Wrestling with a Judicial Smackdown or ‘Trump gets thumped’*

*Truth be told, it is not that big of a thumping but I have been itching to use that headline and get it over with.

As you may know, today a 3-judge panel for the 9th Circuit of the Federal Court unanimously denied the Trump administration’s emergency motion for a stay of the Temporary Restraining Order issued by Judge Robart last week. You may have caught it on the news. Let us take a moment to examine some of the Order by the Court and parcel out what they meant from what they said. This kind of translation will hopefully help those who got their law degrees from Twitter and Facebook.

What they said : Continue reading “Wrestling with a Judicial Smackdown or ‘Trump gets thumped’*”

Wrestling with Poor Witness Prep

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Let’s face facts. We are all ignorant of something. It is impossible not to be. There are far too many things in this world we can learn and far too little time to learn it. There is no real shame in that. And there is no shame in choosing to be so immersed and knowledgeable in some things that you can not conceivably be knowledgeable in something else. No shame at all.

But, where there should be some shame is not being knowledgeable at all and allowing that ignorance to serve as some kind of accomplishment while you disparage those with actual knowledge. And that brings us to the nominee for Secretary or Education, Betsy Devos. A level of ignorance and shame more profound than when Jim Herd wanted to change Ric Flair into “Spartacus”[1] Continue reading “Wrestling with Poor Witness Prep”

Wrestling with Respect

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“It’s not what you say, but how you say it”-Sherry Anderson (1943-2016) 
My mother used to tell me this in regards to HOW we would argue, which we were both very good at and sometimes very bad at. I think of that because today I had a phone call from an old friend who I often disagree with on political issues and such but it’s always a fun and enjoyable conversation. It’s never vicious. Maybe part of that is because I know he knows his s***.
 

Continue reading “Wrestling with Respect”