A Man Like Few Others

"Whenever you're faced with an explanation of what's going on in Washington, the choice between incompetence and conspiracy, always choose incompetence." 

"Better to be paralyzed from the neck down than the neck up."


"Some will protest that in a world with so much human suffering, it is something between eccentric and obscene to mourn a dog. I think not. After all, it is perfectly normal—indeed, deeply human—to be moved when nature presents us with a vision of great beauty. Should we not be moved when it produces a vision—a creature—of the purest sweetness?"
Charles Krauthammer, MD.

Mourning the passing of the iconic Charles Krauthammer.

A few bland lines - born in Manhattan to a Belgian mother and Ukrainian father, Harvard educated psychiatrist, speechwriter for Carter VP Walter Mondale. A diving accident in his first year at Harvard left him paralyzed from basically the neck down (he still graduated). Author, speaker, Fox News commentator. Blah blah blah.

In the arena of ideas, he was a titan, a man whose wit and wisdom, his grasp of concepts and vocabulary, often required a rereading to completely digest. His coworkers and contemporaries spoke of his kindness, humility and good humor. I'm sure the recipients of scalpel-like verbal excisions could easily have done without. He was an intellectual, and an unapologetic conservative. If that formulation makes you queasy:


"[They are] no longer trying to win the debate but stopping debate altogether, banishing from public discourse any and all opposition. The proper word for that attitude is totalitarian. It declares certain controversies over and visits serious consequences from social ostracism to vocational defenestration upon those who refuse to be silenced."

He had good things to say, as well as harsh, about nearly everyone involved in public life. He labeled President Obama as a first-rate intellect, while marveling at how a young man with no paper trail, no history would become president. This truly difiant conservative took time out during the 2016 campaign to brand then-candidate Donald Trump an infant ("I thought he was an eleven year old, but I find I'm off by a decade"), that the man was prone to the occasional gaffe of telling a revealing truth.

One could easily write a worthy blog about Dr. K that merely listed a dozen or so of the more pithy comments advanced over his amazing life. Like this one, written about him by his friend George Will:

"Some people are such a large presence while living that they still occupy space even when they are gone."

They Wrote What?!

“Yes, I felt very small. The typewriter seemed larger than a piano, I was less than a molecule. What could I do? I drank more.
-pg 237”
― Albert Sánchez Piñol, Pandora in the Congo

Almost a month. That is beyond unusual. But, as William Forrester said, the first key to writing is to write.

My absence hasn't been spurred by a dearth of topics. Perhaps it was paralysis of the kind writers sometimes encounter. Where. To. Start.

The 2017 term for Johnny Roberts and the Supremes is winding to a close with more of a whimper than a roar. This group is developing - very nicely - a habit of sidestepping big changes with deftly-worded, narrowly reasoned masterpieces of nuance. The "travel ban" case is yet to be published (it's already been decided, technically) but there was the cake case and the data search case.

The cake case. Has more mischief been made recently through a vicarious mis-reading of what is fairly straightforward? One need not agree with the outcome, or even the reasoning. Caveat - the editorial staff here at Bikecopblog (me, and Jed) are strongly in favor of marriage being open to all. So, when Jed turns 10 we won't be shopping at Masterpiece for birthday cupcakes, which is coincidentally right here in beautiful Lakewood.

That said, the case does not stand for "You don't have to serve anyone you don't want to serve." Individuals on several sides of the political spectrum (typically people hanging way out in the breeze) have justified all kinds of mischief by reading this case... Okay, by reading other people's opinions of this case, and then setting their feet firmly in the quicksand of ignorance. Masterpiece is a great read, if for no other reason than all of the judges who wrote opinions - Kennedy for the majority, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Thomas  concurring and Ginsburg in dissent - wrote beautifully crafted opinions that clearly reflect their method of interpretation. Maybe you agree with the majority. Maybe Ginsburg's dissent is more your cup of tea. It's well worth the read.

The cell phone case - Carpenter v. US. "Oh, the humanity..."

You know what this opinion says, in essence? Instead of issuing subpoenas to get cell phone records from the provider (which is what happened in this case), law enforcement will have to get warrants. According to the nitwit Fox legal "expert," it struck a blow for privacy.

Okay, big guy. Whatever.

There are dissenting opinions, but they are of the kind where reasonable people have disagreed and are being respectful as such. Don't read the breathless, not especially well-thought-out Wiki entry. At once it calls the decision "landmark" and "very narrow" in that it didn't overturn anything, really. Chief Justice Roberts' interesting opinion for the majority walks a fine line that technology has paved. It is also worth the read. Oh...emergencies? Guess what. All the time-honored exceptions exist. Take a breath. We're fine.

Finally.

I'm over Justice Sotomayor. Trevino v. Davis. The Supreme Court denied cert in a death case, and she wrote a dissent to the denial. Soto thought they should have heard it (and basically wrote that the sentence should be overturned) because Trevino's lawyer didn't make enough of a thing that his mom drank a lot of beer when he was in the womb. So, according to her, Trevino's life should be spared (and before you say "life without possibility--" New York just sprung some asshole who literally executed two NYPD cops) because his mom drank.

Linda Salinas was fifteen when she happened upon street gang thugs in San Antonio, Texas. They offered her a ride, then took her to a park. She was raped, and stabbed to death. Trevino's comment to his friends? "I learned to kill in prison."

No one disputes - Trevino included - that he raped and murdered a fifteen year old girl. But, he alleges, his legal responsibility is limited because his mom drank and his trial attorney didn't make enough of a point of it.

Sotomayor can write whatever she wants. I'm not a fan of the death penalty (either is Jed), but... Linda Salinas's life is worth less because her murderer's mom drank?

I need a drink.