Warning: This blog will deal with what most consider to be religious issues. Some who read it may be offended. If you are possibly one of those, hit the delete button now. On the other hand, if you don’t read it, how will you know that you are offended. Oh, what the hell, most of you have read stuff a lot worse than this could ever be. Give it a read, then decide. I grew up a Southern Baptist. Well, that’s a stretch. Actually my earliest memories of things religious date from my fifth or sixth grade year. I dunno what happened, church wise before then, but I have clear memories of the Hillcrest Baptist Church in 1953. My mother had a murky...
I can’t recall exactly when I first became aware of “men of letters” as a designation for a particular class of erudite and literate individuals. Upon seeing this designation in print for the first time, I immediately thought of uncle Ned’s funeral in which I thought the B.P.O.E after his name would qualify him as a “man of letters”. Unfortunately, I shortly learned that being a life member of the Brotherhood of the Paternal Order of the Elks did not qualify him for entrance into these lofty literary circles. Upon reflection and some study, I’m inclined to put “men of letters” in two piles. In the first...
I dunno why, but I’d long dreaded the day, August 10, 2013 when I was to become seventy and officially old. I had long ago overcome the ignominy of taking the two dollar senior citizen discount at the movie theatre, and the snide, “…for a man of your age” that I was starting to get far too frequently. I’d even avoided taking a punch at the sales clerks who had begun to refer to me patronizingly as “young man” or, worse yet, “young fellow”. I had also begun to say with weak, gallows humor that, “I don’t even buy green bananas anymore” as a way of signaling that my time was growing ever...
As promised, I propose in this posting to bring light to one of the many mysteries of the Court. But first the preliminaries. I am sure that, you know the history and jurisdictional authority of the Supreme Court, so I will only add a thought or two to refresh your memory. Article III, Section 1 says in part, “the judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish….”. It goes on for the next couple of sections to talk about jurisdictional matters. You know the stuff, suits between the states, suits between the states and the...
Of course you know that SCOTUS is the operative acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States as POTUS is…well you get the drift. In the last few days of the Court’s term the media and a small, elite group of supreme court watchers are ever on point on whether and how SCOTUS will rule on the cases of the day. Most of us have little idea of the actual substance of the cases and have even less understanding of the often arcane logic that is exercised in reaching their decisions. Count me as one of the non-elite, small group of Supreme Court watchers. I’ve long been fascinated by what they say and why they say it. I’m not without...
Everyone, at some point in life, wants to articulate their beliefs. Some do it in writing, and others demonstrate it by their behavior. Some give speeches about it. Some say nothing but think about it a lot. For better or worse, I’ve decided to set out my principle beliefs in this post. It’s risky to reveal yourself by stating what you believe, because you open yourself up to criticism and even ridicule from those you want most to impress. I’ve decided to take the chance. I can safely predict that you will not agree with them all, and some will seem non-sensical. Some will reveal my prejudices. That’s ok. These statements of...
After 30 years in the world of big business, Gary “retired” to pursue long ignored interests. While continuing his involvement in the corporate world by serving as a director of several public companies, he has, among other things, traveled the world in pursuit of the perfect bird photograph, served national and local charities as a director and donor, developed a personal web site as a platform for his writing on subjects of personal interest, and, occasionally, taken time to smell the roses.
Gary and his wife Sandra, shuttle between their condo in Dallas and their farm in Fannin county, Texas where they indulge themselves in organic gardening, long walks and entertaining friends and family.
