September 2018

Temperament By Leonard Zwelling Grouchy. That’s what my kids would say about my temperament. And they would probably be right. It’s kind of the way I am and that’s the point, because there are two aspects to temperament. The first is the one you show the world (which is not necessarily the one you show […]

Terrified vs. Belligerent: Dr. Ford vs. Judge Kavanaugh By Leonard Zwelling Late Thursday, September 27, as I write this blog, we learned that the Senate Judiciary Committee will be voting tomorrow on the fitness of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for a place on the Supreme Court. That fact would not have been big news a few

What To Do In A Massacre By Leonard Zwelling In September of 1973, President Richard Nixon wanted Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox fired. Cox had been looking into the matter of the Watergate break-in and the associated crimes. He had subpoenaed the tapes Nixon had secretly made in the Oval Office and Nixon wanted the activity

Sloan Kettering, INC By Leonard Zwelling On the front page of the NY Times on September 21, 2018, Memorial Sloan-Kettering was again outed by the Times and ProPublica. This time it was for forming a company that will use the images of the pathology specimens accumulated over the years to analyze with artificial intelligence. Apparently

The Perp Walk: Shame Matters By Leonard Zwelling There’s a lot of this going around right now. That’s a good thing. It’s important. People being people, they are bound to do bad things. It is not for me to say whether anyone accused of, found guilty of, or admitting to committing a crime is a

Who’s Lying? By Leonard Zwelling It’s got to be one or the other. Either Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted Professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were both much younger, or he did not. There is no halfway here and it doesn’t sound like it is anyone’s misconception of sexual consent. Either he was there

Congress Is A Shameful Place And It’s Gotten Worse By Leonard Zwelling In 2009, I sat through a lot of hearings on Capitol Hill. The committee on which my boss was the ranking Senate member, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, was mighty busy looking at tobacco legislation, a proposed cancer bill, and, of course, the

Serena’s Implosion: “Nobody’s Right If Everybody’s Wrong” By Leonard Zwelling In the sixties anthem “For What It’s Worth,” Stephen Stills used that line about “battle lines being drawn.” It resonated on Saturday when 24-time tennis Grand Slam champion Serena Williams had a public breakdown because she was penalized, once, twice, three times for being coached

Vetting By Leonard Zwelling It was the most explosive beginning to a congressional hearing that I can remember. I heard it only on the radio returning from an exercise session. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Charles Grassley (R-IA) opened up its initial discussion of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on

Baselga, DePinho and Mendelsohn: None Of Them Gets Conflict Of Interest By Leonard Zwelling The headline above the fold in The New York Times on Sunday, September 8 could not have been clearer. “A Top Doctor Didn’t Disclose Corporate Ties: Sloan Kettering Chief Was Paid Millions” Jose Baselga is the chief medical officer at MSKCC