Bizarre, Courts

“Do You Want Him To Bite You?”: Immigration Judge Accused Of Threatening Child With Dog Attack If He Did Not Keep Quiet

Judge V. Stuart Couch, an immigration judge, is under fire this week after he allegedly threatened a Guatemalan child that he would have a “very big dog” bite him if he did not keep quiet. Kathryn Coiner-Collier, a legal advocacy group coordinator, signed an affidavit accusing Couch of the repeated threat to the child.

According to the affidavit, Couch told the child during an immigration hearing in March 2016 that “I have a very big dog in my office, and if you don’t be quiet, he will come out and bite you.”

Couch then allegedly continued as the child remained undeterred by the threat of a judicially mandated mauling: “Want me to go get the dog? If you don’t stop talking, I will bring the dog out. Do you want him to bite you?” He later asked Coiner-Collier to carry the boy out of the courtroom and sit with him but allegedly added that he had used the threat with other children with great success but not this one.

Couch was promoted in August to the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals. He is a graduate of Duke University (1987) with a juris doctorate from Campbell University (1996) and a master of law degree from George Washington University Law School (2008). He was originally appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2010.

Neither Couch nor the court has publicly responded to the allegations.

116 thoughts on ““Do You Want Him To Bite You?”: Immigration Judge Accused Of Threatening Child With Dog Attack If He Did Not Keep Quiet”

  1. The liberal media: enemy of America.

    Condi Rice for 2020!!

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/condoleezza-rice-stops-nbc-host-in-her-tracks-after-she-asked-if-russia-elected-trump

    Condoleezza Rice stops NBC host in her tracks after she asked if Russia ‘elected’ Trump

    Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped NBC’s Savannah Guthrie for asking whether or not Russia “elected Donald Trump.”

    Rice and Philip Zelikow were interviewed on Today Wednesday morning about their new book on the Cold War titled To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth.

    Guthrie asked, “When you look at the 2016 election and you look at how, relatively speaking, it was decided by a handful of votes in a few states, do you think it’s possible that Russia’s election interference actually worked? It actually elected Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton?”

    “I don’t think there’s any evidence of that,” Rice countered. “I think that really does devalue the people in Wisconsin and Michigan and others who decided to vote for President Trump. Whether you like this president or not, whether you believe that he should have been president or not, let’s give the credit to the Americans who went out and voted for somebody who they thought would bring change.”

    The former Bush cabinet member continued, “The question is, are we going to be responsive to some of the messages that were out there … People who felt that they were disadvantaged by globalization, the unemployed coal miner in West Virginia, the opioid-addicted person in Pennsylvania, are we going to be responsive to those people?”

  3. We’re to focus like a laser on judge speaking childese in an attempt to effectively communicate a principle of decorum, while the Deep Deep State is still in the process of conducting a coup d’ etat? Holy guacamole, Batman!

  4. Principal Gary takes on parents who bend the rules & spoil their brats. Not with a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, but an Apple smart phone with all the bells & whistles.

  5. Children should be taught respect for authority. The judge is the highest civil authority most folks will ever meet. The judge judges all, including the police and the civil authorities. The judge must have latitude to command punishment, and thus respect. The judge has the legal power of contempt which case mean a near-immediate credible threat of incarceration or monetary damages.

    I go to court less than the average trial lawyer but I go a lot compared to some. I have seen and heard judges threaten to lock people up for disruptive behavior. If a judge tells a child to be quiet and the child ignores, what should the judge do? Lock the kid up?

    “Locking kids up in cages!” they will cry

    We are headed for disaster in this country. The forces of chaos and disorder are gathering tremendous momentum. They will only be reigned in the way they always have been reigned in. By order imposed on them by force.

    THAT IS WHY THE JUDGE WEARS A BLACK ROBE. IT IS INTENDED TO EVOKE FEAR AND HENCE RESPECT

    why do i have to explain these things on a legal blog?

    1. here a righteous judge jailed a foolish woman who laughted at the family of the victim of her own daughter’s fatal drunk driving crime

      can you imagine laughing at such victims? the parent of a perpetrator?

      JAILED FOR CONTEMPT and rightly so

    2. here another righteous judge teaches and errant defendant manners

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjLUrxzLuA

      this is the judicial power of contempt in action. and why?

      if judges are treated with contempt, then all order will fail

      I am not a big fan of the highest court judges, but i respect the trial judge, the court of first impression, highly
      we all must or barbarism will quickly creep in. this is simple business.

      1. “If judges are treated with contempt, then all order will fail.”

        – Mr. Kurtz
        ________

        The Constitution and Bill of Rights have been treated with contempt since the “Reign of Terror” of “Crazy Abe” Lincoln (no nation in history ended slavery by total war) which concluded with the improperly ratified (at gunpoint under the duress of brutal post-war military occupation) “Reconstruction Amendments”, illegitimate to this day; America suffering the antithetical effects and the imposition of the principles of communism ever since. Order has failed. The entire American welfare state is unconstitutional.

    3. Here is the face of barbarism and disrespect. A man who slew a pregnant woman cusses at the judge.

      The judge is a weakling; she lets him run at the mouth.

      The corrections officers face is disturbed. he knows barbarism and disorder when he sees and hears it.

      the perpetrator should have been silenced and additional punishment added to his term. of course, considering how heinous the crime was, one wonders what sort of non-corporal punishment would teach this evil creature a lesson

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlztosBDEEM

      weakness invites depredation. our society is weak and it daily invites worse and worse depredation.

  6. If proven true, it was inappropriate and inexcusable to threaten a child with a police dog mauling, whether she was two or five. That is not appropriate discipline. What is critical is if the judge spoke the threat in a language the child understood, or had it translated. That would frighten her. Since he clearly had expected a response, I suspect this was communicated to her in her language.

    Why was the child in the courtroom in the first place? Mothers in churches across America know to take their children outside if they become disruptive, or listen to the mass or service in the narthex or vestibule. Why would court be any different? Are very young illegal immigrant children required to appear in court? If not, then it would be best to have someone watch them, even if it’s just outside the courtroom. A two year old is probably not going to be silent during the court proceedings.

    Up until the exact moment when the judge made the threat, proper arrangements should have been made for the child, whether that was through the mother or ICE. When I’ve been to court for jury duty or as a witness, I recall that there was childcare on site. I don’t know what the requirements were to use it, or if it is common at courthouses.

    However, the judge was utterly and completely wrong to say such a thing. This was more common decades ago. Be good or the monster under the bed will bite you in your sleep…leading to night terrors or nightmares.

    This is an example of stupid stuff. This judge was going on about his day, and let himself get sucked into stupid stuff, which has now blown up internationally.

    If the mother did not meet the requirements for asylum, this should not change the outcome of her case. If she immigrated here illegally with a small child, then she, herself, put her child in real danger, rather than the judge’s unkind, empty threat. The judge’s behavior should affect only himself.

    1. Karen,
      “Why was the child in the courtroom in the first place?”

      I wondered the same thing.

  10. Threatening to sic a dog on a two year old. Hmmm. The last time I checked the “Judging for Dummies” manual, this was not a recommended technique for controlling your courtroom. I don’t know about anyone else, but it sure gives me paws.

    2. Don de Drain – who is the author and publisher of “Judging for Dummies” manual. And do they have it on audio? I might want a copy.

      1. Paul

        It is an elusive volume not publicly available. The author is unknown but rumor has it that it was written by Justice Thomas. That would explain why there is no audio version.

        1. Don de Drain – I will send a request to my rare book dealer. Maybe he can find me copy.

    1. I saw photos of that bloody Shi’ite festival. Traumatic for children, lasting psychological damage, and a very efficient way to spread blood borne pathogens. Like FGM.

      It’s the stuff of nightmares…but it’s real.

      1. Anon – I cannot tell if you are serious. Do you really not understand the difference between male circumcision and female genital mutilation, or the ritual cutting of toddler’s heads by dirty knives in a blood soaked festival straight out of Stephen King?

        https://news.sky.com/story/man-headbutted-to-the-ground-by-cyclist-who-ran-red-light-in-london-11806155

        Type One permanently removes sexual pleasure for women, in an effort to keep women faithful. Considering the reality of arranged marriages, often to much older men, this was a pressing concern.

        Types 2-3 are more severe. Type 3 can lead to terrible infections, as only a tiny hole is left for menstrual fluid. It requires the use of a knife on the wedding night. The labia are removed and the remaining flesh sewn together so they seal as they heal. This has to be sliced open in a painful and bloody injury before the marriage can be consummated. The scar tissue is hard, which usually leads to tearing during childbirth. It is associated with a much greater risk of death during childbirth, and makes a painful process far worse.

        Type 4 refers to all other harmful procedures on female genitals, such a pricking or cauterizing.

        FGM causes lasting psychological and physical harm to women. Women with the more severe types

        Male circumcision developed during millennia before modern plumbing and was common in many religions and cultures. There are certainly arguments to be made for an against it, but comparing it to FGM is a false equivalence that truly negates the great suffering of the little girls who undergo it.

          1. i think FGM is worse than male circumcision but i believe male circumcision is outdated and can be harmful as well. we should discourage male circumcision as well. I would not go so far as to try and make it illegal. still i find it troubling.

            but this was not the point of the posting by turley

  12. Pingback: “Do You Want Him To Bite You?”: Immigration Judge Accused Of Threatening Child With Dog Attack If He Did Not Keep Quiet – Legal Service for Business

  13. Whatever it takes to shut the little brat up. He probably should have had the bailiff spank his bottom. Plus, it is nowhere near as mean as wishing Trump’s young son would get set upon by pedophiles.

    Plus, how well has all this “niceness” crap worked on children??? Are kids today healthier and better-adjusted as many spankings have been replace with negotiations and timeouts???

    Teen suicides are up, and a lot. And all the sheltering! Look at this:

    “As a teacher of undergraduates, Ms. Paglia despairs at how “bad it is for young people, filled with fears, to be raised in this kind of a climate where personal responsibility isn’t spoken of.” Since her own youth, she says, college students have devolved from rebels into skittish supplicants, petitioning people in authority to protect them from real life. Young adults are encouraged to look for “substitute parent figures on campus, which is what my generation rebelled against in college. We threw that whole ‘in loco parentis’ thing out.”

    There’s an undeniable irony in hearing a septuagenarian, from a generation that was famously preoccupied with youth, deplore the state of today’s young people. “Our parents were the World War II generation,” Ms. Paglia says, “so they had a sense of reality about life.” Children now “are raised in a far more affluent period. Even people without much money have cellphones, televisions, access to cars. They’re raised in an air-conditioned environment. I can still remember when there was no air-conditioning.” She shudders as she sips her cold beer, adding that she suffered horribly in the heat.

    “Everything is so easy now,” Ms. Paglia continues. “The stores are so plentifully supplied. You just go in and buy fruits and vegetables from all over the world.” Undergrads, who’ve studied neither economics nor history, “have a sense that this is the way life has always been. Because they’ve never been exposed to history, they have no idea that these are recent attainments that come from a very specific economic system.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-feminist-capitalist-professor-under-fire-11567201511

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

      1. Mr Kurtz – Paglia is a 2nd Wave Feminist. They are on the side of the angels. 😉

    2. Like apparently many on this blog, Paglia has never parented anyone. and that is a good thing.

      1. according to wiki

        For more than a decade, Paglia was the partner of artist Alison Maddex.[16][17] Paglia legally adopted Maddex’s son (who was born in 2002).[18] In 2007 the couple separated[19] but remained “harmonious co-parents,” in Paglia’s words, who lived two miles apart.[4]

        Paglia is an excellent writer and critic. I recommend her works. here is a fine conversation with Jordan Peterson

        2. kurtz, I think she is a light weight attention whore who stirs the pot of her narrow little north eastern academic life for press. I’d like to see her spend a year in Tulsa – for example – and then decide where our problems lie.

          1. I think she is a light weight attention

            Looking forward to your monograph refuting Sexual Personae.

            her narrow little north eastern academic life for press. I’d like to see her spend a year in Tulsa – for example – and then decide where our problems lie.

            She grew up in Chenango County, New York, you twit.

            1. She has not left academia since the 1960s and lives in Philly, you fool.

              Like i said, let her live her intellectual lesbian lifestyle in Tulsa for a year and ;let’s hear her tune then

              1. you must not be familiar with her work anon. she is very well grounded in regular concerns.
                in terms of academics, typical feminist academics revile her. they do not like her.

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTAGAChWWzo

                in terms of her “leftism,” it’s the kind that’s more in tune with the interests of the workers, matter of fact, as opposed to the usual deconstructionist post whatever gobbledygook

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grCD_aIjCYg

                this may the atlantic had an article about her and those who hate her

                1. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/camille-paglia-uarts-left-deplatform/587125/

                  “For more than 30 years, the critic Camille Paglia has taught at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Now a faction of art-school censors wants her fired for sharing wrong opinions on matters of sex, gender identity, and sexual assault.

                  “Camille Paglia should be removed from UArts faculty and replaced by a queer person of color,” an online petition declares. “If, due to tenure, it is absolutely illegal to remove her, then the University must at least offer alternate sections of the classes she teaches, instead taught by professors who respect transgender students and survivors of sexual assault.” Regardless, the students behind the petition want her banned from holding speaking events or selling books on campus. In their telling, her ideas “are not merely ‘controversial,’ they are dangerous.”

                  Others believe that the student activists are trying to set a dangerous precedent that would undermine freedom of expression and free academic inquiry. “The effort to remove her for expressing her *opinions* strikes me as political correctness run amuck,” a faculty member emailed. “Instead of discussing and debating, they attempt to shame and destroy. This is pure tribalism. It is exactly what Donald Trump does when he encounters something he doesn’t like.” Most at the institution seem to hold positions somewhere in between.

                  Camille Paglia, who identifies as transgender, joined the University of the Arts in 1984 when older institutions were merging in order to create it. While UArts no longer awards tenure, Paglia is among a few long-serving faculty members grandfathered into a prior system. According to detractors, “Paglia has been teaching at UArts for many years, and has only become more controversial over time.” In fact, she has always been controversial.

                  In Paglia’s first book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, she describes sex and nature as “brutal, daemonic” forces, “criticizes feminists for sentimentality or wishful thinking about the causes of rape, violence, and poor relations between the sexes,” and roots sex differences in biology. Seven publishers rejected the book before Yale University Press bought it in 1990; Sexual Personae was then savaged by feminist critics on the way to becoming an unexpected, 700-page best seller. And it sparked a national debate about art, history, gender, ideas that offend, free inquiry, and political correctness.

                  The fight over Sexual Personae was especially vicious at Connecticut College, where a student suggested adding the book to the institution’s 1992 summer-reading list. Some professors were so outraged that they tried to block its inclusion.

                  “During meetings with the committee, professors denounced the work as ‘trash’ and compared it to Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’” the Hartford Courant reported. In the campus newspaper, the head of the women’s-studies program opined, “Whenever we think about freedom of expression, we need to think also about the damage that certain kinds of speech can do. Let’s not be fooled by packaging into mistaking any hate-speech or sexist or racist doctrine for ideas.”

                  But Claire L. Gaudiani, the president of the college, countered, “It is a bizarre idea to think that by placing a book on a reading list that an academic community is endorsing any book as a community. For those who take offense at the various passages is understandable, but we cannot let that influence the book’s selection.”

                  Sexual Personae stayed on the list.

                  The student who originally proposed it commented at the time, “I got angry because I was seeing a great deal of intolerance that I would have sworn a few months ago did not exist at Connecticut College. I fear a little bit for the future of the reading program with people here who might try to stifle the diversity of ideas……”

                  MY COMMENT: these whiny, snowflake “students” are pathetic. Hail Camile!

                2. I’m very familiar with her Kurtz. She has made a name for herself by being the outlier in her sheltered environment. I’d take her opinions more seriously if she ever left there and lived her supposed free lifestyle in places where she’d get her ass kicked for doing so. Then another of her paeans to male aggression would ring more true.

                  2. “She has made a name for herself by being the outlier in her sheltered environment.”

                    you make a living in a sheltered environment insulting others on the internet anonymously, while Camile lets it all hang out

                    Your t!tt!es must hang really low

                3. “she is very well grounded in regular concerns”

                  Yes, she grew up in a immigrant, working-class family and neighborhood.

          2. Have you been to Philadelphia? i have never been to Tulsa but I have Philly. It is in Pennsylvania which is part of the “Rust Belt” and has been decimated by free trade and deindustrialization. If the workers’ concerns are on your mind, they are on people’s minds in Philly, too.

            I noticed something about Philly too– they have a plaque to Smedley Butler in one of their local monuments. Butler was just quoted by someone here the other day– “war is a racket,” etc

            You might just pick up some of her books and give her a try before you condemn her. Perhaps you think I can only recommend authors with whom you should disagree?

            I won’t be recommending any other texts by lesbians that’s for sure. Although Sappho reads well.

            ————————-
            Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,[1]

            child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, this I pray:

            Dear Lady, don’t crush my heart

            with pains and sorrows.

            5 But come here, if ever before,

            when you heard my far-off cry,

            you listened. And you came,

            leaving your father’s house,

            yoking your chariot of gold.

            10 Then beautiful swift sparrows led you over the black earth

            from the sky through the middle air,

            whirling their wings into a blur.

            Rapidly they came. And you, O Blessed Goddess,

            a smile on your immortal face,

            15 asked what had happened this time,

            why did I call again,

            and what did I especially desire

            for myself in my frenzied heart:

            “Who this time am I to persuade

            20 to your love? Sappho, who is doing you wrong?

            For even if she flees, soon she shall pursue.

            And if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them.

            If she doesn’t love you, soon she shall love

            even if she’s unwilling.”

            25 Come to me now once again and release me

            from grueling anxiety.

            All that my heart longs for,

            fulfill. And be yourself my ally in love’s battle.

            1. Kurtz, I don’t begrudge you your admiration of Paglia, but I don’t share it. I have read and heard her opinion many times over the last 3 decades and I think she is an ankle biting phony, immune from pressures she makes light of – if not celebrates – that other people in America – especially women – face.

              I have been to Philly once, but it is one of those heavily Democratic, eastern seaboard cities with a cultural elite, and that’s where she hangs out. If she takes a position at Baylor or moves to Scranton, let me know.

              1. and I think she is an ankle biting phony,

                She critiques liberal tropes. Naughty girl.

                1. Yes, while choosing to live surrounded by liberals intellectuals. It’s not like real estate is expensive in Tulsa and Bakersfield. She would be so much more comfortable there with the “real people”, uncorrupted by Foucault.

                  1. I’m sure the follow e-mail advisory told you this would be an effective line of attack.

                    1. Gee, TIA, that’s a stunning comeback. So clever. Give me a little time while I wait for my response.

                  2. She is a tenured art professor, why would she leave that position before retirement?

                    1. Her presence in public life bothers Anon1, so ‘decency’ requires she leave it.

                      Liberal discourse relies almost entirely these days on a set of stupid and malicious conventions. Now and again, you find a serious policy wonk whose work isn’t tailored to avoid trouble and whose voice breaks through to non-specialist venues (one of the few, Mark Kleiman, just died). For the most part, though, liberal discourse subsists on emotional displays and professional threats against dissenters. They cannot process dissent in any adult way, which is why Anon1 is enraged at Paglia and making ad hominem attacks on her. Paglia viewpoint is multifarious, but one consistent theme is that august and scruffy, feminist discourse is largely rubbish and takes little account of the human person generally or of the human person navigating an affluent technological society like ours.

                    2. Yes, well I understand she might not have that same opportunity at Liberty Univ or Baylor, or a social milieu in tune with her flamboyant self promotion as a libertine, and that’s a real tragedy given her claim to affection for working class people, at least the ones who wouldn’t scold or beat her up. You know most of them are also very down on Foucault and Derrida.

                    3. TIA apparently doesn’t realize Paglia’s “presence in public life” is almost non-existent except among aging Republicans who don’t buy her books – more big words than Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Coulter – but suck up her typical ankle biting comments, like praising Trump while claiming to be a Democrat. Her production has worn as thin as has her act. Google her and see if you find anything recent. She’s running on fumes.

                    4. Paglia’s “presence in public life” is almost non-existent except among aging Republicans

                      Which is why you’re in a fury at her. Got it.

                    5. Yes, well I understand she might not have that same opportunity at Liberty Univ or Baylor

                      You keep repairing to this red herring. Why not try a valid argument?

              2. I spent about three days walking Philly on foot. i saw some of the usual landmarks but there are too many to mention. Most of all, from what I recall, I liked walking through Chinatown, Rittenhouse square area, the art museum, the Rodin museum, and the Franklin museum.

                Not being a Democrat or a “cultural elite,” i followed my own footpath willy nilly as I pleased.

                what i find different and interesting about Philly say compared to Chicago, is how much denser it is, which of course is related to its older origins, and how the neighborhood “tenor” can change so much faster. In Chicago you can feel a neighborhood changing from a longer ways off. In Philly it can transition from gentrified to bohemian to ghetto level super fast. I found that stimulating. There is a lot of social “microclimate” to be sampled in Philly and tons of interesting restaurants. I think the city isn’t even close to tapping its own potential when it comes to attracting visitors.

                I have also hiked a little bit in various parts of the Lehigh valley. I’m not big hiker like Turley but there’s a lot of fun to be had in the Poconos, year round

                1. I think the city isn’t even close to tapping its own potential when it comes to attracting visitors.

                  It’s a very handsome town, but its decision-making class is determined to tolerate unconscionable levels of crime and decay. Their dispositions get worse over time, not better. Given the demographics of the Philadelphia commuter belt, a homicide rate of about 7 per 100,000 might be a realistic goal for Philadelphia. The homicide rate currently exceeds 17 per 100,000. Clear the hoodlums off the streets, rebalance property tax burdens, put city sanitation crews to work against grafitti, and end collective bargaining and excess compensation for public employees. Then you can create an environment congenial enough for the general tourist.

              1. some things, not others

                he was a big Prohibitionist. that’s not usually remembered about him. Prohibition was close to one of the stupidist social schemes of the 20th century if not the most.

                I like a lot of the “war is a racket” stuff but it doesn’t really help solve very many specific problems to say so. If any.

                War is a perennial part of social conflict, and lots of people make money off social conflict. So, it’s useful to remember that, but the observation itself doesn’t really perscribe any specific cures.

                There is a connection between utopian minded people who think you can make drinking booze illegal, and it will be a net gain to society (Prohibition) and also the folks who think you can somehow make war itself illegal. You can’t . War is the highest prerogative of a sovereign and until there are no more sovereigns we will always have some form of war.

                At best we can try and reduce social ills but they arise from human nature which repeats itself in every new person and age. So evils will keep on coming even if we declare them naughty and illegal. If making something illegal produces more harm than gain, then it ought not to be illegal per se, although it may be contained.

                It’s for such a reason that I am also an advocate of legalizing sex work between free and consenting adults, subject to reasonable forms of licensing and occupational zoning, to protect public health and morals through modest means.

        3. I have heard both of these clowns before and as back ground to my desk work, distracting and amusing. She spends her time congratulating herself, including as the sole and true carrier of the 60’s spirit, and he says stupid BS like “I can’t have respect for a man who would not fight me in a disagreement.” I guess that dumps anyone in his 70’s and justifies The Rock dissing him.

    3. Squeeky,
      Camille Paglia is awesome. That was a great article.

      “Whatever it takes to shut the little brat up. He probably should have had the bailiff spank his bottom.”

      He is two-years-old and he probably had to wait forever before it was his mother’s turn for her (their?) hearing. I am not against spanking when it is warranted, but that is his mother’s decision, not the judge’s or bailiff’s. Why was the little boy in there in the first place?

      “Plus, it is nowhere near as mean as wishing Trump’s young son would get set upon by pedophiles.”

      True, but one does not justify the other.

      “Plus, how well has all this “niceness” crap worked on children???”

      What ‘niceness’ crap are you alluding to? Helicopter parenting? Inconsistency? Over-protection?

      “Are kids today healthier and better-adjusted as many spankings have been replace with negotiations and timeouts???”

      I agree that negotiating with little kids is not a good parenting strategy. Negotiating with teens, up to a point, is okay (they are having to take on more responsibilities as they enter adulthood).

      “Teen suicides are up, and a lot. And all the sheltering!”

      Teen suicides are up, but I do not think it can be solely pinned on poor parenting. Single-parent families are a risk-factor for suicide. Having a rotten diet of processed foods can affect mental health.

      Sheltering. Makes me think of ‘hot-house flowers’ that get scorched and wither if they are put outside directly without ‘hardening’ them first. Kids/teens have to figure out their own problems to some degree and deal with adversity before they land in the real world.

  15. Two strikes against him, though the canine method was brilliant. Sure beats using a stick, pun intended, maybe not

    “George Washington University Law School (2008). He was originally appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2010”

    1. He studied at GWU Law, just like Michael Avennatti. Anything from GWU Law is, well, “Res ipsa loquitur:

    2. Eric Holder is almost as bad as GWU Law….almost. Perhaps the Judge is Eric Holder’s boi toy too?

  16. Amazing the trivia that interests the professor. And we have the usual distaff side scolds weighing in. At least they didn’t complain about ‘name calling’.

    1. we think the same exact thing about your moronic comments. how do you say in Latin, “get a life?

  17. That is no way to handle a talkative two-year-old. The threatened punishment does not fit the child’s “crime”; it was out of line. Redirect or remove.

    It is also foolish to threaten something you do not actually intend to carry out. He was all bark–not the image you want to project as a judge. On top of that, he presented himself as a bully of little kids.

    1. Prairie Rose – since no dog existed, it was an empty threat, an attempt to get the child to shut up. Personally, I am a Duct Tape man.

          1. But it became obvious it was empty when the judge asked the legal advocate to sit in the hall with the child.

            Also, a judge should not threaten bodily harm to someone else’s 2-year-old.

            2. D,
              I guess I do not entirely see the contradiction. I am pretty centrist (albeit libertarian-leaning on some things) and disagree with abortion for pretty much everything except serious medical problems.

              Paul and I can civilly disagree about how the judge managed his courtroom.

              I do not want liberals or conservatives to be carpet-bombed. Both perspectives are necessary to tease out optimal paths and solutions.

        1. Chuck Aspinwall – I am going on vacation later in the year, not sure in which direction. However, most people know generally where I am homebased. If you get in my area, let me know and we will meet for coffee.

  19. I see no problem here. It was the invisible dog or Duct Tape. Always a toss-up as to which is most effective under the circumstances. He went for the invisible dog, the kid did not buy it. It may have been used on him before, who knows. Now the judge is down to Duct Tape or talking the kid out of the court. So he goes with taking him out of court. Me? I would have told the attorney to hush the child or they were both in criminal contempt. Still, what does the judge get for being Mr. Niceguy? He gets the attorney filing a complaint about him. Really, where is this world coming to?

      1. It wasn’t his business to be nice. Instructing the youth of the nation often means treating them with asperity and frank coercion.

        1. You are right; ‘nice’ was a poor choice of words. He should be firm and professional. Natural consequences would be sufficient. If the child will not be quiet, removal to the hallway (and away from his mother) is enough.

          Plenty of other options to manage misbehaving 2-year-olds. He most certainly should not threaten, however emptily, to sic a dog on a child.

          1. He most certainly should not threaten, however emptily, to sic a dog on a child.

            The young don’t need your mollycoddling.

            1. What is your definition of mollycoddling?

              Letting a small child know in a no-nonsense way that he will be removed from the presence of his mother and everyone else (his audience) if he will not sit quietly, and then removing him (giving him then a stern talking-to in the hallway for good measure) should be enough at that age. Redirect or remove.

              Empty threats make kids disrespect their elders because they decide adults are toothless blowhards.

              1. Empty threats make kids disrespect their elders because they decide adults are toothless blowhards.

                Enid, you’ve repeatedly fussed over a debatable point in regard to a minor incident, the mark of a kibbitzing pest. The judge has his methods, you have yours. I have little doubt his are better and more effective in almost all situations.

                1. TIA,
                  I’m not sure why you are being cranky, especially when we agree on many things.

                  If it is a debatable point, should we not debate?

                  Why do you support the judge’s threatening of a disruptive 2-year-old child with a dog bite?

              2. Prairie, of course a 2 year old should not be threatened with nightmarish consequences and the arguments against that here raise questions about either the fitness for parenting or racism of those posters.

                1. One time we were driving up Stony Island before it was “cleaned up” and I threatened to let me disobedient children out on the corner to walk home. I didn’t say what would happen; i just let them look around and use their imaginations.

                  Of course, they took one look outside and decided to shut their traps.

                  Was it a phony threat? of course. Was it effective? of course. Was it racist? well, I don’t think so, although we did not share “race” with any of the people walking on the street. I just let instincts do the talking for me. Instincts honed by countless generations who before us, survived. Instincts that cognitive researches say allows even infants to recognize “race” — and to prefer their own.

                  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566511/

                  Why? Why? Evolution, in a word. Figure it out.

                  Fear helps keep us safe. Fear creates meaningful social boundaries. Fear is the source of respect. In the old days there was a good book called “The Bible” that taught this timeless emotional reality to Americans. The Bible draws on the greek word for fear, which also means, respect

                  https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G5401/phobos.htm

                  But why? because we have fear, fear of the consequences, the consequences of being fired, sued, and shamed by the higher, hidden authorities, that want us all passive, weak, ignorant, and atomized.

                  This judge is old enough that he is still stuck in the patriotic illusion that “we” are a nation. Well, not in the sense that he learned the word. After a thorough shaming, he may come to understand this.

                  1. after the link to the lexicon entry for phobos, i meant to ask, “Why do we not inculcate the same sort of discipline and healthy respect for authority for children that we did in earlier generations?”

                    I do not mean mindless obedience to authority — I am simply suggesting the level of respect necessary to allow a child to zip their lip on command in a courtroom. Not a very high bar, one would think!

                    To which my answer was, we are afraid to do so, afraid because the social workers, the fake news, and the usual assorted group of dogooders will “Get us in trouble”

                    and that the judge is now “in trouble,” being scandalized in the media for daring to hush an errant child who could not remain silent in the appropriate social setting.

                    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPPGMNOLaMw

                      of course in the movie apocalypse now, kurtz is a man become monster

                      but why is this speech so popular? so often reproduced on youtube and referenced in popular culture?

                      because it has in it a strong element of truth

                      beyond the order of law imposed by the state, which is embodied in a judge, who commands respect through fear of his authority,
                      lies the authorities of private society, which also commands respect through fear of authority, which can bring negative consequences.
                      outside the order of society, lies the horrors of barbarism.
                      the negative consequences of barbarism, are the horror to which kurtz refers.
                      barbarism is real, it is out there, and it can come to us all, near and far

                      and in fact there is a great irony here. because a lot of the teeming migrants are aliens in every sense to Americans, fundamentally some of them are as much barbarians as the rest of the world was to the ancient Greeks who coined the term barbarian in the first place.

                      the asylum process is a valuable thing for America, and it’s been abused. there is a need to bring order back to that process. right now it is nearly broken with hearings set out years in advance. the migrants know it, they have known it for years, and they have in many cases, lied and abused the situation for their own private benefit.

                      there are a lot of genuine asylees, and good claimants will come in the future. but many of them are not good claims and should be rejected. this is all inter-related

                      “A system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem… And dreadfully distinct against the dark, a tall white fountain played” –Nabokov

                  2. My father once threatened to put me out of the car to walk home. I called his bluff. After he had to run down the road to get me back into the car, he had to rethink his future strategy in dealing with such a headstrong, @zzhole child.

    2. “Really, where is this world coming to?”

      it could be worse. Imagine if retirees had access to a computer and a WiFi connection.

      1. Madeline – it is worse than that. I have two computers hardwired to the interwebs using the fasting interweb provider in the Valley of the Sun. Now, Benson is thumbing his way through his phone using WiFi, my speeds are probably higher than his.

        1. Unless you’re fleeing savage killings and abject poverty where you live and you wish for better.

      2. Oh but we do, grasshopper. And we rule, ’cause we have the bucks you aren’t making. We have the assets, but you are making America great again. Good for you. Keep on with your two jobs which pay jack shit, and when you get to our age you can live on the street. Whatever you do, DO NOT ask the advice of an older person, please.

        2. Chuck Aspinwall – it is not like retired people have wisdom or some sh*t that might be valuable.

Comments are closed.