Archive for Ridgway K. Foley Jr.
The Age of the Busybody
Busybodies. In an earlier, gentler time, every neighborhood had one. Predominantly but not exclusively female in those days, the local busybody was recognized with ease. Although the verb was mercifully unknown, she micromanaged all PTA meetings, gatherings, sales, and affairs whether or not she was chairman or even occupied a seat on the governing board. [...]
30Nov2011 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedDoes Governmental Vicarious Liability Make Any Sense?
Ridgway K. (Dick) Foley, Jr. practices law in Oregon and is a former FEE officer and trustee. Copyright Ridgway K. Foley, Jr. 2007. Fueled by the Instrumentalist Revolution, the American legal system has decayed from a quest for a just resolution of realistic disputes that the parties cannot solve by less formal means into a [...]
1Mar2008 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedIntrusions Great and Small
Ridgway K. (Dick) Foley, Jr. (ridgway.foley@greenemarkley.com) practices law in Oregon and is a former FEE officer and trustee. Individuals must always choose between alternatives. Indeed, man cannot avoid this ineluctable natural rule: a refusal to choose constitutes a choice. Whether a blessing or a curse, this fundamental law of human action helps differentiate mankind from all other species. [...]
1May2007 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedMr. Dickens Was Right
Ridgway K. Foley, Jr., is an attorney from Portland, Oregon. “‘If the law supposes that,’ said Mr. Bumble. . . , ‘the law is a ass—a idiot.’” —Oliver Twist (1838) Charles Dickens’ disdain for law and lawyers was well known, well founded, and sharply pervasive. Mr. Tulkinghorne and Uriah Heep provide spirited examples .of wretched [...]
1Jan1994 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedVive la Diffrence
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Comparisons—purported or real—are dangerous. Superficial arguments can seem so plausible. Since human beings dislike strain and contention, we tend to accept the shallow or one-dimensional assertion without question. A common example, which appears in many manifestations, is the unflattering comparison of [...]
1Jun1991 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Charade of Participatory Democracy
Mr. Foley, a parmer in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, practices law in Portland, Oregon. The coercers of the mandate state employ many artifices to camouflage their true intent. They utilize these devices for two different reasons: first, they fear the truth, because truth is freedom, so stratagems that mask their desires serve their ultimate ends [...]
1Feb1991 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedEzekiels Job
Mr Foley, a parmer in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Basic distinctions often prove elusive. Whether by virtue of inattention, human resistance, lack of comprehension, or some indefinable perversity of life, we human beings often fail to grasp and act upon the most central differences both of concept and deed. As [...]
1Sep1990 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Theory of Due Reparations
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt; practices law in Portland, Oregon. There is a fashion in foolishness. Silly notions come and go; some are reborn a generation or more apart; others revive in an altered but similarly obnoxious form, parading as something new and wonderful, in reality some thing ancient and wicked. [...]
1Jun1990 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedInvasive Government and the Destruction of Certainty
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Law exists. It exists in the inexorable rules of consequence which govern the universe, including the inescapable rules attendant upon human action. It exists in positive or man-made rules and orders imposed by human beings, acting singly or in concert, upon [...]
1Jan1988 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedInsider Trading: The Moral Issue
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson, and Wyatt. practices law in Portland, Oregon. Sabena Dowd, an engineer for Super Software, overhears a conversation during a morning elevator ride to her office on the 38th floor of the New Market Building. She observes the two passengers leave the elevator on the 27th floor. She knows—as [...]
1Nov1987 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Unkept Promise
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, practices law in Portland, Oregon. He presented a version of this paper to the trustees and guests of FEE at the May 1987 annual meeting, which celebrated the 200th anniversary of our Constitution. As the weary delegates emerged from convention on that stifling [...]
1Oct1987 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: Privatization: Two Perils
“Privatization” conjures up the picture of a shift of governmental activity into private hands. At first glance, this would seem to merit applause from those of us who favor the free market, private property, limited government system. After all, if nor-coercive, creative “public” functions are transferred to the marketplace where they belong, individual liberty will [...]
1Nov1986 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedEssay on Caring
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson, Wyatt, Moore & Roberts, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Political Aspirants are notably “concerned and caring” for the common man. But is theirs a genuine compassion, or does it lead to plans and actions opposed to their professed aims? I suspect that the political/economic notion of “caring” generally [...]
1Apr1985 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 20 comments | ContinuedA Second Face of Justice
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson, Wyatt, Moore & Roberts, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Long Ago and far away, flushed with the certainty of youth, I postulated respect for free non-aggressive choice as the Rosetta stone of justice. (“In Quest of Justice,” The Freeman, May 1974) Today, refreshed with the enforced humility of [...]
1Dec1984 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Illusion of Certainty
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson, Wyatt, Moore & Roberts, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Mankind seeks certainty. Arguably, this quest derives, at least in part, from the magnificent and observable order pervading the universe. To fallible man, this illusive certainty provides the allure of security, avoidance of risk, the easy life and guaranteed [...]
1Nov1984 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Consummate Role Player
Mr. Foley, a partner in Schwabe, Williamson, Wyatt, Moore & Roberts, practices law in Portland, Oregon. Modern culture embraces fatuous men and women made popular by the inept and dismal creators and patrons of alluring yet banal attractions. Those who establish fashion, by means of news stories or events, focus the attention of the adoring [...]
1Sep1984 | Ridgway K. Foley Jr. | 0 comments | Continued-
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