I have been mostly AWOL the last few days, so I thought that I owe our readers an explanation. My wife and I have been in Washington, D.C. I have had a few meetings of various kinds, but mostly we are here to spend some time in the D.C. Superior Court, observing the trial of Michael Mann v. Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg, finally before a jury after 12 years lost in a procedural wilderness. Between attending court most of the time and hanging out with Mark and his team in the evening, I haven’t gotten much writing done. But there are daily updates on the trial at Steyn Online.

I have many observations on the trial, the parties, the lawyers, the witnesses, the judge and the jury, most of which will never see the light of day. Since retiring from the litigation business at the end of 2015, this is the most time I have spent in a courtroom, and it has been fun.

When the trial is over I will have more to offer, but for now I will just say that today was a very good day for Steyn and Simberg. Mann’s case isn’t dead, but it is on life support. On the other hand, we are in the District of Columbia, before a D.C. jury. So it won’t be over until it is over.