♫Summertime, and the living is easy.♬

So goes the song. It’s a time to relax at a beach, hike in the mountains, take in a few ballgames, or just kick back generally with family and friends. The practice of law slows down a bit, as lawyers, judges, witnesses taking vacations makes the scheduling of depositions and trials a “problem.”

And it’s the time of year for news organizations to hunt down “summer stories,” that are usually light, and frivolous, or are strictly local but the national news picks them up and runs with them. A story like Pokemon Go taking off like a bat out of hell, for instance, is classic summer fodder. To be followed by people getting hurt or killed due to aggravated acts of stupidity as they turn a blind eye to their surroundings and chase digital fantasies.

But not this summer.

Yesterday, a bloody coup attempt in NATO ally Turkey.

Just one day after a horrific terror attack in Nice, France.

Which had followed in short order the killing of five Dallas cops (on top of many shootings of black men by white cops).

Which had followed in short order the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

This is all interspersed with the continuing horrors of a civil war in Syria, bombings in Iraq and elsewhere that our news organizations pay scant attention to in relation to the significance of the damage done.

And, of course, a presidential campaign with one candidate seeming to do do all that he can to be racially divisive.

It makes it tough to write about personal injury law. I’ve wanted to, for sure, but each time I sit down at the keyboard I get sidetracked by the latest misery and lose my inspiration.

In my mind, for instance, I had a piece written in my head about the Tesla car on auto pilot that slammed into a left turning truck. Everyone wrote about the car, with few mentioning that the truck was making a left without the coast being clear.

The summer of ’16 is not shaping up well, my friends. Whether or not this goes down in history as a momentous time or not isn’t something I’m smart enough to say, but at the moment it sure doesn’t look good. No one will ever brand this the Summer of Love.

I could issue a little prayer that things get better, but such hopefulness will, in all likelihood, simply leave me disappointed. Another option is to simply disconnect from the digital world, under the ignorance is bliss philosophy, but that will not achieve anything either.

So if the blog is quiet for awhile, you’ll know why. It’s because I’m watching the news.

Two years ago I published a post after the summer about the fact that my blog had slowed down.  Summers can do that, when many trial lawyers take vacations, as well as judges, parties and witnesses. Fewer trials, fewer depositions, slower life.

And at that time, I also noted that I would not come here and write stuff, just for the sake of writing.

I’ve been busy, very busy, and this blog will always take a back seat to family and work. It will continue to be down/slow for at least another month, with a family bar mitzvah coming up and the trail race that I organize likewise filling my non-lawyering time.

Family, fun, passions.

This note serves merely as an explanation for the quiet. All is good, by way of work and family. All is good.

And to those celebrating, I wish you a happy and healthy new year.

It may have occurred to some readers that I take others to task over various foibles or ethical issues a bit too often.  Maybe, but that snark has some pretty sharp limits and I want to briefly explain them.

If the story deals with someone acting or filing suit in such a way that indicates the person might not be in their right mind — like the recent suit by the an individual acting on behalf of God, and His Son, Jesus Christ against all homosexuals — then I don’t write about it. (Except just there, but without name, or link, because I need an example.)

You see this in pro se suits with some regularity. In a nation of 300 million people and a country that (usually) takes pride in keeping the courthouse door open to those who believe they’ve been aggrieved, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

While such stories may be amusing to many, I don’t see them serving any larger purpose. It isn’t just being politically correct regarding  someone that may well need a mental health professional, but that the anecdotes serve no broader purpose. There is no lesson to be learned.

On the other hand, if the targets of the stories are lawyers or other individuals who are capable of fending for themselves, I see no problem, so long as there is a point to be made.

That’s it, my philosophy as to who I think it’s fair to target and who not.