Jaired Hall

Entering the next phase.

2011-01-26T13:52:00.002-05:00

My work and life have been extremely hectic, but I think, after many futile attempts, that I have [some of] it figured out. Admittedly, a big part of "figuring it out" is the realization that I have very little figured out.

Always the idealist, I think I am learning that I need to be realistic about my capacities so that what I do, I do better and better. Doing more and more worse and worse is hardly a good fix to anything (unless you're trying to fix too much calmness and peace in your life with hecticness and stress).

Focus, Jaired, focus.

Exactly.

All this to say, given what is on my plate, I cannot focus on my blog as I should if I want a good blog. I had a hard time coping with this fact over the years, so what I ended up with was a mediocre blog at best. If I have a blog, I'd prefer it to be good. So, to the chopping block this blog goes. I'll still have a life, times, and ramblings, of course, so I suppose in a while, I may come back and decide to give my own blog another go.

But I am not kissing goodbye all blogging. My plan is to soon begin posting regularly on my friend Norman's website: http://libertarianchristians.com. There's a lot of new articles and posts and interesting comments going on there these days, not to mention a lot of good stuff in the archives, so I recommend you go check it out.

Peace; and may the Lord bless you in your search for wisdom, grace, mercy, and truth.

Yours,

Jaired

Originality in Fantasy

2010-11-17T23:28:00.004-05:00

Tonight during Edmund's birthday dinner, conversation turned to the subject of, how did Christopher Paolini's Eragon books become so popular?

This led me to glancing around online for a minute or two, leading me to this:

http://aydee.wordpress.com/2006/12/17/eragon/

Just so we're clear: IDEAS are in the public domain and are NOT copyrightable.

And this leads me to say that hammering out two to three thousand words in an hour or two in the evening before hitting the sack to write a novel you haven't worked on in advance does not facilitate either originality or brilliant writing. So for all my friends and family who think my NaNoWriMo production is going to be something worth reading, try again later.

On a lighter note, I'm down to just over 15,000 words to reach the goal of 50,000.

As usual, I chose a scope way too big for the goal. Sure, I'll hit the obligatory 50,000 words, but I'll be a quarter of the way through a 200,000 word novel.

Quick update

2010-11-12T23:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I had to work late (law stuff, you know), so I didn't write.

I've gotten a bit ahead, though, so it didn't worry me.

Anyway, I'm typing away tonight. It's going well. nearly 11:00 p.m. and a few minutes ago I zipped past the mid-mark. I have just over 25,000.

Three days into November.

2010-11-03T22:10:00.000-04:00

Just over 9,000 words typed already.

Things are going well.

No masterpiece in the making, but hey, I made no such promises.

Goodnight.

Two Years to the Day

2010-09-29T09:50:00.000-04:00

I was doing some work on my Law Firm's blog (will provide a link later when I'm good and ready) yesterday when I recalled that today is my second anniversary as a practicing attorney.

This past Sunday was Nathaniel's birthday. He turned two. Two years ago Sunday it was Friday. I was supposed to be in Jefferson City getting sworn in by the Missouri Supreme Court. Instead, I was in the Houston, Mo. hospital, and Nathaniel was born in the early morning, quite a bit premature.

On Monday, September 29th, 2008, an Associate Circuit Judge (Ronald White from Phelps County) swore me in in Dent County at the Salem, Mo. Judicial Building.

Five minutes later, I argued, among other things, that it was fine for my client (in a divorce case) to home school her children. The judge agreed. Not that I really needed to say anything, because he was well versed in the law and not about to let the other party get away with bogus legal claims. That case culminated in a three day trial a few days after Christmas. I lost, but no wonder: the case was more or less doomed from the start.

Here I am, two years later . . . plugging away at . . . my blog. Haha. Well, the legal work is stacked high around me, so I better get at it. Have a great day.

Win. Win at all costs!

2010-09-14T12:03:00.002-04:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704190704575490263482050010.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

"The nonpartisan National Journal rated his [Mike Castle's] voting record last year as the most liberal among House Republicans."

. . . Because winning is all that matters.

What good this pendulum swing?

What is good is not having the government dominated by Republicans.

What is good is having a populace standing up for right principles.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2010-09-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

Several years ago, I went through a Russian literature phase, and I read two books by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: his short One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and a much longer The First Circle. Both were pretty bleak, but I really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I've never gone back and read more of his stuff.

I've only scratched the surface of this amazing guy. I was surprised to read today that he died just two years ago, in August of 2008.

Here's a couple of interesting things:

Looking back, even a fool would be able to predict it today: the Soviet regime could certainly have been breached only by literature. The regime has been reinforced with concrete to such an extent that neither a military coup nor a political organization nor a picket line of strikers can knock it over or run it through. Only the solitary writer would be able to do this. And the Russian younger generation would move on into the breach.

Obvious? Yet no one foresaw it, either in the thirties or in the fifties. That's the trouble with the future: it slips away and eludes us. . . .

Shortly before his death Tolstoy wrote that it is always immoral for a writer to publish in his own lifetime. We should, he thinks, write only for the future, and let our works be published "posthumously." Tolstoy reached his pious conclusions on this as on all else only after making the full round of sins and passions, but in any case, what he says is untrue even for slower epochs, and still more so for our swift-moving times. He is right that the thirst for repeated successes with the public spoils a writer's work. But it is even more damaging to be denied readers for years on end--demanding readers, hostile readers, delighted readers--to be denied all opportunity to influence the world about you, to influence the rising generation, with your pen. Quiescence means purity--but also irresponsibility. Tolstoy's judgment is ill-considered. . . .

From "The Oak and the Calf", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, from Character Counts, Trinity Forum, 1999, Edited by Os Guinness.

Solzhenitsyn on the failing of atheism:

Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

Edward E. Ericson, Jr., "Solzhenitsyn – Voice from the Gulag," Eternity, October 1985, pp. 23, 24.

From the Wikipedia Article on Solzhenitsyn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

The Getting Paid Conundrum

2010-09-13T10:57:00.004-04:00

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202457876995

Getting paid--the constant struggle, the melodramatic saga of any law practice.

There's nothing like going home to your family and saying to your little boys: Sorry I didn't have any time to play with you last week. I was pouring out my time and energy working for my clients . . . for free.

I found the above article interesting. Of course, I had to chuckle about clients getting behind to the tune of $1 million, or twenty or thirty or forty thousand. I haven't had to deal with anything close to that . . .yet.

If I have any readers, say students attending or thinking of attending law school, it's never too early to start thinking about how you'll handle your billing. Everyone comes in with a sob story, and maybe, like many of us, you have a soft heart. Realize that the vast majority of people who have an outstanding bill once their case closes are not going to pay you. Realize that you can only do so many pro-bono hours, no matter how ministry-oriented you try to make your work.

And also, something I've found out: If you know (because you've made a conscious decision) you're doing a case pro bono, you feel really good about the work. If you find out, after the fact, that your representation, for all intents and purposes, turned into pro bono work, you don't feel nearly so good about things.

Beware. Famine will destroy us all.

2010-09-13T09:57:00.003-04:00

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/24979774/detail.html

Don't grow too many vegetables.

This sort of thing makes me so angry.

Insanity

2010-09-10T10:52:00.001-04:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/travelnews/article-1310540/Twelve-US-soldiers-face-trial-Afghan-civilians-killed-sport--whistle-blower-originally-ignored.html

U.S. soldiers accused of killing civilians for sport.

Quran Burning. Cross Burning.

2010-09-10T10:31:00.004-04:00

I wish I had time to develope these thoughts.

Quran Burning.

It's not Christian . . . It's not guided by the Holy-Spirit.

It's human. It's sinful.

If all sins are equal, then it's no worse than Muslims who burn crosses and Bibles.

If some sins are different, then it's only worse than Muslims who burn crosses and Bibles in the sense that those who call themselves Christians should know better than Muslims who do not call themselves Christians.

Christians take the Lord's Name in Vain (violating one of the Ten Commandments) when they do ungodly acts in the name of God.

Muslims have another god before God (violating one of the Ten Commandments) when they worship their god and desecrate ours.

We cow tow to sinners who commit certain types of sins. We lambast loudly sinners who commit other types of sins.

If Christians want to Christianly criticize the Quran burning sinners, that's one thing, but there seems to be something a little off in a culture that goes insane (or gets incensed) over the idea of a Quran burning and yet does not go even more insane (or more incensed) at the insanely out of proportion response of many Muslims to the acts of petty, sinful American pastors.

If Quran burning is NOT Christianlike, and if Bible, flag, and cross burning IS Muslimlike, then if tolerance worshipping nincompoops want to compare religions, surely Christianity would come out a few notches ahead.

And yet . . . it never does.

Funny, though. The public face of Islam seems to take its "we have the truth" dogma very seriously, while Christiantiy, lambasted constantly for its "we have the truth" dogma, seems downright weak and cowardly in comparison.

Getting excited for NaNoWriMo

2010-09-04T10:09:00.000-04:00

Day one is just shy of two months from now, but I'm getting excited about my first participation in NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month (November 1-30).

The goal/purpose is to hammer out a novel of at least 50,000 words that you start on November 1 (it's against the rules to use any prose you've put together prior to the 1st) and finish and upload by the 30th.

And I'm going to try to do it all in the evenings after 8:00 o'clock when the boys go to bed. Heh.

We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, for the month of November this blog'll probably have nothing more than a few posts about how the novel is progressing.

I doubt I'll have time to read the news and other blogs and books, or do much of anything else in the evening, for that matter.

It should be fun.

Attorneys at fault.

2010-09-03T09:22:00.003-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_swing_sets_removed_1 (West Virginia County public schools get rid of swing set because of parent's litigiousness.)

Are attorneys to blame for this and other seemingly absurd and extreme acts done to become "more safe" and less prone to a lawsuit?

As the article illustrates--many defendants settle for a moderate (but still significant) sum regardless of the merits of the case. Don't kid yourself and think the school settled because it thought it would lose. $20,000 is peanuts compared to the attorneys fees they may have been looking at to cary the case through trial.

Possible solutions (tort reform) --

1) Change the rule that the defendant, even if he wins, eats his own attorneys fees. Make the losing plaintiff pay the defendant.

2) Change the law about what can happen to people who owe a debt. If the parents lose and get strapped with $100,000 in attorneys fees, in 99 out of a 100 cases, they can't pay. Figure out a way to make them pay (monitored work projects, so they can't avoid garnishment via under the table jobs).

* * *

Of course, as with so many/most of the problems we face, the real problem has to do with root issues of worldview, heart issues, personal responsibilty, and the mentality that there's always somebody else who should have to pay it.

No one wants to have to deal with expensive accidents; surely somebody else should foot the bill.

Baring reasonable exceptions, you'd think parents would be responsible for knowing a little about the playground their kids are playing on on a regular basis and assume the risk of injury that might result from playing on it.

* * *
Schools, though, should be experts on what constitutes a safe playground given modern developments/technology. How much money is reasonable for a school (a small school without jmuch money) to be required to upgrade? And we're talking not from unsafe to safe, but rather from "old acceptability" to "a little safer."

* * *

See....lot's of interesting questions for us attorneys to quibble about. They're all legitimate questions, but maybe they should be dealt with in another contex other than the obscenely expensive court/attorney system.

Should all lawsuits involving a public school be required to go through extensive mediation before a lawsuit is filed?

Barack Hussein Obama -- What's in a Name? -- What's in a Story?

2010-08-31T15:43:00.003-04:00

Interesting article here (thank you to Stephen Cassey for drawing it to my attention).

The author provides a brief and interesting history lesson on the Arab/Islamic ties to slavery, but his underlying thesis is essentially this: Obama holds a unique position to tell the true story of slavery (the historicity of his name fits in with this story), and telling this real story would bring the descendants of American slaves "real justice."

From the article:

This is the world that Obama spans: from slavery abolition to the eternal enslaver. He represents hope to many American descendants of slaves, but his ancestors were never enslaved. No one else could tell the story that Obama knows. He could tell the story of how 125 million Africans died. He could tell the story of how 25 million Africans became slaves. There is an enormous irony that descendants of the slaves that his ancestors created now look to him for justice. And he could give them real justice by telling the complete truth of their enslavement. Only he has the power to make others listen.

It's an interesting read and worth the five minutes or so it'll take you. I'm not convinced he does justice to his thesis.

Assuming he has his history right: how does Obama telling the true story of slavery bring real justice to those still detrimentally affected by slavery?

* * *

What's in a story? A true story . . .

And a story is both fact and fiction, and a true story can be either fact or fiction.

Jesus spoke in parables--stories filled with truth. Great writers seek to write true (fictional) stories. The best non-fiction (at least, the most readable and interesting) in some genres (history and biography) read more like novels than the dry stuff of history text-books.

Truth / Story / Communication / Mutual Understanding

When you truly understand the truly detestable, I suppose you hate it all the more.

But when you truly understand the not truly detestable, the merely unpleasant, or what you, in your sinfulness, took as detestable at first glance, your understanding will, perhaps, blossom into better things, like love, reconciliation, rebirth, and salvation.

The true story brings out the real enemies, the real friends, and the real obstacles (many of which may not really be enemies but merely misunderstandings).

* * *

. . . the story of slavery.

Justice?

How do we bring "real justice" to the ancestor of someone who has been wronged?

9th Circuit Eviscerates 4th Amendment . . . or does it?

2010-08-30T17:55:00.002-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201315000 (interesting article about recent 9th Circuit decision).

Nutshell: 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals says that federal agents can go on a person's driveway and put a GPS device on the person's vehicle and subsequently track the vehicle's location for an extended period, and such act does not violate the 4th amendment and no search warrant is necessary.

I've only read the article and not the decision, but my first reaction is: So that means, technically speaking, that it would be legal for the feds to put GPS devices on every vehicle in the U.S. and keep track of where every single vehicle is at any given time.

Personal Life Update

2010-08-29T14:31:00.003-04:00

Two Sundays ago, I went on a float trip with the Galbraiths (some friends of ours from Jefferson City who play music for our English Country Dances).

Fortunately, I felt great. On Monday, though, I came down with a flu or cold or virus thingy which hasn't quite gone away. For two straight weeks at work I've been a lazy wreck: I'm not nearly bad enough to stay home from work, but bad enough to feel half dead and not at all like working.

Then, Friday night, Tracy and I slept outside on our front porch. It was a beautiful night. I don't know if it was the outdoor air, or if I was on the verge of taking a nose dive, but I woke up Saturday with what I think was probably a sinus infection.

And Saturday was a big work day. We planned to frame and drywall the ceiling in our basement (projected) movie room. Chad Abernathy and Michael Yegerlehner came over to help.

Last Saturday I was sick and our "Saturday work-day" was pretty miserable. We only got about an hour or two of work in. So yesterday I determined to work through the miserableness.

Hanging drywall when you feel like a stampede of elephants is running over (or inside of) your head isn't much fun.

We wired the lights. We finished the framing. We got most of the drywall hung. We even stacked almost five ranks of firewood (thanks mostly to Mr. Yegerlehner). Tracy cooked us two delicious meals (spaghetti and a pot roast complete with made from scratch biscuits), did the wiring, and kept three crazy wee-ones happy.

Afterwards, I went to bed early.

Today, praise God, I think my sinus infection is gone (but I'm still feeling a bit dazed, out of it, and achey).

Parental Rights in Public School

2010-08-26T11:51:00.003-04:00

In 2006, when I was busily writing my "student note" on the subject of Parental Rights, Constitutional Rights, and Public Schools, I found a pretty shocking, recent (very recent at the time) case from the ninth circuit court of appeals: Fields v. Palmdale School District (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1051665.html).

The real shoking part is the statement that the parental right to direct one's children's education "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door."

Just picture it: Constitutional rights exist all over America except inside of public schools.

What I did not notice at the time of my research was that, in response to a request for a re-hearing, the court actually deleted the infamous "threshold" statement and replaced it with the following:

In sum, we affirm that the Meyer-Pierce due process right of parents to make decisions regarding their children's education does not entitle individual parents to enjoin school boards from providing information the boards determine to be appropriate in connection with the performance of their educational functions, or to collect monetary damages based on the information the schools provide.
http://openjurist.org/447/f3d/1187/fields-v-palmdale-school-district

This doesn't sound nearly as nefarious, though, of course, in practical terms, it means the same thing.

Distilled to more of a nutshell, we get what many would think a rather "duh" statement: Parents don't have a constitutinoal right to run their child's public school.

Ok, so maybe they get to vote for the school board, but when it comes right down to it, the school board decides what's to be taught and whether an opt-out is allowable. The board calls the shots. The parents must (1) abide by the rules while (2) campaigning / clamoring for a change, or (3) leave (take their children out of the school).

There is no fourth option: tell the school what is and isn't allowed and sue for damages if your rules are violated.

There are lots of issues that this brings up.

For one thing, why shouldn't the right of parents to run their children's education include with it significant public school veto power? What other extremely expensive multi-faceted products do you pay for that you must take -- the good with the bad -- without any ability to pick and choose?

(Have you ever been thrown out of a restaurant for wanting the french fries instead of the baked potatoes?)

We are given a take it or leave it school. And if we leave it, our tax money stays with it. If we want an alternative (actually, if you leave it, you are forced by compulsary education laws to choose an alternative) we have do dish out the money for that alternative. Imagine paying for a multi-thousand dollar surgery (that you don't want) and walking away without it (and not getting your money back).

If there is to be an effective parental right (a right with teeth), should court's give parent's vetoe power (automatic opt-out decision making by the parents) for all classes? Would that solve the problem? How much of the problem would it solve? What problems would it create?

Governors should refuse stimulus money.

2010-08-21T12:26:00.001-04:00

I don't know how I got on the Robert G. Marshall, Virignia State Delegate, e-mail newsletter.

I usually just delete everything that comes from him and other political newsletters that clutter my inbox.

Today, I read what it had to say, which can be found here:

http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/opinion/columns/article/shannon_column_brass_ring_escapes_again/62265/

The money's going to be spent anyway, right? You don't save anybody anything in refusing it, right? Those have been my admittedly shallow thoughts on the issue before, but in thinking more about it, Michael Shannon has some good points.

Several of the comments point out that the writer proposes the principled approach for the sake of pragmatic politics (fling the pea). Considering that the author likened taking the stimulus money to prostitution, I think the author could have done a much better job at saying the principled approach is worth taking for it's own sake. I do, though, find it valuable to argue that the principled approach can prove as much or more practical than the other in the long run anyway.

Principle versus Pragmatism. Interesting issue, especially for the politician who would like to hold his head up in pride. Or does the principled approach prove more pragmatic in the long run? Ultimately, for Christians, it does . . .

Why "Conservatives", Sarah Palin, and the like drive me nuts.

2010-08-20T09:53:00.002-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews_excl/ynews_excl_pl3441 (a yahoo news exclusive from the First Amendment Center attempts to educate us on the First Amendment--see P.S.)

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/aug-262930-radio-dan.html (Dr. Laura says she wants to regain her First Amendment Rights)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, just because the government has to keep it's grubby little* (*ha, don't I wish) hands off doesn't mean that you and I and the rest of us loud mouths can't go out there and make life difficult for the evildoers among us.

In fact, that's one thing that's cool about a lot of the super lefties. They tend to get more vocal and active about their passions than we more right (correct) minded folk do.

Additionally, just because you have a "right" to do something doesn't make doing it right. Of course, such an opinion relies on a worldview that accepts absolute morality and not subjectivist morality or post modern tolerance-worship. And I would hope people like Sarah Palin and Tea Partiers by and large do come from a foundation that relies on morality.

Any political power that does not give obeisance to a transcendant moral structure is nothing but power hungry and destructive and, ultimately, very little better, if at all, than what we're putting up with now.

Truth must underly any firm moral structure. To mislead people about the actual meaning of the Constitution, to twist words to mean what you want it to mean, to rile up anger based on misconceptions . . . all these things butcher truth.

Propoganda is lies and deceit. I am so sick of Christians, Conservatives, Tea Partiers, ANYBODY, who has a few right ideas and tries to propogate them with falsehood.

People like that don't lead you to nice places.

P.S. I guess for a yahoo news exclusive, you really have to dumb it down. "'Congress shall make no law' -- the first five words of the First Amendment -- say it all: No government body can limit our rights to speak out." Since when has "Congress" encompassed ALL government bodies? How difficult . . . how unacceptably eggheaded . . . would it have been to add an aside (The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to broaden the First Amendment's application to include state and local government's as well)?

The Definition of Insanity

2010-08-19T09:21:00.003-04:00

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
~unknown (not Einstein, and I haven't found a reliable link to Franklin either)

This catchy little, clearly incorrect (it's a noun, for one thing) phrase is overused.

In fact, it's time for it to be dead.

Just another pet peeve of mine.

http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2006/10/the-definition-of-insanity-is.html

California Same Sex Marriage Case

2010-08-13T10:14:00.002-04:00

Interesting stuff going on in the Same Sex "Marriage" case in California:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100813/D9HIHL680.html

Alas - Our Poor Camera

2010-08-10T11:39:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday, the 5th of August, Tracy and I went on a 12 mile float on the Current River. The three boys stayed behind at my parents' house. It was the first float the two of us have done alone together. It was wonderful.

Here is my lovely wife as we’re getting ready for the day.

You can kind of tell it is raining in this picture. It’s a pretty picture. It sure is beautiful here where we live. This picture is taken from our front porch.

It rained, hard at times, all morning. It was still raining some when we dropped the boys off at the family’s house. As forecasted, the rain only lasted until mid-morning. By the time we got on the river, the rain had stopped.

For the first mile or so, it stayed cool and misty. It warmed up, and we spent a lot of time in the water. Part of the time, we had some cloud cover. Not too hot. Not too cold. The weather was perfect.

We saw more animals than I had ever seen before on a float. Besides the usual turtles and ducks (it’s hard to float the Current without at least seeing these), we saw a family of otters, a mink, muskrats, a water rat, a great blue heron, another type of heron or other water bird, lots and lots of, sometimes very large, fish, and even some large spiders.

I mention the spiders because I was going to have Tracy climb onto a log out in the water. I thought it would make a nice photo shoot. I decided to climb on first and let her get a picture of me when I saw a rather large spider right where I was going to put my hand to climb on. Then I noticed another equally intimidating looking spider.

I decided there were better places for photos.

The beaver (I was very excited to see the beaver) had had a snack and then settled down for a nap. I’m afraid we woke it up. It let us get very close before it finally slipped into the water and glided down and away.

As we were packing up after lunch, I dropped the camera. The fall wrecked the screen. Very sad. Our camera only has the screen and not a viewfinder, so our camera is pretty well useless unless we can get it fixed economically.

We had an awesome day, capped off by meeting the family and boys at Pulltite Campground where we grilled hamburgers and had a great time before heading home for bed.

A beautiful shot of duck and mist taken in the morning.

We followed a tiny, trickling, ice cold brook about a hundred yards from the river and found an old stone well built around a tiny spring.

Despite the wrecked camera, we inched very near the beaver and Tracy took several pictures. I looked at the first few, and lo! a bramble of sticks and no sign of the beaver. Then, with her last shot, she got this wonderful picture.

Alas – Our Poor Camera: I’m pretty good at self-portraits, so the fact that the screen is ruined didn’t much affect my ability to catch this moment of heart-felt woe. By this time, we’re at Pulltite recounting our adventures to the family.

Charlotte Bronte: Villette

2010-08-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

On Friday, July 30, Tracy and I stayed up late (past midnight—pretty late for us old-married-with-three-kids folks) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Afterwards, Tracy fell asleep pretty quickly. I stayed up for another hour and finished Villette by Charlotte Bronte.

Villette has been on my to-read list for over five years, ever since Dr. Swenson (I had her at MST (then UMR) for only an English class…a class on Harry Potter, ironically enough) highly recommended it. I ended up listening to most of it (download it here). I read the final forty or so pages.

I certainly would not have read all of Villette in one month had it not been for listening to the audio, and I probably wouldn’t have listened to it had I not gotten it for free. But, there is a certain detraction to listening to it by several different readers. Every reader has a different voice and, causing a bigger difference than mere difference in voice, each reads in a different way.

The same words do NOT have the same meaning. The way you read affects meaning quite a bit. One reader made Miss Lucy Snowe (the narrator) seem to carry a perpetual internal self-confident and almost annoyance at others despite her normal extreme outward demureness. One made her seem like a perpetual child despite her actual age. Some seemed like readers reading a book. Others really seemed like Lucy Snowe (but each a very different Lucy Snowe), telling you her story.

There is one particular reader (reading a chapter where Miss Snowe leaves her school after being drugged by the head school-mistress) who read in such a way that I was left wondering, for at least ten minutes, whether the crowd she was meandering through was a real crowd or a mere hallucination. The sensation was rather odd while it lasted, the question being decidedly put to rest when the next reader took up the next chapter.

I enjoyed Villette. It was, by and large, a nothing-ever-happens sort of book, similar, in that respect, to Austen’s books. Lucy Snowe was an incredibly boring person, in a way, and yet incredibly intriguing. Sedate and laid back, her character was dynamic and peculiar. The unexpected love story that emerges is a bit of a surprise.

I’m not sure anyone in real life could be anything much like Miss Snowe’s eventual suitor, but he ends up coming across as quite an impressive little hero after all.

I noted a lot of similarities to Bronte’s more well-known work, Jane Eyre, and there are a lot of freakish (unrealistic/extremely-unlikely) coincidences throughout, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable work, well worth the read (or listen).

Next to read: Adam Bede by George Elliot.

Proposition C -- Missouri say no to freeloaders

2010-08-06T10:30:00.001-04:00

When I first grasped the reason why forcing everyone to have health insurance is so important for Obamacare, I thought it so self evidently insidious that no one would admit it.

And yet, increasingly, people are admitting the rationale with all seriousness, without stuttering, and without any apparent need to painstakingly rationalize, justify, and moralize.

I’ve heard it on NPR. I’ve read it various places on the internet. Here it is again in an article attacking the recently passed Proposition C in Missouri:

From the article: “Insurers need healthy people in the pool if they are to have the resources to care for sick people.”

As if the message could be any clearer: Some people must be forced to pay too much for insurance in order for other people who pay too little to still be covered.

I’m sorry. What?

Some people must be forced to pay too much for insurance in order for other people who pay too little to still be covered.

Do you laugh or cry as the article ends with: “Missouri has never been a state to coddle freeloaders. There’s no reason to start now.”

Say what?

Right.

SOME PEOPLE MUST BE FORCED TO PAY TOO MUCH FOR INSURANCE IN ORDER FOR OTHER PEOPLE WHO PAY TOO LITTLE TO STILL BE COVERED.

Put another way: Missourians must coddle freeloaders in order to not coddle freeloaders.

Did you follow that one?

* * *

When the rationale behind the health insurance mandate (the healthy must be forced to pay for the sick) assertion becomes morally acceptable, there is no moral rationale to deny: from each, according to his ability and to each according to his need (indeed, it becomes a moral necessity at that point).

If hypocrisy is still a vice to be eschewed, the pot must polish itself before calling the kettle black: When rich socialists (Did the Clinton family really just spend as much for one wedding celebration as many respectable middle class American workers earn in an entire career?) live off of $100,000 a year and spend the rest on “sick people” then maybe I’ll listen. Until then . . .

Deeds speak louder than words.

Live right. Then talk. Until then, hands off my wallet.

* * *

Speaking of my wallet: what about Barney Frank's wallet?

Wal-mart: taxing families? stupid people? fat people? all of the above?

2010-08-04T21:08:00.002-04:00

Is Wal-mart combating obesity? Is it taking advantage of the less perceptive among us?

Ah...an insidious plot aginst families (that's my Blackstone Legal Fellowship training coming into play).

What's up with the larger packages of food costing more per unit of weight than the smaller packages?

For example, with very few exceptions, the cheapest candy available at Wal-mart (in terms of unit of weight) are the $1 packages, and, also with few exceptions, each successively larger package costs more per ounce.

Counter intuitive and rather odd...