LAW AND ORDER --

Oh, Boy!  Law and Order.  There has been a lot of noise in the politisphere about this lately.

Law and Order!  What is that?

Easy - Law is what is on the "books" before I got here.  [I refer you to the Mosaic LAW.]

           Order is the way I tell you to act according to my reading of the LAW.

Here's a simple example of order according to Joseph Thibault, my one and only Grandfather and the living patron saint of EFR Dion, my father.

"Never cross the street in the middle of the block.  Always go to the intersection to cross the street.

Now, I am rarely a pedestrian on a city street in this, the 21st century.  Now,  I tell you that I am aware of the wisdom of the order cast upon me at the ripe old age of 5 years, 9 months old.  ( 1942 )

Can you see the connection between our venal lawmakers (AD 2020) and the hypocritical Pharisees of  BC ?? to AD 100?  

Law is what takes place in the courtroom.  Order is what I can get away with.

Law is what the Supreme Court says I can do.

So now, what I opined was right.  I arrest you, you disagree.  We seesaw back and forth in court appeals until we get an order.  By the time we think we have a resolution, other court decisions have superseded the one that we have on the dockett, so we amend our position to accommodate our desires to fit the elements of the newly proclaimed legal reality.

You see the path here.  Law is nothing but an embryonic reality that has quasi infinite potential for evolutionary replication.  

To quote the famous person against whose life my father dedicated my name,    

     "...because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression."

                      (Paul, Romans 4:15)

Think of this as you wonder why any intelligent human being would think that a conservative person and a progressive person would have different understandings of the law.  Isn't the law, law?

BTW:  Smile. There are three topics that have eternally, non-ending half lives:

law

politics

theology

I bring my musings to an end by expostulating without regret or fear of having erred:

It is essential that to save the constitutional republic of the United States of America a constitutional convention must be convened NOW.

Might be a good idea not to forward this one!

DOUBLE EDGED LINGUISTIC SWORDS

“Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” 

“I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.”

“Safari, so goody.”

“In politics, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” (Perhaps not from Churchill)

There is always something to be learned by listening to someone who has a better command of the language than we do.  It is the liguistically gifted person who many times leaves us wondering, "Now why didn't I think of that."  

I admired my maternal grandfather for the way he could get get the most out of language by simply modulating the intonation of his voice.  For him, this was a way of making  either a humorous postulation or a final, sharp tipped point.

I'll never forget his favorite way to put down people who did not appreciate/understand the successful achievements of professional, hardworking members of the community.  I have to translate from the original French:  "Happy the poor in spirit (wink, wink)

for the Kingdom of heaven shall be theirs." (Matt 5 - Beatitudes)

It's like Churchill said about Clement Attlee, "...he has much to be modest about."

So, these are not oximorons, but because they are challenging, I couldn't leave the opportunity pass me by.  

So, what's the point?  It is this:  be prepared to appreciate the truth in the form that it presents itself to you ... prepare to be confronted by it in some strange places and in some strange ways.  Be ready.

POLITICS 2012 -- MY TAKE -- WE'RE GOING TO THE DOGS

                   ROOFUS                                             POTUS

I tell you that it is fun watching this skirmish between these two.  I have never been much of a watcher of politicians because I am of the opinion that they all live on another planet than I do.  I wonder if they could pass the DNA test for humanity.  Deep down inside me, I don't think that they can.  
Like everyone else, I hear them making all sorts of promises about what they are going to accomplish once they are elected.  It always strikes me as strange that as they are making these promises, I am wondering if they realize that are but one person among the other 600 who are also making similar promises.  I also hear them bashing the brains out of one another in public.  I suppose that we adults can listen to this xxx talk and shake it off like wet puppies.  I am wondering how young children feel about it though.  Sometimes I wonder if it would not be safer to allow the left tackle to "bring his daughter to work" some Sunday.  That might be easier.  She would have to do it only once.  The sons and daughters of these two specimens of DNA constructs have to play left tackle for months on end.  


Well, I am not fond of writing politics here on this page, but I decided that I would give it a go for one time.  So, here it is.  I declare that there is a great difference between the two principal candidates running for the privilege of sitting the the Oval Office.  


Right off the top:  One is looking for the job.  The other is striving for the office.

                                  One is usually grinning.      The other is usually smiling.

                                  One is not afraid to throw a dare at the other side.

                                  The other doesn't dare anyone to do anything, not even himself.

                                  One is Christian.  The other is not.  Neither appears to be willing to         

                                  follow the morality defined by the tenets of the religion they say  

                                  they espouse.

                                  One has a tanker full of money.    The other only has a truckload.

                                  They each have more money than either you or me.

                                   One has no qualms about spending tens of millions of other    

                                   people's money.  The other prefers to spend hundreds of millions 

                                   of other people's money.

                                  One is a saber rattler; a real ships, planes, drones and bombs buff.

                                  The other plays basketball, lets others do the joystick shtick and 

                                   takes credit for killing people in other people's back yard.

                                   Neither one knows a gun from a slingshot.  

                                   Neither one has ever had to eat "shit on a shingle" for breakfast.

                                   One plays basket ball, but doesn't allow pictures of him in shorts!

                                   The other has million dollar toys and likes the bling that they ring.

                                   They both have dogs.  One keeps his in the house.  The other 

                                    keeps his on the roof of his car.  One has eaten dog meat and 

                                    perhaps would not turn it down if it were offered.  The other doesn't 

                                    have to "wok" his dog because he's nestled into the car roof rack.

                                    Neither one has to complain that he is living a dog's life.

                                    One has an Hawaiian birth certificate, so they say.  The other has 

                                    IRS documents.  Or so it is alleged.  In both cases, there is no 

                                    better, nor richer grist for the gossip mill.

Yes, it is interesting to watch this year.  There is absolutely no suspense.  Everyone knows that no matter who finally gets to sit the Oval Office, the chair will still serve the noble purpose of supporting the south end of a being whose north end is firmly lodged in the dark confines of the southern recesses of his being.  


Now you are all informed about the urgent need for our vote.  One vote against the will of the hundreds of millions of $1.00 votes by the special interests.  And all for the glory of saying that we kept one guy off unemployment!


    

PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION

There are fewer things that I can praise than there are about which I can "rant."  That's not bragging, it's only true.  There is something about praise that rings false.  Yet, it is supposed to be one of the easiest tasks that fall to someone to accomplish.  I have found myself questioning that all my life.  I had a moment in my life when I was constantly berated for being a constant grouch and a useless curmudgeon.  Curmudgeon?  I was only 16!  It came to me because I  was an outspoken critic of movies.  It was because I only liked "Tom and Jerry" cartoons and everything else was nothing but technology trying to explain life.  I have truly never been much of a movie fan.  I just can't get behind the screen.  The worst possible behavior that holds forth in movie houses is the applause at the end.  Yaay!  Great job, Clint!  Come on out and take a bow.  Hey, where is ol' Clint?  I just saw him stare down 125 people.  Where'd he go?  Gee, he's so shy.  Doesn't even appear for a bow after such a great performance.  It's going to be a cold day in Dante's place before I ever applaud for him again. 
A couple years later I go to another movie and the viewers applauded again.  I was pretty amazed.  All these people must never have been to a movie before.  Didn't they know that the leading man and the leading lady weren't going to come out to take a bow?  Really amazing a stuff.  Now if I were going to praise movies, how could I be humorous about it?
How could I be humorous if I were praising the Red Sox?  Or the San Diego Chargers?  or Beach Volley Ball?  

I have to admit that the things above are really quite frivolous to begin with.  There are other things that could get a lot heavier.  Like discussing cruel dictators; organized, legal bribery and politics; religion and religious convictions; morality and a host of other interesting realities, like bullfighting.  Even these things can be discussed in humorous ways, and very often they are, but only when what is being proposed is not laudatory.  
So that's who I am.  I love the give and take of cool discussion.  I love the cold, hard dynamics of intellectual exchange.  Interestingly enough, I can only do that in some areas.  There are some things that I just can't touch.  I just don't have the desire or the zeal to engage in useless give and take when I know that there is absolutely no chance that I will ever cross the divide between my position and that on the other side.  It has now become obvious to you that it is not a question of inability, it's a question of escape.  So, yep I escape from some things, especially if they are lodged in certain people.  It is then that I decide that silence is the only valor that I am going to parade around in at that time.  Believe it or not, that does happen.  It usually happens when I know that humor is not going to be the safety valve that I want it to be, or need it to be.   
So, dear readers, let me praise you for choosing to follow these humble musings.  You're the best audience I have ever had.  I love each and every one of you more than I love myself.  Since you know that I love you so much, know that I would never, ever prevaricate in your presence, not even in a moment of great need and great challenge when the bases were full in the bottom of the 9th with two strikes on me and two outs in the seventh game of the World Series and my team behind by two runs.  When I hit the walk-off home run, I would not expect one single, solitary syllable of praise from anyone and never, ever expect anyone to cry at my funeral after I got hit by a speeding car when I stepped off the curb in an ethyl alcohol, celebration induced, drunken stupor.
So there.

Oh, Boy, Oh Bama

The only thing we can really afford is single payer
You're not going to believe this.  I just had a nasty thought about President Obama.  No, I mean this is really not nice at all.  

I have this thought that Barack Obama really is not dedicated to the overall welfare of the United States of America.  I get this nagging thought  that this man does not care one way or the other about what happens during the next two years.  Not only that, I am swamped by the sullen presence of the thought that the only thing that Barack Obama really cared about to being with, was winning.  Once he won, he had nothing to do but to find a way through the morass of complexities that constitute governing, and he would have his future and  that of his family assured, partly at tax payer expense.  After all, no one gets "fired" from the lifetime benefits that come to ex-presidents.
He hit the jackpot when John McCain saddled himself with Sarah Palin.  From that moment on, it was all Obama.  So it was until he got to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Then it was all peripheral.  It was all Pelosi, Reid, Holder, Napolitano, etc.  Obama settled into playing the blame game iced over with the compromise shuffle.  Some times he did not wait for the challenge to compromise, he just wiped the table clean before it even got visited.  Barack Obama is not breaking a sweat over getting anything done at the highest degree of quality.  All he wants is to get something done, no matter how big or how small.  He'll take it all, go home and display it for the rest of his life as spoils of his victory.  That's my thought, and not just for today.  It has been hanging around for a while now.  I just can't wait until two-o-twelve!