by Gary | Aug 10, 2013 |
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...
by Gary | Jul 25, 2013 |
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...
by Gary | Jul 25, 2013 |
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...
by Gary | Apr 12, 2013 |
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...
by Gary | Apr 8, 2013 |
Let’s be clear from the outset. I’m a capitalist. I’m a filthy lucre loving product of the democratic, free market system of capitalism much ballyhooed by fellow travelers all along the political spectrum. I will say though that those at the top of the economic dog pile tend to offer their unreserved love of the system while those farther down the economic food chain may still make cooing noises but are somewhat restrained by their own personal reality. As always, it’s probably a good idea to define some terms before opining. I’ll warn you this is more complicated than it seems at first glance. Capitalism, is an economic...
by Gary | Mar 12, 2013 |
I posted on September 1, 2009 a somewhat whimsical piece titled “Getting Old is Not For Sissies”. Read it again if you like, but a short summary is that I was whinning about the things I could do in my youth that are now far out of reach, and the subtle, and not so subtle, changes in the landscape of my body. Every thing I said then, I double down on now, three years later…and more. No, I’m not going to give you an itemized list of the things that are going awhack in my physiology, but I will tell you that the pace is accelerating. I know there’s a word in the English language that means “to accelerate at an accelerating...
