Infinite Monkeys

Judge Kozinski and the cowgirls revisited

Small world: The L.A. Times' source for its story about Alex Kozinski's web porn is related to an old friend. I don't know Cyrus Sanai, but his quarrel with Kozinski and the Ninth U.S. Circuit is obviously more complicated than press reports have reported thus far. Evidently, Sanai has been trying to drum up interest in the story for months. ("This isn’t Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy stuff, the normal guy-meets-girl in a Laundromat porn," Sanai told the L.A. Weekly blog. "It’s all deviant!" Reminds me of another essay I read a few years back: "Porn: Smut or Filth?" Can't find it online, either.)

Patterico has been all over the story. Read the comments, too.

Judge Kozinski's troubles may not just be limited to pictures of nude women painted as cows or transsexual slideshows. (This Australian website carries a headline that must even make Kozinski smile, if ruefully: "Cow porn fancier judge suspends trial.") The judge might have made the mistake of posting copyrighted MP3s. And Kozinski, of all people, should know better.

I won't pretend to guess how this story will play out, although I suspect Kozinski's tenure on the bench is secure. Clearly, though, it is a mistake to confuse intelligence -- and Kozinski is unquestionably brilliant -- with wisdom.