Law, Power, and Justice

NEWS, LIFE, AND ART NOTES FROM A CHILDLESS% (CHILD-FREE)[1] CAT LADY WORKING AWAY IN THE DEEP SOUTH IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK .

O.K. It’s after 12 noon. I have not written a blog post although that was my top priority for the morning. But today’s cleaning day and that always interrupts everything. Even having a housekeeper who comes every week doesn’t seem to change the amount of work or disruption caused by the drudgery of this never ending task.

But, we are lucky. If someone asked me about our housekeeper, someone who knew neither of us, I would respond that she was one of the best people I know and considered as a friend more than anything else. She is kind, responsible, trustworthy, sympathetic, asmart as a whip, fun to talk to, and completely professional. Who could even ask for that? She is also one of the few people I have run across in my 75 years of living who seems to actually live her life in a way that is coherent with what she believes. We are fortunate to have her.

But with a house that until recently contained 10 cats and now contains nine (Hiram Bernard recently died of cancer), there is no end to the cleaning. And, it’s spring. They are shedding like crazy. We could run a profitable business making sweaters out of cat fur.

NOW

As I’m sure you have noticed, I have decided to substantially change the website. Rather than just reporting news stories I am particularly interested in, I am trying to integrate news commentary with notes about my personal life, what it feels like personally to be living in this runaway circus of corruption and greed and the amassing of power. At times, i will include discussions about music, art, and literature so we won’t all go stark raving mad.

I don’t know how it will work.

I am, however, extremely interested in hearing back from those of you who are reading www.lawpowerandjustice.com

about how you think it is working.

I welcome any responses. Let me know how you like the change. Let me know about stories from your personal life that relate to the current news. Pass along recommendations about books and music. And, please, pass along photographs of animals in your life and stories about them.

SOME NEWS

I’m still wondering if the White House is in a “sweaty panic” over the situation in Iran. A “sweaty panic” is how Tom Nichols, who writes for various publications including the Atlantic and appears on Nicolle Wallace, characterized it. [2] Nichols recently commented that the smell at the White House was something like: “We’re all looking for the guy who did this (started the Iran war). Had we only known.”

“What is it they think they are going to get out of this?” Nichols asked recently on NSNOW. The Iranian people have been abandoned.” Wendy Sherman, a diplomat who participated in the Obama Iran Nuclear Deal commented: “The lives of the Iranian people are worse.”

BOOK NOTES

As you probably know i am not a fan of Joe Scarborough, but i watch him and he does do some good things on ,SNOW. Last week he helped promote an independent bookseller in rural Texas who has an extremely popular podcast: “daily Stoic.”

Ryan Holiday chose a group of books that guarantee to be both absorbing and instructive in this time of growing corruption, authoritarianism and late phase capitalism.

BOOK NOTES

(From the Painted Porch, an independent book store in Austin Texas. )

· “The Storm before the Storm” by Mike Duncan. This book is about the 100 years before Caeser destroyed the Roman Republic. It will “keep you up at night.”

· “Tyrant” by Stephen Greenblatt. Shakespeare had no guarantee of free speech so he used his plays to make political comment. He studied the traits and programs of tyrants and worked them into his characters.

· “Freak Kingdom” by Timothy Denevi. This is a biography of one of our greatest political writers, Hunter S. Thompsona. Because of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,l and Thompson’s outrageous lifestyle he has become a caricature of himself. This biography brings his life and work back into serious discussion.

· “History Matters,” by David McCullough. This is a collection of what McCullough”s daughter thought were his best works. History does matter. It matters so much that powerful people try to steal, manipulate and sometimes erase it. McCullough reminds us that a study of history forces us to consider the fact that it could always have gone differently. When it went right, it was because of individuals and what they did. When it went badly it was often because of what people didn’t do.

· “All the King’s Men,” by Robert Penn Warran. Based on the life and career of Huey Long “the Kingfish”, this book describes how a poor man becomes a lawyer and then a politician to help other poor people. What he finds however is that it is all too easy to become complicit with the same people he went into politics to fight. Themes are: Complicity, corruption of populism, corruption in general, the corrosive effect of corruption, leverage.

· “The Great Gadsby,” : Opening line: “Whenever you feel like criticizing people just remember that everybody hasn’t had the privileges you have had.”

· “FahrenHeit 451” by Ray Bradbury.

· “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor E. Frank

· www.thepaintedporch.com

[1] One of the comments I recently got reminded me of the political nature of using the word “childless.” In this case, I was mimicking J. D. Vance and his disdain for women who have no children. My friend reminded me that “child free” was probably a better way to phrase the situation and I have no disagreement. I certainly consider myself “child free.” I never wanted children, nor did I ever sit around and ponder any loss I was experiencing for not having them. Changing diapers, being constantly interrupted, being a chauffeur, a cook and a hall monitor just never appealed to me. There are infinitely more times when I say to myself: “I’m so glad I don’t have children” than “I wish I had children.” It’s just not my thing. Additionally, I grew up with a mother who never wanted children and would have been infinitely more happy had she never had them. So, I appreciate the comment and acknowledge the political importance of the use of language.

[2] Nichols used to be an obnoxious conservative, but Trump has changed him. (Note: It’s a bit like Nicholas Kristol. Think about writing a “Look Who’s Talking” about Kristol and Nichols).