Legal Commentary

P.P.S.

Posted on August 19, 2008
Any lurkers readers out there who want to know where I've set up shop "anonymously" (although it won't be to you, will it?), e-mail me. I'm not sure when this blog is going "off air," but it won't be too...

Postscript

Posted on August 11, 2008
Who do I know at Westmoreland Hall? How about Devon Energy? In all "candor," I'm merely curious.

This Train Don't Stop There Anymore

Posted on July 14, 2008
Perhaps, if I am very lucky, the feeble efforts of my lifetime will someday be noticed, and maybe, in some small way, they will be acknowledged as the greatest works of genius ever created my Man. ---Kevin Funnell, as told...

I Dreamed I Saw Saw St. Augustine

Posted on July 10, 2008
I've been out in the hedgerows, mixing it up with the forces of Sauron in the battle for the soul of corporate America, and when I return I find in my Google Reader a mix of posts concerning matters only...

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I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

Posted on July 10, 2008
I've been out in the hedgerows, mixing it up with the forces of Sauron in the battle for the soul of corporate America, and when I return I find in my Google Reader a mix of posts concerning matters only...

Blessed Are The Grammarians

Posted on July 07, 2008
A brief passage from Pope Benedict XVI, again from is book God and the World. This one ought to warm the heart of my friend Kyle Kupp, a diagrammer of sentences from way back. In discussing the contributions that the...

KISS Me

Posted on July 06, 2008
From the book God and the World, a conversation between writer Peter Sewald and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: (Sewald): It's obvious that Jesus takes particular delight in children and in people with a simple faith. He is ----something we rarely see...

Who Doesn't Long For?

Posted on June 29, 2008
Longing Come to me in my dreams, and then By day I shall be well again! For so the night will more than pay The hopeless longing of the day. Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times, A messenger from...

Rue, Not Rage

Posted on June 29, 2008
Rue For what I did And did not do And do without In my old age Rue, not rage Against that night We go into, Sets me straight On what to do Before I die? Sit in the shade, Look...

McCain's Voguing It Big Time

Posted on June 25, 2008
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

A Need For Agape

Posted on June 24, 2008
Shira bat Sarah is a survivor of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As she relates in this post, she recalls warmly the caring brought to her region by the Red Cross and the Salvation...

Let's Goose This "Goose"

Posted on June 22, 2008
Some jerk is stealing my thunder...and making money to boot! A robber who bears a resemblance to Anthony Edwards' "Goose" character from the movie Top Gun robbed his third bank in a month on Saturday, Fort Worth police said. At...

The Human Stain

Posted on June 20, 2008
When most Americans discuss the subject of illegal immigration, they tend to do so with cold, hard, dispassionate logic. I dare say that the issue is one that barely registers on the public emotional seismograph. As far as I'm concerned,...

My Stupid Mouth

Posted on June 17, 2008
Inklings Inklings san ink Cling to the dry Point of the pen Whose stem I mouth Not knowing when The truth will out Samuel Menashe Back To You, John Mayer

Is The Gay Marriage Battle Lost?

Posted on June 08, 2008
"Yes" says Crunchy Con columnist Rod Dreher. He sets out his line of reasoning in a recent editorial in The Dallas Morning News. It's not long, so read it for yourself. I don't disagree with his conclusion that, ultimately, social...

The Sweet Voice Of Reason

Posted on June 04, 2008
Now that Obama has wrapped up the nomination and gotten a fist bump from his wife to boot, let's review a little incident that occurred over the past few weeks and has already been blogged about by others. I'm always...

The Right To Choose

Posted on June 01, 2008
The Catholic Archbishop for Northeastern Kansas, Joseph Naumann (who I've discussed previously), caused an uproar in certain segments of the secular press, in corners of the Catholic left, and in Catholic haters of all religious and political stripes, when he...

Semper Momento

Posted on May 26, 2008
For many families, Memorial Day is not a once-a-year holiday, it's a daily dagger through the heart. In Sag Harbor, New York: They lined Sag Harbor's Main Street by the hundreds, some with their hands over their hearts, others clutching...

Foolish Words Of Wisdom

Posted on May 24, 2008
As some experts have noted, "[i]n the courts of England, a fool was a comic figure with a quick tongue who entertained the king, the queen, and their guests. He was allowed to?and even expected to?criticize anyone at court." Dennis...

A Relatively Innocent Activity

Posted on May 23, 2008
Father Richard John Neuhaus begins "The Public Square" section of this month's print issue of First Things with some reflections on the limitations of the Internet and, more specifically, blogs. The beginnings of this reflection appeared on the FIRST THINGS...

A Man's Man

Posted on May 21, 2008
It doesn't matter whether Hill or Hussein is "manning" the Democratic conning tower come November. When it comes to making a choice, there's only one man running for President of this land I like to call "The United States of...

So Many Lives Untried

Posted on May 18, 2008
Heart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you're lagging, I...

A Civil Debate Over Uncivil Matters

Posted on May 12, 2008
Last October, a number of now-former readers of this blog became enraged because I agreed with Postmodern Papist's call to "hospitably engage" pro-choice advocates in debates over the basis of their belief that killing fetuses and embryos is justified...

Barricades of Heaven

Posted on May 05, 2008
While wondering why, according to my site meter, one of the Internet's most popular bloggers would come to this small corner of the blogosphere, read one of my posts, click on a link in the post to the subject of...

For Cheerleaders

Posted on May 04, 2008
Welcome to 21st century Texas, ya'll, where some girls make federal cases out of the most important question of their oh-so-vacuous lives: "to be, or not to be, a cheerleader." Other girls are otherwise occupied.

Affirmative Othodoxy

Posted on May 01, 2008
Archbishop Chaput (rhymes with "a-choo," by the way) of Denver reminds me of G.K. Chesterton, in the sense that if you start to put post-its by passages of his speeches or essays that are particularly meaningful, you look back and...

Doin' The Right Thing

Posted on April 30, 2008
Talk is cheap. What would you do?

Where Do We Get Such Men?

Posted on April 26, 2008
And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can. ---Elizabeth Barrett Browning In the short interval between first seeing this story about how Iraqi soldiers turned tail...

No Cincinnatus In Sight

Posted on April 24, 2008
A few months ago, in the heat of the contest for the Republican nomination, one of the bloggers who I love (not too mild a word for the feeling I have for her writing and for the depth of her...

"Pop" Goes The Ave

Posted on April 19, 2008
Not bad for a Baptist. I think that Kelly's former choir teacher was right.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Posted on April 18, 2008
This guy sounds like the punch line to a Dennis Miller joke: "Hey, moron! Charles Darwin says 'Hello'." Lance Coleman of Racine, Wis., tried to steal $47,000 worth of Dell equipment by impersonating Robert Greenberg, CEO of the shoe company...

Wake Up! It's Time To Die (To Yourself)

Posted on April 18, 2008
While many of us are using the occasion of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States as an opportunity to pound the round peg that is the Pope into the square hole that is our personal agenda,...

Sunlight and Shadows

Posted on April 17, 2008
From The Anchoress: If we look at ourselves of microcosms of dark and light - little versions of this big battle - we see it within ourselves. Where there is holiness, evil is always right there, on the periphery, pushing,...

Power To The People!

Posted on April 14, 2008
The winner of the Hiett Aaward, historian David Greenberg, had some interesting things to say recently about the much-maligned "Main Stream Media" and the self-loving bloggers who denigrate them. He was in Dallas last week to accept the award, and...

How Low Can You Go?

Posted on April 09, 2008
**WARNING: A LINKED STORY CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE, ESPECIALLY THOSE CURRENTLY RESIDING IN A MONESTARY. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK** A reader sent me a link to this story before Easter, but it seemed sacrilegious to post...

Pour Tu

Posted on April 08, 2008
The last time I tried to post these lyrics as a poem to my wife, a JAG officer commented that the post was "so gay." Maybe I can get away with it four years later and another world away. Even...

Once Every 20 Years Is Perfect

Posted on April 08, 2008

Stream of Consciousness Redux

Posted on April 07, 2008
Strange how the mind works. Well, strange how MY mind works. Reading about Charlton Heston's death today made me think of Rod Serling. Eh? you might exclaim (especially if you're one of the McKenzie Brothers). I'll try to explain. My...

Stream of Consciousness Redux

Posted on April 06, 2008
Strange how the mind works. Well, strange how MY mind works. Reading about Charlton Heston's death today made me think of Rod Serling. Eh? you might exclaim (especially if you're one of the McKenzie Brothers). I'll try to explain. My...

Bound To Agape

Posted on April 01, 2008
Heaven has no other prayer niche but love. Without love the world is worthless. Become the slave to love, this is the course. This is the path for all pious people. ---Nezami-Ganjavi Slave To Love, Brian Ferry

Swimming Upstream

Posted on April 01, 2008
From Thomas Merton's essay "Love and Solitude," contained in the collection entitled "Love and Living": The power of genuine love is so deep and so strong that it cannot be deflected from its true aim even by the silliest of...

The Men We Admire

Posted on March 27, 2008
An excellent performance in an excellent movie, HUD, adapted from an excellent novel, Horseman, Pass By. Melvyn Douglas won an academy award for his portrayal of an old West Texas rancher facing a hard end to a hard life with...

Conflict Resolution, Texas Style

Posted on March 23, 2008
From the front page of Easter Sunday's The Dallas Morning News: Assaults ? which range from threats to physical altercations ? by students on Dallas Independent School District employees and volunteers have more than doubled in the last five years,...

Moral Hazards

Posted on March 22, 2008
A colleague and friend wrote to me recently about what I thought of this article in last Sunday's The New York Times by Gretchen Morgenson, that starts off with a typical focus for The Grey Lady: the venality of big...

Scattershooting

Posted on March 17, 2008
I've been out of pocket, attending a funeral in another state last week, besieged by paying work (I'm not complaining), and catching my wife's cold (can't keep my hands off her, sorry). The time away gives a bit of perspective...

Serendipity

Posted on March 06, 2008
Today I'm struggling with a case of doubt. "Doubt attacks" happen at the damndest times. Tonight, I sit down to read The New Testament, and I do the "rapid thumb through," where you just let the pages rip through your...

Revelation

Posted on March 01, 2008
Love is the revelation of our deepest personal meaning, value, and identity. But this revelation remains impossible as long as we are the prisoner of our own egoism. I cannot find myself in myself, but only in another. My true meaning and worth are shown to me not in my estimate of myself, but in the eyes of the one who loves me; and that one must love me as I am, with my faults and limitations, revealing to me the truth that these faults and limitations cannot destroy my worth in their eyes; and that I am therefore valuable as a person, in spite of my shortcomings, in spite of the imperfections of my exterior ?package...

Dirty Harry Tells Prez: "Make My Day!"

Posted on February 28, 2008
Those of us who follow the banking business, as well as those of us who simply like to watch a train wreck in process, expected a Senate vote on Tuesday of this week on Little Dickie Durban's Bankruptcy Reform-of-the-Reform Bill, that would allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite residential mortgage loans...

On the Road Of Life

Posted on February 26, 2008
I've been out of commission for the past week, blogging-wise. My wife and I had to travel unexpectedly to Kansas for five days to care for my mother-in-law, who took a bad fall and suffered a compression fracture of a vertebrae. That's serious business for a 90 year-old woman...

No Mas Bi-Lingualism

Posted on February 17, 2008
My friend and fellow blogger (and fellow parishioner) Kyle Cupp has an interesting and thoughtful post about the coming of a bi-lingual society in the U.S., and how we ought to embrace the coming "Spanglish" transformation. I respectfully disagree...

Semper Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum

Posted on February 15, 2008
The money quote of the day, from a commenter at Blame Bush: It takes a village to raise a child, but it only takes a few Marines to raze that village.

How Do I Hate Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

Posted on February 13, 2008
I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I'd no more stand between Israel and its enemies then I'd stand between an out-of-control eighteen-wheeler and a brick wall. Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah mastermind behind the kidnapping of Westerners in Beirut and many big terror attacks around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed late last night in a car bomb explosion in Damascus...

C'Mon, Rise Up!

Posted on February 09, 2008
Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners, purer laws.--Alfred Tennyson, Ring Out, Wild BellsThere was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up...

Eyeballs

Posted on February 07, 2008
To the readers of Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish who've stumbled over this puny blog from Sullivan's link last night to a post I did on Thomas Merton two years ago: Welcome. There's little "dish" here, much less any daily offering, but whether you find another post that you especially like or hate, rest assured that you have spiked my site traffic up over 10 times its usual daily average...

The Will To Happiness

Posted on February 03, 2008
The Anchoress recently asked her readers to weigh in on the question "What's wrong with the world." She quoted Chesterton's famous letter-to-the-editor answer: "I am." Her question might lead a reader to suppose that Chesterton was both a pessimist and an egotist...

Moral Bankruptcy Results In Actual Bankruptcy

Posted on January 31, 2008
As a lawyer, I'm used to people looking for loopholes and driving Mack trucks through them. Yet, this story enraged me. I trust that you'll be equally aghast at the selfishness of this little twerp.

Paradise Lost

Posted on January 31, 2008
You've read the reports today that a top al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan was killed by a U.S. missile strike in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Al-Qaeda announced it on a web site, along with the usual affirmation that he died Allah's martyr and will be welcomed into paradise...

Quick Hits

Posted on January 29, 2008
If you haven't already read them, check out these two posts: Dr. Bob does another excellent job in his latest installment of his ongoing series on grace in Christianity, Getting to Grace. His warning about the perils and rewards of the journey strike a chord: But be forewarned: the journey over these jagged crags is a terrifying one ? but it is the only way out of the prison...

GodTube Hearts Huckabee

Posted on January 28, 2008
I'm not surprised that tech-savvy Christians prefer The Huckster for the highest office. I AM surprised that I never knew about GodTube until I read about it in The Dallas Business Journal today. These young kids and their Internet thing-ee-ma-bob! What'll people think of next? The God Blog? Catholic Television & Radio? Right! Man, sometimes I crack myself up...

Random Fortune

Posted on January 27, 2008
An important 40th anniversary passed last week with nary a ripple of acknowledgment. January 23, 1968. The USS Pueblo, a naval intelligence ship operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea, was attacked by North Korean jets and ships...

They'll Be Days Like This

Posted on January 26, 2008
Depression is rage spread thin. --George Santayana Are we there yet? Is it "Super Tuesday"? No? Shit. Bush Derangement Syndrome was bad enough, but now we have Huckabee Derangement Syndrome, Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and on and on. David Brooks, The "House Conservative" of The New York Times, had a column last week in which he stated the obvious fact that most people make up their minds on who they will or will not vote for in an election based upon their feelings, then rationalize their emotional decision...

A Brokeback Bushwacking

Posted on January 23, 2008
I knew it! I...just...friggin'...knew it!!! Heath Ledger Found Murdered by Bush in NYC Apartment  "Whether it's Ledger/Gylellynyhal, or Kerry/Edwards, Bush just can't stand the thought of two men being madly in love with one another."

The Democracy of the Dead: A Dying System

Posted on January 23, 2008
Over at First Things, Lutheran pastor Gregory Alms uses his recent experience as a pallbearer at his grandfather's funeral as the catalyst for a number of reflections on the human condition. Among those are the importance of tradition, Chesterton's "democracy of the dead," and how secular disdain for it continues our atomization as a society, as we slide downhill in our pursuit of individual "authenticity...

Dream On

Posted on January 22, 2008
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.---T...

Bible Thumping And Choir Practice

Posted on January 18, 2008
My money quote of the week: A good deal of the Reformation that Luther set off consisted in trying to run both these Greek philosophers [Plato and Aristotle] off theology's premises, claiming that while they were both the work of the devil, Aristotle in particular was an especially devilish chap...

Keeping The Right Focus

Posted on January 16, 2008
The Archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, delivers another cogent presentation that is timely in this year of seeming  interminable, and often excruciating, political campaigning. Over at First Things, he's adapted portions of a presentation given on January 11, 2008 in New Orleans entitled "Catholic Identity in the American Public Arena" into a short article entitled "Better Citizens, More Faithful Catholics...

The Importance of Being Earnest

Posted on January 15, 2008
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.--Oscar Wilde Women might be able to fake an orgasm. Men can fake an entire relationship.--Sharon Stone God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time...

Shut Up And Kiss Me

Posted on January 11, 2008
As we head out for an extended weekend out-of-state to care for the in-laws, I need to stoke up on some rock-bottom "Texasness." Here's a video of a song by Austin's own red-headed stranger, Willie (Hemp-Fest) Nelson. The song was written by Rob Thomas for his wife...

A Premature End

Posted on January 09, 2008
When I wrote last June that "the strange case of former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares came to a tragic end" when he committed suicide, I was mistaken. It was not only not the end, it may have not even been the beginning of the end. The widow of former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares sent a legal notice to Jefferson County on Friday that says she plans to sue the district attorney for abusing his prosecutorial authority while investigating her husband before his suicide...

Unleash The Lawyers!

Posted on January 09, 2008
The main stream media continues to beat the drum about how no one will benefit from the subprime mortgage crisis but those damned lawyers. One of the most recent examples was an article in The Economist that warned of a "wave of litigation" that threatens financial firms...

What Does It Profit A Man?

Posted on January 07, 2008
Mark Davis is a Dallas-based syndicated "conservative" radio talk-show host. He also writes a periodic editorial column for The Dallas Morning News. He had a column last month that was an astonishing, if perhaps unintentional, confession. Mr...

Stream of Consciousness

Posted on January 06, 2008
I was sorry to see the Queen of Dysfunction "go off the air," but she had a good reason for doing so. The primary reason I'm sorry that she's gone is a selfish one: she made me laugh. You can never laugh too much. Oh, you probably can, but anyone with a contrary opinion can keep it to himself (or herself)...