No Facts Needed

An AI system called Pre/Dicta is able to predict with 86% accuracy how a judge will rule all without looking at the law or facts in the case. 

What does the system look at? Things that have nothing to do with the case such as how rich the judge is and whether the lawyers come from large prestigious firms or not. 

What's happening: Pre/Dicta, which launched in 2022, looks for patterns in a judge's past decisions and potential areas of bias, using around 120 datapoints.

• Datapoints include where the judge went to law school, what their net worth is, how they rule when the lawyers are from big law firms versus boutique practices and the judges' history in public law, private practice and state judgeships.
• CEO Dan Rabinowitz, a former Department of Justice trial attorney, told Axios his AI model can now predict how a judge will rule with 86% accuracy — without even considering the facts of the case.
• "We don't look at the law or the facts — we entirely ignore that," Rabinowitz said, because judges write opinions in fewer than 2% of cases, and in the case of newly appointed judges, there's often no case data to work with.
• Rabinowitz said his system has reached 81% accuracy for predicting the decisions of new judges.

More evidence, I would even say damning evidence, our legal system has little if anything to do with justice. 

Women Paying Alimony

Of all the people receiving alimony just 3% are men. This despite a Supreme Court ruling in 1979 mandating gender neutrality for alimony. Alimony awards are probably the greatest discriminatory reality in the country other than military deaths. The discrepancy is even larger than workplace deaths where women compromise just 8.6% of fatalities. 

The core problem is that very few people care. Not many people are able to understand the implication of such discrepancies. We cannot eliminate discrimination agaisnt women without also eliminating discrimination against men. Indeed, it is difficult to even determine who is being discriminated against:

• Is the fact that women compromise 97% of alimony recipients due to society viewing them as less capable than men?
• Is the reason virtually all military deaths are men due to a pervasive belief that women are fragile and need to be protected by men?
• Is the reason why there are so few female workplace deaths because we view many jobs and too difficult for women? 

Our society would be so much better if we eliminated all discrimination.  

Relationship Violence By Gender

There is an interesting thread on Reddit about violence committed by women against men. In the linked article, there is a statement that men are core commonly the perpetrators; however, in the comments there are many links to other studies which state that the perpetrators are half women. 

How about we end all relationship violence whether committed by a man or woman. 

The comments in the tread are fascinating and often quite poignant. 

My ex-wife stated in a sworn affidavit I was violent and her the kids were scared of me. Then on the stand in court she stated she had never once been scared of me and that I had never threatened her in anyway. That is called perjury. Rather than being punished she received massive amounts of money from me. 

Indeed the only violence ever committed in the relationship was committed by her. She once slapped me, in fun, so hard I ended up with a deviated septum. Something that causes me problems to this day. 

As for the kids, they chose to live with me. 

Atlatl Equalizer Hypothesis

The atlatl equalizer hypothesis posits that prehistoric male human hunters lost any advantage they may have had over women due to men's strength advantage, on average, over women with the invention of the atlatl. In essence, the invention of the atlatl made hunting by women as efficient as hunting by men. 

The rational in our current society, even many many women who identify as feminists, that men should do the dangerous jobs of fighting in the military as well as  high risk civilian jobs is also based men's strength advantage, on average, over women. This notion is just as wrong and for the same reason. Technology. Pulling a trigger or pushing a button doesn't require much strength. 

In fact, when it comes to shooting women have an advantage over men. In the Olympics, rifle and pistol shooting was mixed gender until the 1984. They were then separated by gender due to women''s inherent advantage in shooting sports because of their, on  average, lower heart rates.  Just like women don't compete against men in the 100 meter dash due to men's advantage in muscle power. 

Gender Bias

Many, if not most, people are incapable of believing gender bias exists both ways. It is as if somehow stating that yes, men experience gender bias somehow invalidates the idea that women experience gender bias. I despise this way of thinking because it is so shallow. 

The reason Congress and C-level business position are mostly male is societal discrimination. 

The reason nearly all military deaths and the vast majority of workplace deaths and injuries are mostly men is because of societal discrimination. 

The reason it almost always men who pay alimony is societal discrimination. 

Here is a fascinating discussion of gender based discrimination both past and present with Dr. Cory Clark at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Lazzaro Sentenced

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was recently sentenced to 21 year in jail for sex trafficking. Lazarro, a top Minnesota republican operative and fund raiser ran his operation right under the nose of Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Oddly Choi, who has a self-appointed and self-professed mission to prosecute sex trafficking, somehow missed the whole operation despite it happening right under his nose. Maybe that is because Choi rarely goes after anyone with power and money. 

Choi's actions, or lack thereof, are in alignment with his decision to blatantly obstruct justice to protect fellow lawyers when he was sent unquestionable evidence of crime by a lawyer. At least he is consistent.  

A Divorce In Ukraine

This story of a divorce in Ukraine is gut puncher. I am not even really sure why as there was no animosity between the parties. 

At the beginning of he war a women and her kids left the country for safety. The husband, a psychologist, stayed to help the soldiers. And keep in mind he could not have left even if he wanted to as men of his age were forbidden to leave due to the general mobilization. 

The woman eventually met another man abroad and sought a divorce. 

Divorces as well as marriages are increase during wars so this isn't unusual but what is hard is that the couple were generally happy together before the war and admit but for the war they would still be together. 

They would go on, like so many Ukrainian men and women, to experience the war very differently. Tetiana was thrust into a whole new world, discovering a new country, a new language and, in a shock to Andrii, a new boyfriend. Andrii found himself on the front lines counseling depressed soldiers and, for the first time since he was a teenager, living alone. He was effectively blocked by law from visiting his family.