Barry Goldman is an arbitrator and mediator based in Michigan. He holds an MA in philosophy from the University of Hawaii and a JD from Wayne State University Law School where he has served on the adjunct faculty for many years. Barry is the author of The Science of Settlement: Ideas for negotiators and co-author, with Stuart M. Israel, of Opinions: Essays on lawyering, litigation and arbitration, the placebo effect, chutzpah, and related matters. He is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Email: bagman [at] ameritech.net
by Barry Goldman I am an American, a lawyer, and a Jew. That is to say, I’ve been fed a lot of bullshit over the years. I was brought up to believe the United States is a shining city on a hill; Israel is a light unto the nations; and the law is a learned…
by Barry Goldman Let’s start with a simple case. You want to know if the tires on your bike are properly inflated. You give them a squeeze. They feel fine. But you want to be sure. So you get out your handy tire pressure gauge. It says they’re at 68 psi. The tires say they…
by Barry Goldman My late father-in-law was an old-school family physician. He didn’t believe a computer would ever be as good a diagnostician as a human being. He understood that – in principle at least – a computer could read all the medical literature in every language and remember everything it read. He understood a…
by Barry Goldman Everybody knows the scene in Casablanca when Captain Renault is “shocked, shocked” to find that gambling is going on in Rick’s Café. The phrase has become shorthand for all kinds of official hypocrisy. But I want to go back a few lines. Here is the clip. Major Strasser says, “This café is…
by Barry Goldman Two books came out recently in the field of decision-making. Baruch Fischhoff published Decisions: Studying and Supporting People Facing Hard Choices, and Barry Schwartz and Richard Schuldenfrei published Choose Wisely: Rationality, Ethics, and the Art of Decision-Making. The two books take very different approaches. In a word, Fischhoff represents the science of…
by Barry Goldman At the time of this writing, Thanksgiving week 2025, the Trump administration has launched 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific and killed 83 civilians. According to the administration, the US military has legal authority to conduct these strikes. That authority is outlined in a memo from the Office…
by Barry Goldman It was more than 50 years ago that Mike and I invented Corn Mush Latke Pie. We were living in a flat on Margaret Street near 7 Mile and Woodward in Detroit. We paid 110 bucks a month for the place. It had white walls, white drapes, red carpeting and the kind…
by Barry Goldman Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke recently at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. He was asked how he balances stare decisis with originalism, and he made the following remarks: Well, if I find it doesn’t make any sense … I think we should demand that, no matter what…
by Barry Goldman The term legaldegook appears to have been coined by Bryan A. Garner. He is the author of several books on language in general and legal language in particular. Garner co-wrote a book with Antonin Scalia called Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. He is a leader in the plain English movement.…
by Barry Goldman Somebody screwed up. That much was clear. A batch of parts that was supposed to go through process A was instead sent through process B. The parts had to be scrapped. The job was delayed by several days. The customer was furious. The boss called in the manager who was in charge…
by Barry Goldman Suppose we have two groups of citizens. Let’s call them the Shirts and the Skins. The Shirts believe homosexuality is an abomination that stinketh in the nostrils of the Lord, and abortion is baby murder. The Skins believe homosexuality is perfectly normal and natural, and abortion is a woman’s right. How can…
by Barry Goldman I am not a cocktail guy. The whole craft cocktail thing strikes me as precious, pretentious and silly. You want to have a drink? Fine, let’s have a drink. I’ll have an IPA or a scotch. Maybe a gin and tonic if it’s a particularly hot day. But stay away from me…
by Barry Goldman The brilliant and recently departed Jules Feiffer drew a cartoon many years ago called Munro. It was later made into an Academy Award-winning animated short. You can watch it here. Munro was only four years old, but somehow he got drafted into the army. He went to see his sergeant and said,…
by Barry Goldman When I get up in the morning I drink a pot of coffee and read the paper. The coffee makes me irritable. The paper makes me furious and miserable. That sets the tone for the rest of the day. I agree with Ezra Klein that the constitutional crisis is not coming, it…
by Barry Goldman One day many years ago my wife got stuck in the shower. She doesn’t know exactly how it happened, but that’s the gist. She finished taking a shower, pushed on the door to get out, and it wouldn’t open. She jiggled the door, and she banged on the door, and she pushed…
by Barry Goldman I was 20-something and fresh out of law school in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected. Like the rest of my demographic, I was morbidly depressed about it. So it was meaningful for me when I saw the Weavers’ movie Wasn’t That a Time and heard the great Lee Hays say: We have…
by Barry Goldman Following the news makes me feel sick. Not following the news makes me feel guilty. This conflict has been going on in my head for years, but recently it has become painfully acute. I don’t make any progress, I just go round and round. I’ve given the voices in my head the…
by Barry Goldman Because I serve as an arbitrator for FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, I have a Disclosure Report posted on the FINRA website. That 11-page document shows my employment history, education and training, and it lists every place I’ve had an investment account, every agency where I’ve served as an arbitrator, every…
by Barry Goldman “You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.” “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both…
by Barry Goldman “Who is rich?” the Talmud asks. “He who is satisfied with what he has.” By that measure, I’m richer than Musk and Bezos. I’m richer than Stephen Schwartzman, head of the Blackstone Group. Far richer than Trump. It’s a nice feeling. Part of the explanation for this is that I am an…