www.VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com, Dean Lawrence R. Velvel of MSL discusses bribery, honesty, and the government. Velvel says you cannot separate the acts of bribing and carrying out the bribe from the constitutionally protected act of voting on the floor and the constitutionally protected reasons for the vote. Courts aught to recognize this, and that the unusual question is the need for honesty in government. But they don’t and indeed allow legalized bribery called contributions. The upshot is we have a very the dishonest government.

To read this posting and other visit www.VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com. Take a listen to the Dean's radio show What The Media Doesn't Tell You at www.mslawradio.com.

     In a recent posting on www.VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com, Dean Lawrence R. Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law discusses a recent federal court decision which he considers immoral.  In the case, a federal appeals court allowed the government to prevent terminally ill patients, for whom no standard treatment works, from having access to experimental drugs which are the only conceivable hope for saving their lives. Velvel says that this horrific decision stands the Constitution and our whole system of government on its head by failing to protect people from the misdeeds of government and instead allowing government to order what is in effect a death sentence for the innocent terminally ill.  Velvel compares the judges who made the decision to the proverbial German judges of the Nazi era.^*

 

 

Historian and author Jean Edward Smith, in a recent op ed article in The New York Times, suggested that, “the Democrats could increase the size of [the Supreme] Court to protect liberal values if they win the presidency and Congress in 2008.� His suggestion was thereafter reviled in the letters to the editor column of the Times. Dean Lawrence R. Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law, in a recent post on www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com, takes strong issue with the letters that blasted Smith. Those letters, said Velvel, “represent[s] historically uninformed, antichange, pro status quo conventional wisdom, an ideological genre that is all too common in this country and is used in nearly every political field.�

 

 

Read Velvel’s full post and find out more at www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com.

 

 

Is American society destined to the same fate that befell Rome? This is the question analyzed in a new book by Cullen Murphy Are We Rome? The Fall of Rome And The Fate Of America. Writing about the book, Dean Lawrence R. Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law, focuses on the most “pertinent parallels� between the two empires.

 

One such example, according to Velvel was that “The Romans were arrogant,� much in the same way America is today. As Rome sought to export its culture and system of government so does America today – despite the fact that the recipients of such beneficence - both then and now, might not require or want such imperial assistance. As Rome expanded its military presence beyond its natural borders so does America today. The United States maintains some 700 bases oversees and countless others unknown but to Pentagon insiders. Blinded by arrogance, with a total inability to recognize the point of view of other nations, America, as Rome before it, is headed on a path to destruction.

 

Read Velvel’s full post of Murphy’s book at www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com

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For more information on Cullen Murphy and his book, Are We Rome? The Fall of Rome And The Fate Of America an outline prepared for the television show Books Of Our Time can be found at MSLAW.EDU (Under “Books Of Our Time�). In addition, the television show can be seen on both the internet and television stations such as Comcast’s CN8 and certain other stations. The show will air around September 9, 2007. Check with your local cable carrier for times and listings.