We lost one of the all time great ones a week or so ago. Dan Jenkins, the Bard of Fort Worth, died March 7, having attained the age of 90 despite consuming a diet, that to hear his daughter Sally Jenkins tell it, consisted mostly of red meat, Winstons, coffee and scotch.
Jenkins was nothing if not prolific. Not only did he crank it out about football and golf, he wrote novels and screenplays. Indeed, in the wonderful tribute to him in the current issue of Golf Digest, it was revealed that he and friend and collaborator Bud Shrake got fired from screenwriting duties on the Eddie Murphy vehicle "Beverly Hills Cop II" because they were too funny. When Dan pointed out to the producer that he thought that was kind of the point of the enterprise he was told,"You don't have to be funny. Eddie be funny."
"For the next 20 years," the piece said. "The co-conspirators looked across the room at each other, pronounced "Eddie be funny" and howled."
Jenkins was at his best skewering pomposity, the PGA tour and Tiger Woods. Regarding the latter, Woods kept ducking him for interviews. Undaunted Jenkins wrote his own fake interview with Tiger. Check it out. It is beyond hilarious.
On the other hand, he could be borderline racist and sexist. I reviewed "The Franchise Babe" , a novel about the LPGA, for the local paper. I panned it. As I said at the time if you're gonna go blue you better be funny. And "Franchise Babe" wasn't funny.
But if he was losing his touch with the novel form, he regained it on Twitter of all places. His tweets as he followed the events unfolding during major golf tournaments were masterpieces of brevity and wit. Unlike the usual dispatches from the White House.
He died too soon. Can you imagine what Dan Jenkins would have made of the recent scandal involving those rich folks bribing their kids' way into certain elite institutions? And USC too? After all, this is just a sports story.
As I understand it, the parents hired an application facilitator to help guide the kids through the process. Which is completely legal. What wasn't legal is that this guy was the conduit through which applications with faked up athletic accomplishments were passed along leavened in most instances by bribes to college administrators.
I teach at a local two year school. We talked about this in class. Many of my students are of the non-traditional variety. Many of them hold down jobs. They don't play intercollegiate sports at our school. Every one of the ones in my classes got in on their own merit. At least I am relatively certain none of my kids could come up with bribe money even if they were so inclined.
The consensus? It ain't fair.
And that's right. It isn't fair. Especially when you consider that some of the ones that got admitted are airheads who couldn't pass the entrance exam during a fair fight and/or could give two hoots in Hell about an education.
This story has it all. Social media superstars, bribery, hubris, crooked athletic coaches and administrators.
Ah Dan you died too soon. You could have hit this one dead solid perfect.
As for me, I'm taking up Winstons and Scotch.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Sunday, March 10, 2019
OBE
No blogging today. I'm OBE. Overtaken by events.
Namely the realization that I no longer own two houses. I'm taking it easy seeing as how I don't think I've actually felt relaxed since last May.
I shall return.
Namely the realization that I no longer own two houses. I'm taking it easy seeing as how I don't think I've actually felt relaxed since last May.
I shall return.
Sunday, March 03, 2019
My Sunday Feeling
I'm not ordinarily given to nostalgia. Or at least not overly much. But I seem to be finding myself succumbing to it more frequently nowadays despite my best intentions not to. Then again, as my friend and former colleague Danny said, "You've lived a lot of life lately."
He was in the passenger's seat as we headed to Ft. Smith the beautiful last Friday for a retirement ceremony in honor of another one of our mutual colleagues. Debbie was hanging it up after 35 years. Which seemed surreal to me when I pondered that I had been around for @ 30 of them.
I was a prodigy, you see. That's the ticket.
And I was down the hall from Danny for the same amount of time. We hadn't really spent that much time together in recent days what with me living life and him working and being a single dad. So our trip to the Fort was the first time in years we had really spent any time together.
So we caught up on old news. Did some reminiscing about those we loved and those we despised. And we also spent a good bit of time with the fallback topics of most old guys: money, property and cars. In our younger days we used to talk about women. We know as much about them now as we did back in the day. I guess the clock is ticking faster on the both of us now. And we don't have the time to waste on issues we understand imperfectly.
The ceremony was in Judge Holmes' ceremonial courtroom. A good number of our old friends from the Justice Department were there. Some are still working. Some aren't. There was much hugging, back slapping and leaning backwards while talking the better to check each other out while wearing bifocals.
The honoree was positively radiant. Much to our mutual surprise she acknowledged our presence during her remarks. Any of a number of the speakers that preceded her pointed out that Debbie didn't have an enemy in the profession. Which is pretty remarkable given the fact of what we do. I know I've got them. And I earned them.
Speaking of money and property, the sale on my old house is set for next week. And so I spent a good bit of time yesterday removing boxes and other stuff from the shed. A couple of the boxes contained a bunch of stuff from my old office. The one down the hall from Danny. I hadn't looked at any of it since I left. I guess I put the boxes of my life in the shed so I wouldn't have to remember some of what went on back in those days.
After I filled my car up with the last load, I took a final walk around my old house. Empty as it is now I heard my footsteps echo as I turned on the taps in anticipation of the upcoming freeze. So the pipes won't blow up for the new owners. They never blew up for me. But you never know.
I looked out the back kitchen window to the deck and cabana in the yard. All the parties. All the Razorback games. Back when the Razorbacks actually played down the street at War Memorial. I sat for the last time in the swing where I gave Abigail Straessle her bottle.
I tossed the keys on the kitchen cabinet.
"Good bye little house."
Danny's daughter is with him now. He likes having her around more than he thought he would. He likes having kids in the house.
I have a daughter now. We Bowens don't produce girls. I like having Sarah around when she is home from school. Her brother is still at Hendrix as far as I am made to understand. That's cool. I don't get much information. I hear from other Dads that this is not unusual.
I have a beautiful wife who tolerates me. And you can see the Arkansas River from the front porch on our new house. All is well. All is better than I deserve. I've lived a lot of life the past year.
Danny was momentarily alarmed when we wound up in Oklahoma briefly en route to I-40. Once we got on the Interstate back around Dora (I actually knew what I was doing) he calmed down.
"Hey," he said. "Ya know? We did damn good work you and me."
Yeah we did.
It's enough to make one damn near nostalgic. Maybe I will open those boxes from my old office one of these days.
He was in the passenger's seat as we headed to Ft. Smith the beautiful last Friday for a retirement ceremony in honor of another one of our mutual colleagues. Debbie was hanging it up after 35 years. Which seemed surreal to me when I pondered that I had been around for @ 30 of them.
I was a prodigy, you see. That's the ticket.
And I was down the hall from Danny for the same amount of time. We hadn't really spent that much time together in recent days what with me living life and him working and being a single dad. So our trip to the Fort was the first time in years we had really spent any time together.
So we caught up on old news. Did some reminiscing about those we loved and those we despised. And we also spent a good bit of time with the fallback topics of most old guys: money, property and cars. In our younger days we used to talk about women. We know as much about them now as we did back in the day. I guess the clock is ticking faster on the both of us now. And we don't have the time to waste on issues we understand imperfectly.
The ceremony was in Judge Holmes' ceremonial courtroom. A good number of our old friends from the Justice Department were there. Some are still working. Some aren't. There was much hugging, back slapping and leaning backwards while talking the better to check each other out while wearing bifocals.
The honoree was positively radiant. Much to our mutual surprise she acknowledged our presence during her remarks. Any of a number of the speakers that preceded her pointed out that Debbie didn't have an enemy in the profession. Which is pretty remarkable given the fact of what we do. I know I've got them. And I earned them.
Speaking of money and property, the sale on my old house is set for next week. And so I spent a good bit of time yesterday removing boxes and other stuff from the shed. A couple of the boxes contained a bunch of stuff from my old office. The one down the hall from Danny. I hadn't looked at any of it since I left. I guess I put the boxes of my life in the shed so I wouldn't have to remember some of what went on back in those days.
After I filled my car up with the last load, I took a final walk around my old house. Empty as it is now I heard my footsteps echo as I turned on the taps in anticipation of the upcoming freeze. So the pipes won't blow up for the new owners. They never blew up for me. But you never know.
I looked out the back kitchen window to the deck and cabana in the yard. All the parties. All the Razorback games. Back when the Razorbacks actually played down the street at War Memorial. I sat for the last time in the swing where I gave Abigail Straessle her bottle.
I tossed the keys on the kitchen cabinet.
"Good bye little house."
Danny's daughter is with him now. He likes having her around more than he thought he would. He likes having kids in the house.
I have a daughter now. We Bowens don't produce girls. I like having Sarah around when she is home from school. Her brother is still at Hendrix as far as I am made to understand. That's cool. I don't get much information. I hear from other Dads that this is not unusual.
I have a beautiful wife who tolerates me. And you can see the Arkansas River from the front porch on our new house. All is well. All is better than I deserve. I've lived a lot of life the past year.
Danny was momentarily alarmed when we wound up in Oklahoma briefly en route to I-40. Once we got on the Interstate back around Dora (I actually knew what I was doing) he calmed down.
"Hey," he said. "Ya know? We did damn good work you and me."
Yeah we did.
It's enough to make one damn near nostalgic. Maybe I will open those boxes from my old office one of these days.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
My Sunday Feeling
My buddy Don has an expression that he uses from time to time. And it goes something like this: "It's amazing how stupid rich people can be."
This time he was referring, not to the currant occupant of the Oval Office whose sexual misdeeds are a matter of public record and need not be recounted in this space. Rather he was referring to the pickle Patriots' owner Bob Kraft finds himself in after law enforcement in Jupiter, Florida busted a bunch of massage parlors over there for offering services a little more intimate than trigger point therapy and facials. Kraft is accused, along with about 165 other guys, of soliciting prostitutes working at the massage joints in question. And, in keeping with Don's mantra, a former President of Citigroup and a Wall Street billionaire also went down, if you will pardon the expression.
Not only were these rich old goats busted at massage parlors, these particular establishments were under the gaze of a multi-jurisdictional task force involving Special Agents of both Homeland Security and the IRS suspecting them of engaging in human trafficking. And as is often the case in such matters, to hear law enforcement tell it, the women who worked for this chain of parlors were little more than slaves who were forced to work virtually nonstop in fairly squalid conditions. This news must please Roger Goodell to no end. The owner of the Super Bowl champs caught up in a prostitution bust involving human trafficking. That's a hell of a way to start your Friday if your the Commissioner of the NFL.
Meanwhile, somewhere Jim Irsay is smiling.
Which brings me back to Don's maxim.
All things considered, and leaving out the apparent fact that the sex workers involved here may well turn out to be the real victims, I pretty don't care what consenting adults do behind closed doors. One of the best things I do is I mind my own business. And I'm not particularly judgmental. People do what they do.
But you would think that a recognizable and famous guy like Kraft for whom money is no object would have a little more sense than to go to a massage parlor if indeed he has an occasional itch for extra curricular activity that needs to be scratched.
An acquaintance of mine who knows how this kind of thing works on the professional golf tour told me once that the way you do it is your take out an American Express Black Card in the name of your caddie and you let him make the arrangements for you. As you might have guessed, this discussion came up during the Tiger Woods imbroglio which proved that Tiger had never heard of this sort of money laundering or just was too arrogant to think he would ever get caught. My guess is the latter.
I would think Kraft could have disported himself in a more discrete fashion in any of a number of ways. Or talk to some of his players. Some of them would know how to go about this low commerce.
I don't get it.
A spokesperson for Kraft says he denies the charges. The cops, God help us, say they got him on video. It's amazing how stupid rich people can be.
But Jim Irsay's looking pretty good.
This time he was referring, not to the currant occupant of the Oval Office whose sexual misdeeds are a matter of public record and need not be recounted in this space. Rather he was referring to the pickle Patriots' owner Bob Kraft finds himself in after law enforcement in Jupiter, Florida busted a bunch of massage parlors over there for offering services a little more intimate than trigger point therapy and facials. Kraft is accused, along with about 165 other guys, of soliciting prostitutes working at the massage joints in question. And, in keeping with Don's mantra, a former President of Citigroup and a Wall Street billionaire also went down, if you will pardon the expression.
Not only were these rich old goats busted at massage parlors, these particular establishments were under the gaze of a multi-jurisdictional task force involving Special Agents of both Homeland Security and the IRS suspecting them of engaging in human trafficking. And as is often the case in such matters, to hear law enforcement tell it, the women who worked for this chain of parlors were little more than slaves who were forced to work virtually nonstop in fairly squalid conditions. This news must please Roger Goodell to no end. The owner of the Super Bowl champs caught up in a prostitution bust involving human trafficking. That's a hell of a way to start your Friday if your the Commissioner of the NFL.
Meanwhile, somewhere Jim Irsay is smiling.
Which brings me back to Don's maxim.
All things considered, and leaving out the apparent fact that the sex workers involved here may well turn out to be the real victims, I pretty don't care what consenting adults do behind closed doors. One of the best things I do is I mind my own business. And I'm not particularly judgmental. People do what they do.
But you would think that a recognizable and famous guy like Kraft for whom money is no object would have a little more sense than to go to a massage parlor if indeed he has an occasional itch for extra curricular activity that needs to be scratched.
An acquaintance of mine who knows how this kind of thing works on the professional golf tour told me once that the way you do it is your take out an American Express Black Card in the name of your caddie and you let him make the arrangements for you. As you might have guessed, this discussion came up during the Tiger Woods imbroglio which proved that Tiger had never heard of this sort of money laundering or just was too arrogant to think he would ever get caught. My guess is the latter.
I would think Kraft could have disported himself in a more discrete fashion in any of a number of ways. Or talk to some of his players. Some of them would know how to go about this low commerce.
I don't get it.
A spokesperson for Kraft says he denies the charges. The cops, God help us, say they got him on video. It's amazing how stupid rich people can be.
But Jim Irsay's looking pretty good.
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Swamped
Between grading papers and getting ready for a meeting today I have all I can say grace over.
I will get to the present Constitutional crisis shortly.
I will get to the present Constitutional crisis shortly.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
My Sunday Feeling
Lord knows that I did my share of foolish things as a younger man. And I humbly breathe a prayer of heartfelt relief when I consider that neither smartphones nor the Internet were around when I was out doing those foolish things. Most of my stupid behavior centered around women and alcohol or any combination thereof. The majority of my misdeeds, in retrospect, were fairly harmless in the great scheme of things. And none of them, knock on wood, have come back to haunt me or cause me to invoke any particular period of limitations as my best defense.
Then again, unlike the Governor of Virginia I never posed for pictures while in blackface. Unlike the Attorney General of the Old Dominion, i never put it on as part of a skit.
What's the deal? Is it a Virginia thing?
I grew up here in Arkansas with my fair share of guys whose views on racial matters could charitably be described as unevolved. I knew folks, especially in my much younger days, who casually tossed around racial slurs without thinking twice about it. But I never knew anybody who ever put on blackface. Or Klan robes either.
As I grew older, I certainly began to make acquaintances that were old moneyed conservative types from the Olde South, whose attitudes were probably not too terribly far removed from some of my fellow rednecks I grew up with on the County Line. But they were too genteel and mannerly, at least in my presence, to give voice to such attitudes. I can't imagine them wearing blackface either at some point at a fraternity party or such. Although I concede I can't swear that some of them didn't.
Here's the thing I don't get. A career in politics was probably the last thing on Ralph Northam's mind when he posed in blackface along with a medical school classmate adorned in Klan robes for the med school yearbook. You're pretty young at 24 or 25. I get that. But he wasn't some dumbass 15 year old all jacked up on malt liquor either. Indeed, he was fixing to go off and start training to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. Which I would think requires a certain maturity and concentration of the mind.
And a bell didn't go off in his head that warned him that this was a bad idea? That maybe this might come back to bite him on the ass?
I don't get it. I just don't.
But here's a fair question. I earlier made a semi-joking reference to a statute of limitations that I could seek refuge in at this point in my dotage. But is there a period of limitations when it comes to youthful indiscretions? Recent experiences with public figures such as Gov. Northam and Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh suggest there may not be. And maybe that's fair. Politics is (are?) politics. It's not the criminal law. If it matters to voters I suppose that's pretty much all that matters.
But we as a nation need to get a grasp on just how far back in time we are going to hold our public figures accountable for stupid stuff they did back in the day. Because sooner than later we are going to see videos and pics of candidates for public office from when they were drunk at a sorority party, sipping champagne from a bottle at a wedding reception or vaping. It will happen.
I tell kids all the time that you got to assume that somebody is taking a pic without them knowing it. Or saving a text or an email for future reference. I know many young people who are conscientiously attempting to conduct themselves as youthful pillars of rectitude with an eye to the future. Is a history of avoiding instead of dodging bullets while young the new path for public office?
I kinda liked seeing AOC dancing on a rooftop in her college days. I thought nothing of Sarah Palin having competed in beauty pageants. John McCain stayed in hot water with his CO's. George H.W. Bush kept his still oiled up first basemen's mitt from Yale in his Oval Office desk drawer. He would pound a ball in it as he thought things through. Young George Washington chopped down the cherry tree. Except he didn't. You get the picture.
Do we want to just elect robots who have been building resumes since the 9th grade? Or do we want people with real flesh, real blood and real flaws. People like you and me. Where do we draw the line?
As the text of the old anthem by Richard Farrant puts it (and you should give it a listen on YouTube): "Lord for thy tender mercies sake, lay not our sins to our charge. But forgive that is past and give us grace to amend our sinful lives." Does that concept not extend to politicians?
What the Governor of Virginia did as a young man was palpably stupid. Way stupider than anything I ever did as a young man. And that's going some. His recent attempt to lame out of it was even dumber. The Commonwealth's Al-Jolson-In Chief says that he will not resign. Rather he intends to go about attempting to foment "racial conciliation." There's some nerve.
But he is Virginia's problem. If they "forgive that is past" that is their prerogative.
Having said that, I'm guessing Bill Clinton is really happy he never had to deal with smartphones or the Internet while he was a young politician.
Really happy.
Sunday, February 03, 2019
My Sunday "The Saints Got Screwed" Feeling
Today is the annual national bacchanal known as Super Bowl Sunday featuring the upstart St. Louis-Oops! Sorry.-Los Angeles Rams against the forces of darkness known as the New England Patriots.
I'm gonna watch it if no other reason than as my buddy Kenny once said of it, "It's gonna be on. Might as well watch the damn thing." So watch it I shall. But I won't be happy about it.
That's because the Saints should be in Atlanta today offering themselves up as a perfect and living sacrifice to the Patriots instead of the Rams. That's because the Rams were the beneficiaries of perhaps the most egregious "no call" I think I have ever witnessed in all the years I have watched professional football. Including the SEC Division of the league.
There was @ a minute fifty left to play in the 4th quarter. The Saints had 3rd and 10 on the Ram's 15 or so. Drew Brees drops back and fires one out to TommyLee Lewis. Only waaaaaaay before the ball was anywhere near Lewis's mitts he got clocked by Rams DB Nickell Robey-Coleman. Clocked as in hit in the head. That's right. Not only was it pass interference in extremis. It was targeting. It should have been 1st Down Saints and Robey-Coleman should have been checking out the water pressure in the Visitor's locker room.
Naturally, being the consummate teacher that I am, I took class time last Thursday to bitch about the unfairness of it all. About how this episode, considered alongside the previous season's epic last play choke job, was the perfect metaphor what misery it is to be a Saints fan.
"Misery?" one smart ass said. "They've been pretty good the last 10 years or so. Even won a Super Bowl. Another pointed out the missed face mask on Jared Goff during which he damn near got his head separated from his body. I drew these misguided attempts to provide perspective to an abrupt close. What's the point of power if you don't use it?
"I'm not listening to any of this," I said. "I prefer to luxuriate in my sense of victimhood."
The female members of the class thought that was pretty funny. Hmmmmmm.
So the Saints got screwed, blued and tattooed a week or so ago. They would probably have lost to New England anyway. As will the Rams I predict. And for whatever it's worth the NFL will take another look at whether to allow teams to challenge pass interference plays. My guess is that they will not. The games are already too long and they could call PI on every play most likely. And besides, you can't legislate against incompetence.
So today maybe I will go play some golf and come home to the miscarriage of justice that will be this year's Super Bowl. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.
Kenny's right. It's gonna be on. Might as well watch the damn thing.
I'm gonna watch it if no other reason than as my buddy Kenny once said of it, "It's gonna be on. Might as well watch the damn thing." So watch it I shall. But I won't be happy about it.
That's because the Saints should be in Atlanta today offering themselves up as a perfect and living sacrifice to the Patriots instead of the Rams. That's because the Rams were the beneficiaries of perhaps the most egregious "no call" I think I have ever witnessed in all the years I have watched professional football. Including the SEC Division of the league.
There was @ a minute fifty left to play in the 4th quarter. The Saints had 3rd and 10 on the Ram's 15 or so. Drew Brees drops back and fires one out to TommyLee Lewis. Only waaaaaaay before the ball was anywhere near Lewis's mitts he got clocked by Rams DB Nickell Robey-Coleman. Clocked as in hit in the head. That's right. Not only was it pass interference in extremis. It was targeting. It should have been 1st Down Saints and Robey-Coleman should have been checking out the water pressure in the Visitor's locker room.
Naturally, being the consummate teacher that I am, I took class time last Thursday to bitch about the unfairness of it all. About how this episode, considered alongside the previous season's epic last play choke job, was the perfect metaphor what misery it is to be a Saints fan.
"Misery?" one smart ass said. "They've been pretty good the last 10 years or so. Even won a Super Bowl. Another pointed out the missed face mask on Jared Goff during which he damn near got his head separated from his body. I drew these misguided attempts to provide perspective to an abrupt close. What's the point of power if you don't use it?
"I'm not listening to any of this," I said. "I prefer to luxuriate in my sense of victimhood."
The female members of the class thought that was pretty funny. Hmmmmmm.
So the Saints got screwed, blued and tattooed a week or so ago. They would probably have lost to New England anyway. As will the Rams I predict. And for whatever it's worth the NFL will take another look at whether to allow teams to challenge pass interference plays. My guess is that they will not. The games are already too long and they could call PI on every play most likely. And besides, you can't legislate against incompetence.
So today maybe I will go play some golf and come home to the miscarriage of justice that will be this year's Super Bowl. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.
Kenny's right. It's gonna be on. Might as well watch the damn thing.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
AWOL Again
Been busy this week trying to wrap my arms around teaching government to college freshmen. The freshmen won last week.
They will not win this week.
Talk amongst yourselves.
They will not win this week.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
My Sunday Feeling
I was minding my own business, as I am wont to do, watching a high school basketball game when I got the call the other night.
The voicemail was from a person in the administration at a local college. They wanted to talk to me about going to work for them as an Instructor in the Political Science department. That was Tuesday. As of Friday I was all papered up.
And Tuesday I will meet my first class. I will be teaching 3 classes of American National Government for freshmen. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Done by 1:30 in the afternoon. This is a good gig for somebody like me that is semi-retired and likes hanging around at Catholic High.
It's also a good gig because it's a good gig period.
And unlike my last foray into the grove of academe this time I have materials, a syllabus already made and somebody else's game plan. And it's a good one. I'm not figuring it out as I go unlike last time. All I have to do is prepare. Which I can do.
Why me? Not to discount the element of Random Laughing Chance entirely. But I happened to hit a lot of their marks. I'm a lawyer which fits their requirements for accreditation for this course. I was in the government for virtually my entire career. I have classroom experience which in my case means I am VIRTUS certified by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock and I have already passed a police background check.
Right place. Right time. That and the guy they approached in the first place didn't want to do it and recommended me.
I confess that while I am slightly nervous, I am mostly excited. I am slightly nervous because I have taught before. And I know that it is a lot harder to be a good teacher than anybody who has never done it knows. While I won't have the discipline issues in a college classroom (at least I hope I won't) that you have in a high school full of boys, you have to bring your A game everyday. Because the students deserve it. That and if you don't they will smell blood.
Also, I am cognizant of the responsibility that I have to pay close attention to the administrative aspects of my duties as well. A college transcript is a precious thing. Grades must be scrupulously rendered and recorded. For better or for worse. That was the part that I hated about my last gig. I loved teaching. I hated giving people bad grades even when they had them coming. But that's part of the job. It's just that the stakes are even higher now. I know that.
But let's get back to the fun part.
The ancient Chinese curse is that we might live during interesting times. And boy, are these interesting times. I can't think of a better time to teach Government 101. I am confronted with a veritable child's garden of interesting issues. The current shutdown, impeachment, whether a sitting President can be indicted, Federalism, the limit and extent of the power of the respective branches of the the Government. Not to mention the call by some fools for another Constitutional Convention. And that's just off the top of my head.
It has always been both a wonder for me and a concern to me just how little some people know about their own government. It seems for all the world that the average guy gets his knowledge about these matters from the sewer pipes of social media and cable TV to borrow from Bret Stephens of the New York Times.
Well now's my chance to put up or shut up. And I will start Tuesday morning by passing out copies of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Amendments thereto.
And away we will go.
Wish me luck.
The voicemail was from a person in the administration at a local college. They wanted to talk to me about going to work for them as an Instructor in the Political Science department. That was Tuesday. As of Friday I was all papered up.
And Tuesday I will meet my first class. I will be teaching 3 classes of American National Government for freshmen. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Done by 1:30 in the afternoon. This is a good gig for somebody like me that is semi-retired and likes hanging around at Catholic High.
It's also a good gig because it's a good gig period.
And unlike my last foray into the grove of academe this time I have materials, a syllabus already made and somebody else's game plan. And it's a good one. I'm not figuring it out as I go unlike last time. All I have to do is prepare. Which I can do.
Why me? Not to discount the element of Random Laughing Chance entirely. But I happened to hit a lot of their marks. I'm a lawyer which fits their requirements for accreditation for this course. I was in the government for virtually my entire career. I have classroom experience which in my case means I am VIRTUS certified by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock and I have already passed a police background check.
Right place. Right time. That and the guy they approached in the first place didn't want to do it and recommended me.
I confess that while I am slightly nervous, I am mostly excited. I am slightly nervous because I have taught before. And I know that it is a lot harder to be a good teacher than anybody who has never done it knows. While I won't have the discipline issues in a college classroom (at least I hope I won't) that you have in a high school full of boys, you have to bring your A game everyday. Because the students deserve it. That and if you don't they will smell blood.
Also, I am cognizant of the responsibility that I have to pay close attention to the administrative aspects of my duties as well. A college transcript is a precious thing. Grades must be scrupulously rendered and recorded. For better or for worse. That was the part that I hated about my last gig. I loved teaching. I hated giving people bad grades even when they had them coming. But that's part of the job. It's just that the stakes are even higher now. I know that.
But let's get back to the fun part.
The ancient Chinese curse is that we might live during interesting times. And boy, are these interesting times. I can't think of a better time to teach Government 101. I am confronted with a veritable child's garden of interesting issues. The current shutdown, impeachment, whether a sitting President can be indicted, Federalism, the limit and extent of the power of the respective branches of the the Government. Not to mention the call by some fools for another Constitutional Convention. And that's just off the top of my head.
It has always been both a wonder for me and a concern to me just how little some people know about their own government. It seems for all the world that the average guy gets his knowledge about these matters from the sewer pipes of social media and cable TV to borrow from Bret Stephens of the New York Times.
Well now's my chance to put up or shut up. And I will start Tuesday morning by passing out copies of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Amendments thereto.
And away we will go.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
AWOL
No blogging this weekend while still trying to get over an ear infection from hell.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Sunday, January 06, 2019
My Sunday Feeling
I didn't expect to be blogging this weekend. I was supposed to be in the Chattanooga area visiting my wife's family. But I got struck down by an ear infection. And then I got struck down again by what my 17 year old dermatologist believes was an adverse reaction to amoxicillin, a drug which I have taken without incident for years for sinus infections and upper respiratory stuff. My lips and tongue swelled up and these attractive red lesions presented themselves around my nose and mouth.
So here I am sitting on the porch instead of scaring small children in restaurants in Appalachia.
I would rather be up there because if I were up there I would not feel compelled to write about the latest inanity to come out of the mouth of the Winner Of The Electoral College(WOTEC). But these pearls on his part present teachable moments on mine as I have written in the past. And so I go forward once again in my capacity as hectoring scold, albeit one who looks as if he has been beaten with a pipe.
As you may have heard most of the civilian workforce of what passes for the United States Government are not on the job as I type. This is because the House of Representatives, which got defanged in the last election, refuses to appropriate money in the latest spending bill for the building of WOTEC's wall on the southern border. WOTEC for his part has said that he will not sign any appropriations bill that doesn't include the funding. And he says that he is prepared for the "shutdown" to last for years.
I don't much believe this. That would take some stones. And Nancy Pelosi's are bigger then his. A sign that the pressure may be getting to him a little popped up in the media last night and this morning.
According to a story published in The Hill, during what it described as "an incendiary rant" in a meeting with Congressional leaders Friday WOTEC said that he preferred to refer to the absence from the job of 800,000 souls as a "strike" rather than a furlough.
That's right. A strike.
Where to begin? Focus.
I know something about employment law. I clerked for a union law firm when I was in law school. I represented folks that had been denied unemployment compensation as a Legal Services lawyer. I represented the government in employment discrimination cases. I currently represent a small business that occasionally has personnel issues.
So let's start out with something that I haven't seen anyone else mention. A strike is an intentional work stoppage by employees as the result of a dispute between employees and the employer, to keep it simple.
The key? "Intentional work stoppage" as the result of "a dispute between employees and the employer."
The current brouhaha is the result of a political crisis between the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States Government. It was not initiated by the workforce.
It is manifestly not a strike. Indeed, it is against the law for federal employees to go on strike.
If anything, the crisis at hand more closely resembles a "lockout" like you see from time to time in professional sports. The owners declare a "lockout" whenever they can't get a collective bargaining agreement signed by the player's union. Players don't get paid. They are not allowed access to team facilities for training and whatnot. They are "locked out" until the crisis is resolved.
So why would WOTEC refer to the furlough as "a strike" when nothing could be further from the truth? Any of a number of reasons come to mind. First of all, WOTEC lies all the time about everything. Secondly, he is not particularly bright and neither is he well versed in basic literacy about how the government works. And so I suppose it is within the realm of possibility that he truly believes that if workers aren't showing up to their duty stations then they are ipso facto ( I get to say that. You don't.) "on strike."
Here's what I think. As I alluded to earlier, I think WOTEC starting to feel a little pressure concerning the furlough crisis that he caused by foolishly doing the bidding of his oracle at FOX/TASS and not signing the Continuing Resolution to fund the government a week or so ago. WHICH HE HAD AGREED TO SIGN.
He did this so as not to rile up "his base." Well guess what? Some members of his base need food assistance. They are counting on getting tax refunds. Instead of MAGA trash and human poop is piling up in National Parks because the contractors responsible for janitorial services-guess what?-they can't work either.
So, as is his typical fashion for taking no responsibility for his actions and in an attempt to deflect attention from the crisis that is of his own making, WOTEC prefers to refer to the furlough as a strike. And after all, everybody hates unions.
Except it's not a strike. It's a political crisis caused by him.
Thus endeth the lesson.
As I finally feel like getting out for a bit and because I have got the envies for a cheeseburger I may go find a bar, have a couple of drinks and watch football. The one down the hill is pretty dark.
Which is good. I would hate for the other patrons to think they are sitting next to someone with Hansen's disease.
I am nothing if not considerate.
So here I am sitting on the porch instead of scaring small children in restaurants in Appalachia.
I would rather be up there because if I were up there I would not feel compelled to write about the latest inanity to come out of the mouth of the Winner Of The Electoral College(WOTEC). But these pearls on his part present teachable moments on mine as I have written in the past. And so I go forward once again in my capacity as hectoring scold, albeit one who looks as if he has been beaten with a pipe.
As you may have heard most of the civilian workforce of what passes for the United States Government are not on the job as I type. This is because the House of Representatives, which got defanged in the last election, refuses to appropriate money in the latest spending bill for the building of WOTEC's wall on the southern border. WOTEC for his part has said that he will not sign any appropriations bill that doesn't include the funding. And he says that he is prepared for the "shutdown" to last for years.
I don't much believe this. That would take some stones. And Nancy Pelosi's are bigger then his. A sign that the pressure may be getting to him a little popped up in the media last night and this morning.
According to a story published in The Hill, during what it described as "an incendiary rant" in a meeting with Congressional leaders Friday WOTEC said that he preferred to refer to the absence from the job of 800,000 souls as a "strike" rather than a furlough.
That's right. A strike.
Where to begin? Focus.
I know something about employment law. I clerked for a union law firm when I was in law school. I represented folks that had been denied unemployment compensation as a Legal Services lawyer. I represented the government in employment discrimination cases. I currently represent a small business that occasionally has personnel issues.
So let's start out with something that I haven't seen anyone else mention. A strike is an intentional work stoppage by employees as the result of a dispute between employees and the employer, to keep it simple.
The key? "Intentional work stoppage" as the result of "a dispute between employees and the employer."
The current brouhaha is the result of a political crisis between the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States Government. It was not initiated by the workforce.
It is manifestly not a strike. Indeed, it is against the law for federal employees to go on strike.
If anything, the crisis at hand more closely resembles a "lockout" like you see from time to time in professional sports. The owners declare a "lockout" whenever they can't get a collective bargaining agreement signed by the player's union. Players don't get paid. They are not allowed access to team facilities for training and whatnot. They are "locked out" until the crisis is resolved.
So why would WOTEC refer to the furlough as "a strike" when nothing could be further from the truth? Any of a number of reasons come to mind. First of all, WOTEC lies all the time about everything. Secondly, he is not particularly bright and neither is he well versed in basic literacy about how the government works. And so I suppose it is within the realm of possibility that he truly believes that if workers aren't showing up to their duty stations then they are ipso facto ( I get to say that. You don't.) "on strike."
Here's what I think. As I alluded to earlier, I think WOTEC starting to feel a little pressure concerning the furlough crisis that he caused by foolishly doing the bidding of his oracle at FOX/TASS and not signing the Continuing Resolution to fund the government a week or so ago. WHICH HE HAD AGREED TO SIGN.
He did this so as not to rile up "his base." Well guess what? Some members of his base need food assistance. They are counting on getting tax refunds. Instead of MAGA trash and human poop is piling up in National Parks because the contractors responsible for janitorial services-guess what?-they can't work either.
So, as is his typical fashion for taking no responsibility for his actions and in an attempt to deflect attention from the crisis that is of his own making, WOTEC prefers to refer to the furlough as a strike. And after all, everybody hates unions.
Except it's not a strike. It's a political crisis caused by him.
Thus endeth the lesson.
As I finally feel like getting out for a bit and because I have got the envies for a cheeseburger I may go find a bar, have a couple of drinks and watch football. The one down the hill is pretty dark.
Which is good. I would hate for the other patrons to think they are sitting next to someone with Hansen's disease.
I am nothing if not considerate.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
"I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas."
The Winner of the Electoral College(WOTEC) Christmas Eve on Twitter
No he didn't. He can't.
Maybe Trump is just indulging his usual penchant for hyperbole which is a fancy word for lying. Of which he is setting a record that Stalin would have envied.
But the only people that can request and/or accept bids on government contracts are Contracting Officers of the United States of America. Trump is not a CO as they are referred to. And I know something about this having been in front of the Board of Contract Appeals-a fun bunch presiding over an equally amusing area of the law-three or four times.
Now, insofar as WOTEC's whoppers go, this is relatively minor. After all, the AP fact checked (And why do we even refer to it thusly anymore? Why not "lie check?") his statement and found that CONTRACTING OFFICERS for Homeland Security and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the latter of which really knows what they are doing) had indeed awarded contracts to build a section of a "wall/fence/Star Trek force field/whatever euphemism they are using to make-it-more-palatable-to-the-Democrats-who-are-fixing-to-shut-down-the-party" down there on the border. So he was at least in spitting distance of verifiable reality.
But WOTEC has no more legal authority to "give out" contracts than you or I do. Unless Gentle Reader happens to be a Contracting Officer of the United States of America who has stumbled across these chronicles while looking online for the Federal Acquisition Regulations or FARS as us government contract types call them. To whom I say "welcome." And "why aren't you furloughed like everybody else?"
Why do I even care? Certainly, the perfervid types that populate his "base" who mostly reside within the states that thought firing on Fort Sumter was a damn good idea at the time do not. And so while I think such examples of truth bending on the part of WOTEC present teachable moments, I have no illusion that these words will mean a rat's ass to those that have drunk the Kool-Aid and do not care to know how their government works. And that saddens me.
But here's something else for the Trumpers to consider. There is a damn good chance the Wall hoped for by the xenophobes in that orbit may not get built. At least not the Hadrian's Wall thing envisioned by those who never heard of Hadrian or his particular wall. In the first place, and not to overstate the obvious, there is a new sheriff in town January 1. If WOTEC doesn't get his 5 billion before the Democrats take the Oath, and it looks like he will not, he ain't gonna get it. Because-and here's another fun fact about how government works, spending bills originate in the House. Which is now awash in blue.
Secondly, and nobody ever seems to think about this very much, but the Government is going to have to acquire title to much of the land upon which the wall would be situated through its power of Eminent Domain. Which means litigation with the land owners over what constitutes "just compensation" for the taking of their property. The 5th Amendment is your friend. Look it up. And I don't know what the Chief Judges in the Federal Courts presiding over these cases are doing, but Judge Miller here in the Eastern District of Arkansas has stayed all civil cases in our District due to-guess what?-the shutdown. Wouldn't surprise me if civil cases are stayed in the Courts along the proposed Wall as well.
Criminal cases must go on because folks charged with criminal have the right to a "speedy trial." The 6th Amendment is your friend if you are a criminal. Look it up.
Finally, if there is indeed a just God, which most of the time I feel can be ascertained by coin toss as much as consulting scripture, He or She will smile upon us and ensure that WOTEC is returned to civilian life in 2020 where he can start his own cable news network. When he is not dodging service of process or giving depositions, that is.
And probably going through a divorce if the old adage regarding the scorned wife is still on the books.
But I think it highly improbable that the next President, be they Red or Blue is going to be much inclined to throw 5 billion dollars at a mostly symbolic problem. Especially given the headaches he or she are likely to inherent from the former occupant of the Oval Office.
Monday is New Year's Eve. For God's sake use some sense out there. Best to be home before 10 if that late. The cops will be looking for folks to take downtown. If you don't believe me there are any of a number of people of my acquaintance that can explain it all for you.
Seriously. Be careful. I'm off to Tennessee for a few days.
See you next year.
The Winner of the Electoral College(WOTEC) Christmas Eve on Twitter
No he didn't. He can't.
Maybe Trump is just indulging his usual penchant for hyperbole which is a fancy word for lying. Of which he is setting a record that Stalin would have envied.
But the only people that can request and/or accept bids on government contracts are Contracting Officers of the United States of America. Trump is not a CO as they are referred to. And I know something about this having been in front of the Board of Contract Appeals-a fun bunch presiding over an equally amusing area of the law-three or four times.
Now, insofar as WOTEC's whoppers go, this is relatively minor. After all, the AP fact checked (And why do we even refer to it thusly anymore? Why not "lie check?") his statement and found that CONTRACTING OFFICERS for Homeland Security and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the latter of which really knows what they are doing) had indeed awarded contracts to build a section of a "wall/fence/Star Trek force field/whatever euphemism they are using to make-it-more-palatable-to-the-Democrats-who-are-fixing-to-shut-down-the-party" down there on the border. So he was at least in spitting distance of verifiable reality.
But WOTEC has no more legal authority to "give out" contracts than you or I do. Unless Gentle Reader happens to be a Contracting Officer of the United States of America who has stumbled across these chronicles while looking online for the Federal Acquisition Regulations or FARS as us government contract types call them. To whom I say "welcome." And "why aren't you furloughed like everybody else?"
Why do I even care? Certainly, the perfervid types that populate his "base" who mostly reside within the states that thought firing on Fort Sumter was a damn good idea at the time do not. And so while I think such examples of truth bending on the part of WOTEC present teachable moments, I have no illusion that these words will mean a rat's ass to those that have drunk the Kool-Aid and do not care to know how their government works. And that saddens me.
But here's something else for the Trumpers to consider. There is a damn good chance the Wall hoped for by the xenophobes in that orbit may not get built. At least not the Hadrian's Wall thing envisioned by those who never heard of Hadrian or his particular wall. In the first place, and not to overstate the obvious, there is a new sheriff in town January 1. If WOTEC doesn't get his 5 billion before the Democrats take the Oath, and it looks like he will not, he ain't gonna get it. Because-and here's another fun fact about how government works, spending bills originate in the House. Which is now awash in blue.
Secondly, and nobody ever seems to think about this very much, but the Government is going to have to acquire title to much of the land upon which the wall would be situated through its power of Eminent Domain. Which means litigation with the land owners over what constitutes "just compensation" for the taking of their property. The 5th Amendment is your friend. Look it up. And I don't know what the Chief Judges in the Federal Courts presiding over these cases are doing, but Judge Miller here in the Eastern District of Arkansas has stayed all civil cases in our District due to-guess what?-the shutdown. Wouldn't surprise me if civil cases are stayed in the Courts along the proposed Wall as well.
Criminal cases must go on because folks charged with criminal have the right to a "speedy trial." The 6th Amendment is your friend if you are a criminal. Look it up.
Finally, if there is indeed a just God, which most of the time I feel can be ascertained by coin toss as much as consulting scripture, He or She will smile upon us and ensure that WOTEC is returned to civilian life in 2020 where he can start his own cable news network. When he is not dodging service of process or giving depositions, that is.
And probably going through a divorce if the old adage regarding the scorned wife is still on the books.
But I think it highly improbable that the next President, be they Red or Blue is going to be much inclined to throw 5 billion dollars at a mostly symbolic problem. Especially given the headaches he or she are likely to inherent from the former occupant of the Oval Office.
Monday is New Year's Eve. For God's sake use some sense out there. Best to be home before 10 if that late. The cops will be looking for folks to take downtown. If you don't believe me there are any of a number of people of my acquaintance that can explain it all for you.
Seriously. Be careful. I'm off to Tennessee for a few days.
See you next year.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
MY SUNDAY FEELING
" I am proud to shut down the government for border security."
President Trump. In front of rolling cameras.
As I type this, we are about 5 hours away from the closure of most of the United States Government of the refusal of Congress to include 5 billion (that's billion with a "B") in funding for a wall on the southern border of the US. The House, which is made up of a lame duck majority of Republicans, approved the funding and sent it on to the Senate where it is, by all accounts, DOA.
Which is what Nancy Pelosi precisely warned Trump about in their unintentionally televised meeting in the Oval Office a week or so ago during which he popped off about being willing to take the blame for this current impasse much to the undoubted horror of Mitch McConnell.
At this point let me tell a story told to me by a friend who knew somebody who worked for Robert F. Kennedy.
"Bobby always said you didn't have to be smart to be a politician," so the story goes. "But you did have to be able to count."
Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer can count. The votes for funding for the wall weren't there then. They aren't there now. Or that's my guess at least as I write this.
Maybe this is why the Winner Of The Electoral College (WOTEC) decided to sign another Continuing Resolution which would have funded the government through February. Or so he said at the time.
But after catching hell from FOX/TASS and the likes of the reptilian Ann Coulter WOTEC caved and welshed on his earlier agreement to sign the CR. And here we are. "Just In Time For Christmas" as the ads for the season say.
I used to work for Uncle. I have been through 3 or 4 shutdowns. I have written about them before. No need to go back there.
So here's the larger problem I have.
As far as I can tell, the only "advice" WOTEC pays any mind to is what emanates from FOX/TASS and other right wing media along with polling data from his "base." Which means the goddamn country is pretty much being run by 30% of the electorate and windbags like Rush Limbaugh.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to reduce our military presence in Syria. There aren't many good reasons to do so without consulting our allies, our military and diplomatic professionals, or the leaders of Congress. As if this were not sufficient chaos for one Christmastide the government is shut down (I am finishing this up on Saturday).
Shut down over a wall the Mexicans will not pay one nickel for in the event that it gets built at all. And let's be clear. WOTEC campaigned on the promise not just that the wall would be built, but on the preposterous notion that the Mexicans would pay for it. Shut down over a wall Trump couldn't get full funding for while the Republicans had control of both Houses of Congress. And now he damn sure knows he won't get it come January when the Democrats take over the House after the ass kicking the Republicans took in the mid-term election.
The game changes for WOTEC in January. At least in the House where the potential exists for WOTEC's life-and the lives of certain members of his inner circle- to become unpleasant in the extreme.
And perhaps then, once we get past this latest pique induced national crisis (and we will get past it) we will see who is running this country.
Our elected officials? Or Sean Hannity?
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Sunday, December 09, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
Twitter locked State Senator Jason Rapert out of his account the other day. And he evidently continued to exist despite no longer having his favorite platform with which to pontificate from Faulkner County.
If there's one thing that sets Rapert off about as badly as gay folks its Muslims, neither of which exist in what could be described as abundance in his District. Nonetheless, what got Rapert the heave-ho, from Twitter, at least for the time being, were certain comments he put out to the Twitterverse in which he expressed his alarm over the participation of Muslims in the recent midterm election.
On November 30, he shared an article from something called DC Clothesline which stated that 95% of Muslim voters participated in this year's midterm election. To which he added, "Do you want them ruling everything in America?" Then according to KTHV's website he tweeted the following to another Twitter user "If you read this article and don't see real political concerns then you have a problem perceiving news."
As if the foregoing was not sufficiently idiotic, Rapert decided to consult history's immortal scroll, or the section that suits his purpose at least, to respond to someone who criticized him for these views,"[I]t was not a group of Baptists, Jews or Mormons who hijacked planes and killed thousands of innocent people on 9/11/2001-they were all radical Muslims."
Well.
It goes without saying that these statements are irresponsible. But I'm going to say it anyway. These statements are irresponsible. And here's why. In the first place, you have a Constitutional right to be a Muslim. Or a Baptist, a Jew or a Mormon to use his examples of "a group" of non-Muslim folks that most assuredly did not fly planes into those buildings on 9/11. Or you can be nothing at all if you so choose. Accordingly, your right to vote may not be conditioned upon your religious persuasion or lack thereof. As long as you otherwise qualify to cast a ballot, the fact that you are a Scientologist, or a Muslim may not be taken into consideration. It is irrelevant.
But to Rapert and his ilk, Muslims participating at a high level in participatory democracy raises "real political concerns." And this is at the heart of voter suppression schemes. Not election fraud, of which there is precious little, and certainly none on a widespread systemic level. Not even in Louisiana. And not the prospect of American courts dishing out Sharia law if the Muslims "take over" either. The fact that the electorate is becoming more diverse and that it resembles crackers like Rapert and me less is the "political concern" that I'm betting is the real driving force behind these paranoid tweets.
It also goes without saying that Rapert lives in a "context free" zone. But let's go ahead and apply some to his tendentious "9/11" trope. Yes, the hijackers were Muslims. But they, along with Osama bin Laden, were also predominantly Saudis. Whom we consider an ally. Albeit one whose Crown Prince has evidently ordered, and thus far has gotten away with, the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist that was critical of him. Is this, or 9/11, representative of Islam? Of course not. No more than not hijacking planes is representative of the views of the Southern Baptist Convention.
No more than the guy that shot up the synagogue in Pittsburgh represents white males. Or Christianity.
And no more than Jason Rapert does come to think of it. And thank God for that.
Of course, Rapert has vowed to appeal Twitter's decision to knock him off the air. And meanwhile back at the Ledge, a Republican representative filed a bill that would allow legal action against social media companies that "censor" content posted by users. There being evidently no matters currently more pressing than this in the Lower Chamber.
Maybe I should get a Twitter account. The more I'm thinking about it the more I'm basically good with suppressing the Scientologist vote. Mine is a voice that needs to be heard. Which makes me a megalomaniac.
And also makes me a hypocrite I suppose. Good deal. I will fit right in.
If there's one thing that sets Rapert off about as badly as gay folks its Muslims, neither of which exist in what could be described as abundance in his District. Nonetheless, what got Rapert the heave-ho, from Twitter, at least for the time being, were certain comments he put out to the Twitterverse in which he expressed his alarm over the participation of Muslims in the recent midterm election.
On November 30, he shared an article from something called DC Clothesline which stated that 95% of Muslim voters participated in this year's midterm election. To which he added, "Do you want them ruling everything in America?" Then according to KTHV's website he tweeted the following to another Twitter user "If you read this article and don't see real political concerns then you have a problem perceiving news."
As if the foregoing was not sufficiently idiotic, Rapert decided to consult history's immortal scroll, or the section that suits his purpose at least, to respond to someone who criticized him for these views,"[I]t was not a group of Baptists, Jews or Mormons who hijacked planes and killed thousands of innocent people on 9/11/2001-they were all radical Muslims."
Well.
It goes without saying that these statements are irresponsible. But I'm going to say it anyway. These statements are irresponsible. And here's why. In the first place, you have a Constitutional right to be a Muslim. Or a Baptist, a Jew or a Mormon to use his examples of "a group" of non-Muslim folks that most assuredly did not fly planes into those buildings on 9/11. Or you can be nothing at all if you so choose. Accordingly, your right to vote may not be conditioned upon your religious persuasion or lack thereof. As long as you otherwise qualify to cast a ballot, the fact that you are a Scientologist, or a Muslim may not be taken into consideration. It is irrelevant.
But to Rapert and his ilk, Muslims participating at a high level in participatory democracy raises "real political concerns." And this is at the heart of voter suppression schemes. Not election fraud, of which there is precious little, and certainly none on a widespread systemic level. Not even in Louisiana. And not the prospect of American courts dishing out Sharia law if the Muslims "take over" either. The fact that the electorate is becoming more diverse and that it resembles crackers like Rapert and me less is the "political concern" that I'm betting is the real driving force behind these paranoid tweets.
It also goes without saying that Rapert lives in a "context free" zone. But let's go ahead and apply some to his tendentious "9/11" trope. Yes, the hijackers were Muslims. But they, along with Osama bin Laden, were also predominantly Saudis. Whom we consider an ally. Albeit one whose Crown Prince has evidently ordered, and thus far has gotten away with, the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist that was critical of him. Is this, or 9/11, representative of Islam? Of course not. No more than not hijacking planes is representative of the views of the Southern Baptist Convention.
No more than the guy that shot up the synagogue in Pittsburgh represents white males. Or Christianity.
And no more than Jason Rapert does come to think of it. And thank God for that.
Of course, Rapert has vowed to appeal Twitter's decision to knock him off the air. And meanwhile back at the Ledge, a Republican representative filed a bill that would allow legal action against social media companies that "censor" content posted by users. There being evidently no matters currently more pressing than this in the Lower Chamber.
Maybe I should get a Twitter account. The more I'm thinking about it the more I'm basically good with suppressing the Scientologist vote. Mine is a voice that needs to be heard. Which makes me a megalomaniac.
And also makes me a hypocrite I suppose. Good deal. I will fit right in.
Saturday, December 01, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
My phone buzzed yesterday morning at @2:30 AM. Since I now have college aged kids in my life (and in my occasional charge) I put on my glasses so I could better see the name of the Regional Detention Center that had awakened me.
It was not a jail. It was the New York Times service I subscribe to informing me of the passing of George H. W. Bush. He was the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd. He was 94 and had been in poor health for some time.
I was a young lawyer in my thirties when Bush was sworn in. This being prior to the Internet (as I recall) I had a small TV that I brought to the office so we could watch the inauguration in the conference room. I had no particular use for his predecessor in office who he served as VP and so I had very little use for him.
Further, Bush (or his minions such as Lee Atwater) had run an absolutely filthy and racist campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. About whom, it occurs to me, little has been heard about since. I do not know if he is still alive even. Has anyone ever slipped into irrelevance as quickly as he?
OK. Maybe Ross Perot. But I digress.
I did not hold out much hope for the presidency of a man who sold out like that. Even one who spoke of "a thousand points of light" in that inaugural address that we watched in the conference room.
And in retrospect I was mostly wrong. Indeed, 41 is positively Lincolnesque in comparison to the historical aberration that currently infects the Oval Office.
As I reflect on his life and career, the words "decency, humility and devotion to duty" came to mind and I wrote them on my scratch pad. He was a decorated Navy flier, the last President who actually served in combat. He understood war. And he resisted those who urged him to chase Saddam into Iraq after the coalition of 35 countries he put together expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
His bone-headed son would have done well to ask his father why he stopped at the border. But I'm guessing here that 43 didn't want to know. Or that Dick Cheney wouldn't let him ask the question.
Bush should have been able to ride his wartime popularity into a second term. But a skilled young governor from Arkansas hung Ronald Reagan's economy around his neck. And George Herbert Walker Bush was turned out by the voters.
Our presidents tend to look better to us over time and in the rear view mirror. Even Nixon is credited with opening the door to China and in creating the Environmental Protection Agency. I think Bush will be remembered for those attributes that I scraped on the paper. Even if for no other reason than he was not trying to build a hotel in Kuwait City when he went after Saddam.
Here's another reason that I came to like George Bush. SNL's Dana Carvey spent the 4 years of the Bush Administration doing a spot-on impression of 41 as a high church patrician goofball. Bush thought it was hilarious. So much so, he invited Carvey to perform at the White House. You can tell a lot about a man if he can laugh at himself.
Could you imagine President Heel Spurs inviting Alec Baldwin over?
Rest in Peace Mr. Bush. And thank you.
It was not a jail. It was the New York Times service I subscribe to informing me of the passing of George H. W. Bush. He was the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd. He was 94 and had been in poor health for some time.
I was a young lawyer in my thirties when Bush was sworn in. This being prior to the Internet (as I recall) I had a small TV that I brought to the office so we could watch the inauguration in the conference room. I had no particular use for his predecessor in office who he served as VP and so I had very little use for him.
Further, Bush (or his minions such as Lee Atwater) had run an absolutely filthy and racist campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. About whom, it occurs to me, little has been heard about since. I do not know if he is still alive even. Has anyone ever slipped into irrelevance as quickly as he?
OK. Maybe Ross Perot. But I digress.
I did not hold out much hope for the presidency of a man who sold out like that. Even one who spoke of "a thousand points of light" in that inaugural address that we watched in the conference room.
And in retrospect I was mostly wrong. Indeed, 41 is positively Lincolnesque in comparison to the historical aberration that currently infects the Oval Office.
As I reflect on his life and career, the words "decency, humility and devotion to duty" came to mind and I wrote them on my scratch pad. He was a decorated Navy flier, the last President who actually served in combat. He understood war. And he resisted those who urged him to chase Saddam into Iraq after the coalition of 35 countries he put together expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
His bone-headed son would have done well to ask his father why he stopped at the border. But I'm guessing here that 43 didn't want to know. Or that Dick Cheney wouldn't let him ask the question.
Bush should have been able to ride his wartime popularity into a second term. But a skilled young governor from Arkansas hung Ronald Reagan's economy around his neck. And George Herbert Walker Bush was turned out by the voters.
Our presidents tend to look better to us over time and in the rear view mirror. Even Nixon is credited with opening the door to China and in creating the Environmental Protection Agency. I think Bush will be remembered for those attributes that I scraped on the paper. Even if for no other reason than he was not trying to build a hotel in Kuwait City when he went after Saddam.
Here's another reason that I came to like George Bush. SNL's Dana Carvey spent the 4 years of the Bush Administration doing a spot-on impression of 41 as a high church patrician goofball. Bush thought it was hilarious. So much so, he invited Carvey to perform at the White House. You can tell a lot about a man if he can laugh at himself.
Could you imagine President Heel Spurs inviting Alec Baldwin over?
Rest in Peace Mr. Bush. And thank you.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
My Sunday Post Thanksgiving and Razorback Apocalypse Feeling
We had Thanksgiving at my cousin's house. Just as we have for years. Only this year we took the bird at her house just around the corner from my new house in Upper Hillcrest rather than at her country manse in Heber.
Of course, this was news to me and the change of venue wasn't communicated to me until I was halfway down Cedar Street to the I-630. Oh well, I guess cleaning the car up and filling it with gas are good things unto themselves.
I was actually good with this. I love going to Heber but driving back in the darkness from Quitman to Greenbriar is a pain in the ass. Besides, being 5 minutes away from my house means that I could make it in time for the kickoff for the annual hatefest between Ole Miss and Mississippi State known as the Egg Bowl. Other schools have rivalries. But these two have despised each other worse than poison for about a hundred years. There are other family splintering rivalries to be sure: Auburn-Alabama and Ohio State-Michigan being the more prominent ones.
But the latter two may be generally relied upon to keep the action between the lines and before the whistle. This is not the case whenever the two major combatants in the Magnolia State get together on the field of glory. And there are people like me who can't on this every year.
And last Thursday night did not disappoint when a bench clearing low yield riot broke out between the student-athletes in the 3rd quarter. 157 unsportsmanlike conducts were handed out which is a first in my experience. And 3 Bulldogs and I Rebel were ejected for good measure by the thoroughly harried and undoubtedly pissed officiating crew.
Say what you will about such low commerce on the field of glory. At least Ole Miss and Mississippi State is a real rivalry. Unlike the contrived one between Arkansas and Missouri. Which brings me to last Friday's debacle in Columbia wherein a good but not great Tiger club plastered a toothless Razorback team 38-0. Which means they limped across the finish line 2-10 with no wins in the conference. You've got to wonder if Chad Morris wishes he had stayed in Dallas.
I am nothing if not a fair man. When Wally Hall is right he's right. And as he put it "[T]he University of Arkansas football program is broken. The wheels are off. It is bankrupt."
I am pretty much agnostic about the Razorbacks. I want them to be good because I have so little use for everybody else in the SEC West. I have watched them all my life. I've seen them good and not so good. But I've never seen them non-competitive. And that's what they are now. This is how bad they are. The bowl-eligible Tulane Green Wave could beat them. That's a sentence that could never have been written since 1982 or so.
Bit what are they going to do about it? Where's the floor? And will the Razorback brass in the AD's office try to get in the dirty arms race to get them competitive in that division. That's going to be tough. The Aggies have more money than anybody but Texas. And they don't have to fool with them anymore. They fill their stadium every Saturday as does everybody else in that division. Indeed the Aggies taking Kyle Field resembles a scene from a Lini Riefenstahl movie while Arkansas is going into hock to expand Razorback Stadium and they can't fill it now.
So what are they going to do? I don't know. As Wally says, the football program is broken.
Happy Thanksgiving Hog fans! Be thankful for basketball and baseball.
Of course, this was news to me and the change of venue wasn't communicated to me until I was halfway down Cedar Street to the I-630. Oh well, I guess cleaning the car up and filling it with gas are good things unto themselves.
I was actually good with this. I love going to Heber but driving back in the darkness from Quitman to Greenbriar is a pain in the ass. Besides, being 5 minutes away from my house means that I could make it in time for the kickoff for the annual hatefest between Ole Miss and Mississippi State known as the Egg Bowl. Other schools have rivalries. But these two have despised each other worse than poison for about a hundred years. There are other family splintering rivalries to be sure: Auburn-Alabama and Ohio State-Michigan being the more prominent ones.
But the latter two may be generally relied upon to keep the action between the lines and before the whistle. This is not the case whenever the two major combatants in the Magnolia State get together on the field of glory. And there are people like me who can't on this every year.
And last Thursday night did not disappoint when a bench clearing low yield riot broke out between the student-athletes in the 3rd quarter. 157 unsportsmanlike conducts were handed out which is a first in my experience. And 3 Bulldogs and I Rebel were ejected for good measure by the thoroughly harried and undoubtedly pissed officiating crew.
Say what you will about such low commerce on the field of glory. At least Ole Miss and Mississippi State is a real rivalry. Unlike the contrived one between Arkansas and Missouri. Which brings me to last Friday's debacle in Columbia wherein a good but not great Tiger club plastered a toothless Razorback team 38-0. Which means they limped across the finish line 2-10 with no wins in the conference. You've got to wonder if Chad Morris wishes he had stayed in Dallas.
I am nothing if not a fair man. When Wally Hall is right he's right. And as he put it "[T]he University of Arkansas football program is broken. The wheels are off. It is bankrupt."
I am pretty much agnostic about the Razorbacks. I want them to be good because I have so little use for everybody else in the SEC West. I have watched them all my life. I've seen them good and not so good. But I've never seen them non-competitive. And that's what they are now. This is how bad they are. The bowl-eligible Tulane Green Wave could beat them. That's a sentence that could never have been written since 1982 or so.
Bit what are they going to do about it? Where's the floor? And will the Razorback brass in the AD's office try to get in the dirty arms race to get them competitive in that division. That's going to be tough. The Aggies have more money than anybody but Texas. And they don't have to fool with them anymore. They fill their stadium every Saturday as does everybody else in that division. Indeed the Aggies taking Kyle Field resembles a scene from a Lini Riefenstahl movie while Arkansas is going into hock to expand Razorback Stadium and they can't fill it now.
So what are they going to do? I don't know. As Wally says, the football program is broken.
Happy Thanksgiving Hog fans! Be thankful for basketball and baseball.
Technical Difficulties
My MacBook Pro is not getting along with my home network. Hopefully will have it resolved soon.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
Nothing to report today except we celebrated Joe's birthday last night with steaks on the grill and football on the tube. Not a bad way to observe such a milestone.
Will check in later.
Until then, talk amongst yourselves.
Will check in later.
Until then, talk amongst yourselves.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
I'm not usually one for political theatre. However, it's not every day that professing Nazis hold a rally on the Capitol steps. And so why heck yeah I had to go.
My initial thought when I saw the battalion of police in riot gear separating the Boys in Black from the protestors that had gathered to scream invective at them was that the First Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees free speech and the right to peaceably assemble to petition for redress of grievances can be a problematic thing under circumstances such as these.
My second thought as I blew into my hands to ward off the cold was that if I were to choose between right wing nutbar extremist groups, I would choose to be a Klansman on a day like yesterday. After all, the KKK gets to wear robes and hoods and they burn crosses. That would provide some warmth at least.
So what happened? Not much and that was undoubtedly due to the overwhelming presence of law enforcement. There would be no repeat of Charlottesville on their watch. And thank God for that. Because I got the distinct impression that both sides were trying to incite the other to do something stupid.
The Nazis-all 13 of them-mocked the protestors as Communists and crazies who were out to deny them their rights of free speech. They reminded me for all the world of the mouthy clown at the fair who sits in the chair over a vat of water while he insults the contestants who are throwing baseballs at the bullseye that will cause the trap door to open beneath him. The discourse was about as sophisticated.
So what were the Nazis protesting? There were speeches about Afrikaners losing their farmland which I wouldn't think would be much of a hot button topic around these parts. But their main beef, as far as I could tell, was how the two party system in this country was rigged against the working man. Indeed, they referred to both Hillary and Trump as products of the bourgeoisie. They used that word. I don't rightly know if anybody else there was fascinated at the notion of Nazis spouting Marxist rhetoric. But I was.
As far as the opposition went, they just hated the Nazis. They were mostly young folks. Their signage was all over the place. Rights for Immigrants. Down with hate. Feminists. LGTBQ. Remember the Holocaust. One thing you can say about the other guys. They don't have focus issues.
And the things the guys at the barricades yelled at the guys on the steps caused me to blush. And I have a pretty high threshold for what I consider to be the unspeakably vile . I felt sorry for the cops that had to listen to it. Not because the insults were directed at them but because some things ain't worth it even at time and a half.
A fellow civilian who joined me there for a bit said she saw some Antifa flags. Maybe so. I wouldn't know Antifa from Auntie Mame. But if they were there they are idiots. And the Nazis that graced our town yesterday were a bunch of punks with a confused ideology who probably couldn't be counted on to knock over a lemonade stand.
I call it a draw.
Somebody asked me last night if I felt as if I were in any danger while I was out there exercising my 1st Amendment rights to take pictures and to generally make a nuisance of myself.
"Yes," I said. "These young kids chain smoke like crazy. I didn't think I would get my ass kicked. But I thought I might asphyxiate. Or acquire second hand lung cancer."
The Nazis likely convinced nobody to join their team. The Antifa types didn't scare them off. It was pointless political theatre fought to a draw under the adult supervision of the LRPD and Capitol Police.
Just sound and fuhrer signifying nothing you might say.
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