Dear Friends -
I hope this finds everyone in good health and good spirits.
I've "revealed" that I'm a pretty political person. All politics, it is said, are local, and I've been involved in county politics since around 1972. I tried the be-a-candidate thing in 1980 when I was still a Republican (when it was still sort-of the party of TR, and before it took a right turn and marched into the Wilderness), and I will NEVER run for office again. However, I've done a lot of politicking for politically like-minded friends, and lots and lots of writing for them. My political mentor is my "second father," who is stunningly well connected in West Virginia politics. Several of "my" ads and brochures appear in print for those friends in every election. The week before the election, I always stop in the Circuit Court Clerk's office (in WV, the Clerk keeps the ballots) and mark up a sample ballot with my "official" predictions that is posted in her back room. At the risk of being immodest about my success, I do tend to call things pretty well.
My heck of a problem: My partner and best friend Amy has just filed to run for Family Court Judge. Her main opponent is the current Family Court Judge, my brother and best friend Dave. I had coffee with Dave Thursday afternoon, after Amy told me -- We go to coffee a couple of times a month. Dave told me that his case manager, a high school classmate of mine, exclaimed to Dave when she found out Thursday, "Holy shit, what's Roger going to do?" To which Dave replied, "It doesn't matter, we've shared a tent together." (Bro. Pete, I met Dave when we worked at Scout camp, and we went to Philmont together in 1974.) Well, I really appreciate Dave's attitude. A couple of months ago, I strongly advised Amy NOT to run for Judge, and thought that it was a dead issue. She told me Thursday that she's definitely running, and did catch me by surprise.
So what am I going to do? Well, whatever it is, it will be out in the open. Earlier today, I finished the first draft of Dave's brochure, which I've been working on for a couple of weeks. Next week, I'm rewriting another brochure for a sheriff candidate.
Tomorrow is a work day. I'll hit No. 3 Equity Court early, run a pot of coffee, read the Sunday papers, and get to work.
Pippa passes. Mizpah!
R
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Article on Depression
I said on the community blog that I'd try to find an article on depression that I wrote for the WV Bar Journal around 2002. I found it lurking on the server, so here it is:
Dear Tom -
Tom, I know that this letter comes sort of out of the blue – we have known each other for more than 20 years, and I’m presuming on that long friendship quite a bit today.
I need your help. I want to say things, speak some words that I really believe some of our fellow lawyers need to hear. But, just putting them into a dry article without some personal communication seems cold or imperious or inappropriate or something like that – sorta like talking to an empty jury box. So, this is a letter to you. If this were a typical article, the title would be something like --
Depression and the Lawyer, or
Like Hell it Can’t Happen to me.
[The multiple title thing is straight out Rocky and Bullwinkle. I like Rocky and Bullwinkle. and if (former Bar President) Jim Stealey can wax eloquently about the Three Stooges in an article, I certainly can cite Rocky and Bullwinkle to you.]
Tom, I’ve been depressed for years. I’ve mentioned that in some private conversations and rarely in Court or to a client who I think needs screened for depression. It’s really painful to disclose this. It’s quite a bit more painful to live with it.
You know, depression has WAY too good a reputation-Churchill was depressed, and look at all he did; Lincoln was REAL depressed (which you can see as he sleeplessly “Walks at Midnight” on our Capitol lawn); LBJ was episodically depressed; Sylvia Plath was depressed to the point of suicide, and on and on. But somehow the literati describe their disorder as something which makes them more “tragic” figures and somehow “grander” or “nobler” because they have suffered so and have overcome such an obstacle to achieve greatness, blah, blah, blah. Great writers are depressed, or talk about depression:
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
–from T. S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Man”
But the truth- the hard truth- is that depression is a truly horrible place to be, it alters your judgment, it haunts you, and experiencing it doesn’t have the least element of noble tragedy.
I have even worse news - One in 4 women, and one in 8 men, will experience at least one serious episode of depression in their lifetimes. Ane 17 million Americans, right now, today are experiencing severe depression.
WHAT DEPRESSION IS:
The DSM defines depression with neat “shopping lists” of symptoms, and those also can be found in many depression resources. These indicators include:
• A depressed mood (e.g., feeling sad or empty, crying, which may be the most personally uncomfortable problems of all)
• A diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all activities fun with the kids, outdoor activities, pleasurable reading, going to the movies, sex-YIKES
• Insomnia or hyper-insomnia (sleeping a lot), and other sleep problems
• Psychomotor agitation or reparation - Pacing, fidgeting, and so forth
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feeling of hopelessness - That one is SO bad for you
• Irritability - Ane that one is SO bad for the people around you
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt- Hoo, boy, that’s a biggie
• A diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness
• Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
Depression can happen once (“single event”), now and then (“episodic”) or constantly (“bloody well terrifying.”) It can occur at any age, but the first episode usually is in the prime of our productive practice years, ages 25 to 44.
Now, all that being said, so far we’re not being much help to the individual, are we? How do you know whether you or your partners or people around you are depressed to some extent? It’s not my goal to have people “play doctor” with themselves here, but rather to help folks recognize when it may be time to have the doctor play doctor with them or with the people who matter to them.
YUP, IT’S REAL
First, let me talk about the “feel” of depression. Usually, depression doesn’t appear suddenly-it comes on “like a thief in the night.” We’ve been dipped in a John Wayne society which doesn’t recognize depression, or thinks it’s just a matter of a lack of self control, or even caused by fundamentally bad character. There now, everybody gets a little blue now and then. I’ve heard that one a lot. And it’s true. It’s also true that everybody has a little chest discomfort. When it’s severe chest pain, you ought to get your butt to the hospital. Oh, and there’s the “I just don’t know HOW someone could think like that,” usually in the context of talking about people “hurting themselves” or “doing something to themselves,” or some other cute little euphemism for suicide. How can someone in that dark place of depression explain it?
Listen, Tom - Everybody who has been seriously depressed has thought about suicide. Everybody. The worst of the place called depression is lonely and dark and pointless and futile and directionless and scary beyond words that can be printed on a page. Moreover, there is no perspective or logic or sense of self- To the person in the pit, he or she “knows” that everyone around them feels the same way, and so who are they to complain? In that pit, these feelings are the natural, crummy order of things. In telling you these things, my friend, I’m not “accurately” describing the worst of this place called Depression. All I can do is shine a little light behind it and cast two-dimensional shadows of the three dimensional technicolor nightmare.
But, as bad as this place is, for a REAL LONG TIME the people around you may not have a clue that you are depressed. It’s not their fault, either-part of the illness is creating “defenses” and masks to hide the pain and the shame. I will remember what was probably my very worst day-hours before my partner intervened in a big way - I was in the Courthouse and saw a Judge who I practiced before, walking along with a medical expert who was a wonderful and pleasant fellow I also saw frequently in hearings. I remember talking to them, joking with them, and from their perspective it was a “normal” or even “jovial” person with whom they were interacting. Inside, I was screaming turmoil, but neither of them could have had a clue.
There isn’t a single classic kind of depression, some “one-size-fits-all”diagnosis. It can include anxiety. It can include a post-trauma stress diagnosis. It can be mild; it can be bad. It can be purely biochemical; or mostly environmental. We know that there is a strong genetic component. But wherever it comes from, it’s real. But as deep as the pit is, there are ways out. And getting out and seeing the sunshine and people again is the greatest relief imaginable.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE YOURSELF IN THIS DISEASE
Ok - listen to me-are you listening? LISTEN TO ME - You cannot DEFINITIVELY diagnose depression in yourself. Depression alters perceptions of reality and clogs whatever mind mechanism we have which determines the true importance and prioritization of competing needs and issues. But you CAN see things wrong which are indicators of depression coming. If you do, remember that you are a LAWYER - you have an obligation to take care of the tools of your craft - in this case, your head. Fortunately, you have lots of contracts and resources so that you can talk to someone qualified who can ask the right questions.
First - LISTEN TO YOU.
How do you feel? Are you happy? Content? Is living just a chore? Do you wish it would all just go away? Or do you want to just get in bed and pull the covers up over you?
How active are you? Do you spend all your time on the couch? Or do you get your butt in gear and get out and be active?
Look at your ability to do things - Are you “blocking” on more cases than usual because you just can’t deal with them? Do you duck more phone calls? Do you make promises or predictions to clients that you really sort of know in your heart are unrealistic at the time you make them?
Look for unplanned significant weight change, either up or down. And emotional lability [that means "crying," for the uninitiated], that’s a BIG indicator. That seems inconsistent with another depression marker, irritability or anger but they can coexist quite nicely, thank you.
How about your work? Do you work in periods of slow motion punctuated by time of a frenetic pace? Sometimes, you may feel so bad while depressed, the idea of fanatical work is attractive - it focuses your mind, and gives you some markers of external value. Remember what Theodore Roosevelt said: Black care rarely sits behind the rider whose pace is fast enough. Of course, depressed people routinely ignore the self-value things anyway. In my own experience, focusing on work and a parent’s last illness kept things very nicely at bay for months and months. Then, those months came to an end. Dang.
Oh, another big indicator is boozing. People drink for all kinds of reasons, mostly stupid ones. One of these is to “self-medicate” for the depression or to dull the anxiety within the depressed person or brought on by interactions with others who just don’t have a clue. Changing your alcohol habits can be the beginning of bad news, in lots of ways. Oh, by the way, alcohol is a depressant, so any “positive” effects are pretty quickly canceled out by more weight on your mind.
Next, watch what’s going on around you and listen to what people are telling you. Depression comes on generally over long period of time, but it’s hard to maintain a complete pretense forever-and hopefully, sooner or later, the people who do care about you will talk to you. If your spouse or partner or friend raises the subject, ASK what they see. Remember your Robert Burns, Tom:
Oh, wad some Power the giftie gie us,
to see ourselves as other see us
It wad frae manie a blunder free us,.....
Interpersonal turmoil can hint at depression, particularly among those you’re close to. domestic turmoil is unfortunately so very common.
Sometimes, the depression becomes so bad that the sufferer cannot stand to get out of bed, brush their teeth, and walk out of the house. In a way, that can be a GOOD thing - it’s hard even for the densest of people around you to ignore that. Mostly, though, we see the “functionally depressed,” people who feel really lousy but who depend on habit and ability to continue functioning on some level. those are the hardest to spot and the ones most likely to have serious bar trouble.
You cannot diagnose yourself, but there are some very basic screening tools available. Psychologists use short written questionnaires (the “Beck Depression Inventory” comes to mind) to get a “quick and dirty” look at someone’s “morale” status. [Practice pointer: If you have a client who is too macho to ask if s/he is depressed, ask it as “How’s your morale?] ”The web is also full of resources- for years, I have used a Depression Inventory at Queendom.com, a site with a ton of fascinating personality and intelligence tests (as well as lots of other good stuff!). Their depression inventory consists of 85 questions covering the full range of symptoms, and takes about 10 or 15 minutes to do. It spits out a cautious opinion if the score is elevated, with is chock full of sound advice and good sense:
I would advise you to get help (preferably a psychiatrist). Depression is treatable and the success rate is very high. Please, see a doctor; you really do not need to suffer this way. Remember, depression is a medical problem and it is not “just in your head.” It is not something you did, you are not being punished, and it is not your fault. there is help, so please, go and get it.
WHEN YOU SUSPECT YOU’RE DEPRESSED:
It’s a lot harder to recognize problems and get to this point than to move on from here - that’s the good news.
You need to take care of the problem and its cause; and its effects. You CANNOT take care of the problem ALONE - you have to bite the bullet and see a doctor. (The flip side is, your doctor can’t do much without YOU on board and actively participating.)
What will your doctor do? Beats me, it HAS to be individualized treatment - one size does not fit all. The doctor will consider treatment options, which include counseling (“cognitive therapy”) or medications or both.
Counseling/therapy really sucks for some people; it’s really enjoyable for others. I think for most folks, though, there are elements of both the good and the bad in it. Sharing things and finding things and going places you have been avoiding and don’t want to go, even though they’ve been eating you up from the inside out, can be an intensely painful experience. Or, it can be intensely relieving. I found it to be both, and I’m glad that I went there. Counselors are about the nicest, most competent and most caring people you’ll meet. [Even so, sometimes you just won’t be on the same page as a counselor/therapist. Then, it’s time to find another one.] Counselors generally don’t have the answers. You do. You just don’t know how to access them. They do-With question like “What would it feel like to...” or “Whose rule is that, yours, or [pick one]?” A competent (and loving) therapist has been a guide to me out of many dark places.
The medication thing is scary-but it shouldn’t be so much so. The meds do not “put thoughts into your head,” they use different ways to let YOUR thoughts start flowing normally again. One cause (or effect?) of depression is that the chemicals which feed emotions (the neurotransmitters”) are transferred around in the brain too quickly or too slowly, or something scientific like that. Most medications for depression alter those chemical transmissions to let YOU show through, and most of these medications have no or minimal side effects.
AVOIDING THE “PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL” LETTER FROM THE OFFICE OF DISCIPLINARY COUNSEL
You CAN take care of most of the effects. First and foremost, TELL PEOPLE WHO NEED TO KNOW-your spouse; your partners; your judges. these are the people who will see the effects of depression first, and be most concerned. For me, there was a small wake up call from our circuit judge. Before I told him of my own difficulties, he came to me and my partner to ask “what’s going on?” That was an appropriate thing, and a supportive thing. It’s SO MUCH BETTER that the judges hear it from you, not on the street.
Also, at some point the Office of Disciplinary Counsel may need to be told. A bad alternative is that somebody else tells them. That’s not to say that ODC hearing about a lawyer being depressed is “bad.” Trust me, the people are ODC are good lawyers who care about the bar and its members. None of them has horns, red eyes, claws nor, from my rather limited study, Satanic tattoos or scales. Their first concern is to protect clients and the public, which means that they want to be part of the solution to encourage the impaired lawyer to get help.
The ODC is not limited to deciding to “hammer” someone or not- that isn’t their role. In some instances, they hear themselves of someone having problems and inquire-not formally, but to see IF there’s a problem. If the problem is being handled without danger to clients, ODC is a resource and a cheering section. If there are ethical dilemmas which arise they will help lawyers through them. If action is necessary, they will be just as cooperative as the affected lawyer. (The sowing what you reap thing) For instance, a quiet voluntary suspension/vacation is eminently “doable,” of course with the concurrence of the Court. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Lawyer Disciplinary board want to be part of the solution- under former Chair David Romano of Clarksburg, the Board began taking an active role in ethics affairs in addition to its traditional reactive role, and current Chair Al Karlin of Morgantown has continued that philosophy.
CAST BREAD UPON THE WATERS
One last word-Lots of people are depressed, including those you meet in your practice. Our role is to help people, our profession is about helping people. Whether you recognize the possibility of someone being depressed because of your personal experiences or just from reading stuff like this, don’t simply ignore it. Some depressed people are living in a solitary hell-and are just waiting and hoping and praying for SOMEONE, for ANYONE to recognize that and take just a little initiative in directing the person to the help that she or he may know is needed. It tells them that they are not alone in the world. This is an opportunity to do a good thing that we cannot pass up.
We lawyers get a bit cocky, don’t we? This kind of thing should remind us that the blood which runs through us is the same as in any other human-and that, when it comes right down to it, we are all in this life together.
Ok, Tom-I’m done-Why have I written this? Maybe I’m just tired of feeling bad about feeling bad, and this is my goodbye to that. Bob, a wonderful therapist I know, always asks how you feel. And he requires that you first put your feeling into the “Six Words:” Happy, Sad, Mad, glad, Lonely, Scared. Well, I feel pretty glad to say this-and just a little bit scared. That will pass, though. This is just too important for us to ignore any longer.
Have a good day, Tom, and I’ll see you soon.
Your Friend,
Roger
Dear Tom -
Tom, I know that this letter comes sort of out of the blue – we have known each other for more than 20 years, and I’m presuming on that long friendship quite a bit today.
I need your help. I want to say things, speak some words that I really believe some of our fellow lawyers need to hear. But, just putting them into a dry article without some personal communication seems cold or imperious or inappropriate or something like that – sorta like talking to an empty jury box. So, this is a letter to you. If this were a typical article, the title would be something like --
Depression and the Lawyer, or
Like Hell it Can’t Happen to me.
[The multiple title thing is straight out Rocky and Bullwinkle. I like Rocky and Bullwinkle. and if (former Bar President) Jim Stealey can wax eloquently about the Three Stooges in an article, I certainly can cite Rocky and Bullwinkle to you.]
Tom, I’ve been depressed for years. I’ve mentioned that in some private conversations and rarely in Court or to a client who I think needs screened for depression. It’s really painful to disclose this. It’s quite a bit more painful to live with it.
You know, depression has WAY too good a reputation-Churchill was depressed, and look at all he did; Lincoln was REAL depressed (which you can see as he sleeplessly “Walks at Midnight” on our Capitol lawn); LBJ was episodically depressed; Sylvia Plath was depressed to the point of suicide, and on and on. But somehow the literati describe their disorder as something which makes them more “tragic” figures and somehow “grander” or “nobler” because they have suffered so and have overcome such an obstacle to achieve greatness, blah, blah, blah. Great writers are depressed, or talk about depression:
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
–from T. S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Man”
But the truth- the hard truth- is that depression is a truly horrible place to be, it alters your judgment, it haunts you, and experiencing it doesn’t have the least element of noble tragedy.
I have even worse news - One in 4 women, and one in 8 men, will experience at least one serious episode of depression in their lifetimes. Ane 17 million Americans, right now, today are experiencing severe depression.
WHAT DEPRESSION IS:
The DSM defines depression with neat “shopping lists” of symptoms, and those also can be found in many depression resources. These indicators include:
• A depressed mood (e.g., feeling sad or empty, crying, which may be the most personally uncomfortable problems of all)
• A diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all activities fun with the kids, outdoor activities, pleasurable reading, going to the movies, sex-YIKES
• Insomnia or hyper-insomnia (sleeping a lot), and other sleep problems
• Psychomotor agitation or reparation - Pacing, fidgeting, and so forth
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feeling of hopelessness - That one is SO bad for you
• Irritability - Ane that one is SO bad for the people around you
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt- Hoo, boy, that’s a biggie
• A diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness
• Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
Depression can happen once (“single event”), now and then (“episodic”) or constantly (“bloody well terrifying.”) It can occur at any age, but the first episode usually is in the prime of our productive practice years, ages 25 to 44.
Now, all that being said, so far we’re not being much help to the individual, are we? How do you know whether you or your partners or people around you are depressed to some extent? It’s not my goal to have people “play doctor” with themselves here, but rather to help folks recognize when it may be time to have the doctor play doctor with them or with the people who matter to them.
YUP, IT’S REAL
First, let me talk about the “feel” of depression. Usually, depression doesn’t appear suddenly-it comes on “like a thief in the night.” We’ve been dipped in a John Wayne society which doesn’t recognize depression, or thinks it’s just a matter of a lack of self control, or even caused by fundamentally bad character. There now, everybody gets a little blue now and then. I’ve heard that one a lot. And it’s true. It’s also true that everybody has a little chest discomfort. When it’s severe chest pain, you ought to get your butt to the hospital. Oh, and there’s the “I just don’t know HOW someone could think like that,” usually in the context of talking about people “hurting themselves” or “doing something to themselves,” or some other cute little euphemism for suicide. How can someone in that dark place of depression explain it?
Listen, Tom - Everybody who has been seriously depressed has thought about suicide. Everybody. The worst of the place called depression is lonely and dark and pointless and futile and directionless and scary beyond words that can be printed on a page. Moreover, there is no perspective or logic or sense of self- To the person in the pit, he or she “knows” that everyone around them feels the same way, and so who are they to complain? In that pit, these feelings are the natural, crummy order of things. In telling you these things, my friend, I’m not “accurately” describing the worst of this place called Depression. All I can do is shine a little light behind it and cast two-dimensional shadows of the three dimensional technicolor nightmare.
But, as bad as this place is, for a REAL LONG TIME the people around you may not have a clue that you are depressed. It’s not their fault, either-part of the illness is creating “defenses” and masks to hide the pain and the shame. I will remember what was probably my very worst day-hours before my partner intervened in a big way - I was in the Courthouse and saw a Judge who I practiced before, walking along with a medical expert who was a wonderful and pleasant fellow I also saw frequently in hearings. I remember talking to them, joking with them, and from their perspective it was a “normal” or even “jovial” person with whom they were interacting. Inside, I was screaming turmoil, but neither of them could have had a clue.
There isn’t a single classic kind of depression, some “one-size-fits-all”diagnosis. It can include anxiety. It can include a post-trauma stress diagnosis. It can be mild; it can be bad. It can be purely biochemical; or mostly environmental. We know that there is a strong genetic component. But wherever it comes from, it’s real. But as deep as the pit is, there are ways out. And getting out and seeing the sunshine and people again is the greatest relief imaginable.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE YOURSELF IN THIS DISEASE
Ok - listen to me-are you listening? LISTEN TO ME - You cannot DEFINITIVELY diagnose depression in yourself. Depression alters perceptions of reality and clogs whatever mind mechanism we have which determines the true importance and prioritization of competing needs and issues. But you CAN see things wrong which are indicators of depression coming. If you do, remember that you are a LAWYER - you have an obligation to take care of the tools of your craft - in this case, your head. Fortunately, you have lots of contracts and resources so that you can talk to someone qualified who can ask the right questions.
First - LISTEN TO YOU.
How do you feel? Are you happy? Content? Is living just a chore? Do you wish it would all just go away? Or do you want to just get in bed and pull the covers up over you?
How active are you? Do you spend all your time on the couch? Or do you get your butt in gear and get out and be active?
Look at your ability to do things - Are you “blocking” on more cases than usual because you just can’t deal with them? Do you duck more phone calls? Do you make promises or predictions to clients that you really sort of know in your heart are unrealistic at the time you make them?
Look for unplanned significant weight change, either up or down. And emotional lability [that means "crying," for the uninitiated], that’s a BIG indicator. That seems inconsistent with another depression marker, irritability or anger but they can coexist quite nicely, thank you.
How about your work? Do you work in periods of slow motion punctuated by time of a frenetic pace? Sometimes, you may feel so bad while depressed, the idea of fanatical work is attractive - it focuses your mind, and gives you some markers of external value. Remember what Theodore Roosevelt said: Black care rarely sits behind the rider whose pace is fast enough. Of course, depressed people routinely ignore the self-value things anyway. In my own experience, focusing on work and a parent’s last illness kept things very nicely at bay for months and months. Then, those months came to an end. Dang.
Oh, another big indicator is boozing. People drink for all kinds of reasons, mostly stupid ones. One of these is to “self-medicate” for the depression or to dull the anxiety within the depressed person or brought on by interactions with others who just don’t have a clue. Changing your alcohol habits can be the beginning of bad news, in lots of ways. Oh, by the way, alcohol is a depressant, so any “positive” effects are pretty quickly canceled out by more weight on your mind.
Next, watch what’s going on around you and listen to what people are telling you. Depression comes on generally over long period of time, but it’s hard to maintain a complete pretense forever-and hopefully, sooner or later, the people who do care about you will talk to you. If your spouse or partner or friend raises the subject, ASK what they see. Remember your Robert Burns, Tom:
Oh, wad some Power the giftie gie us,
to see ourselves as other see us
It wad frae manie a blunder free us,.....
Interpersonal turmoil can hint at depression, particularly among those you’re close to. domestic turmoil is unfortunately so very common.
Sometimes, the depression becomes so bad that the sufferer cannot stand to get out of bed, brush their teeth, and walk out of the house. In a way, that can be a GOOD thing - it’s hard even for the densest of people around you to ignore that. Mostly, though, we see the “functionally depressed,” people who feel really lousy but who depend on habit and ability to continue functioning on some level. those are the hardest to spot and the ones most likely to have serious bar trouble.
You cannot diagnose yourself, but there are some very basic screening tools available. Psychologists use short written questionnaires (the “Beck Depression Inventory” comes to mind) to get a “quick and dirty” look at someone’s “morale” status. [Practice pointer: If you have a client who is too macho to ask if s/he is depressed, ask it as “How’s your morale?] ”The web is also full of resources- for years, I have used a Depression Inventory at Queendom.com, a site with a ton of fascinating personality and intelligence tests (as well as lots of other good stuff!). Their depression inventory consists of 85 questions covering the full range of symptoms, and takes about 10 or 15 minutes to do. It spits out a cautious opinion if the score is elevated, with is chock full of sound advice and good sense:
I would advise you to get help (preferably a psychiatrist). Depression is treatable and the success rate is very high. Please, see a doctor; you really do not need to suffer this way. Remember, depression is a medical problem and it is not “just in your head.” It is not something you did, you are not being punished, and it is not your fault. there is help, so please, go and get it.
WHEN YOU SUSPECT YOU’RE DEPRESSED:
It’s a lot harder to recognize problems and get to this point than to move on from here - that’s the good news.
You need to take care of the problem and its cause; and its effects. You CANNOT take care of the problem ALONE - you have to bite the bullet and see a doctor. (The flip side is, your doctor can’t do much without YOU on board and actively participating.)
What will your doctor do? Beats me, it HAS to be individualized treatment - one size does not fit all. The doctor will consider treatment options, which include counseling (“cognitive therapy”) or medications or both.
Counseling/therapy really sucks for some people; it’s really enjoyable for others. I think for most folks, though, there are elements of both the good and the bad in it. Sharing things and finding things and going places you have been avoiding and don’t want to go, even though they’ve been eating you up from the inside out, can be an intensely painful experience. Or, it can be intensely relieving. I found it to be both, and I’m glad that I went there. Counselors are about the nicest, most competent and most caring people you’ll meet. [Even so, sometimes you just won’t be on the same page as a counselor/therapist. Then, it’s time to find another one.] Counselors generally don’t have the answers. You do. You just don’t know how to access them. They do-With question like “What would it feel like to...” or “Whose rule is that, yours, or [pick one]?” A competent (and loving) therapist has been a guide to me out of many dark places.
The medication thing is scary-but it shouldn’t be so much so. The meds do not “put thoughts into your head,” they use different ways to let YOUR thoughts start flowing normally again. One cause (or effect?) of depression is that the chemicals which feed emotions (the neurotransmitters”) are transferred around in the brain too quickly or too slowly, or something scientific like that. Most medications for depression alter those chemical transmissions to let YOU show through, and most of these medications have no or minimal side effects.
AVOIDING THE “PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL” LETTER FROM THE OFFICE OF DISCIPLINARY COUNSEL
You CAN take care of most of the effects. First and foremost, TELL PEOPLE WHO NEED TO KNOW-your spouse; your partners; your judges. these are the people who will see the effects of depression first, and be most concerned. For me, there was a small wake up call from our circuit judge. Before I told him of my own difficulties, he came to me and my partner to ask “what’s going on?” That was an appropriate thing, and a supportive thing. It’s SO MUCH BETTER that the judges hear it from you, not on the street.
Also, at some point the Office of Disciplinary Counsel may need to be told. A bad alternative is that somebody else tells them. That’s not to say that ODC hearing about a lawyer being depressed is “bad.” Trust me, the people are ODC are good lawyers who care about the bar and its members. None of them has horns, red eyes, claws nor, from my rather limited study, Satanic tattoos or scales. Their first concern is to protect clients and the public, which means that they want to be part of the solution to encourage the impaired lawyer to get help.
The ODC is not limited to deciding to “hammer” someone or not- that isn’t their role. In some instances, they hear themselves of someone having problems and inquire-not formally, but to see IF there’s a problem. If the problem is being handled without danger to clients, ODC is a resource and a cheering section. If there are ethical dilemmas which arise they will help lawyers through them. If action is necessary, they will be just as cooperative as the affected lawyer. (The sowing what you reap thing) For instance, a quiet voluntary suspension/vacation is eminently “doable,” of course with the concurrence of the Court. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Lawyer Disciplinary board want to be part of the solution- under former Chair David Romano of Clarksburg, the Board began taking an active role in ethics affairs in addition to its traditional reactive role, and current Chair Al Karlin of Morgantown has continued that philosophy.
CAST BREAD UPON THE WATERS
One last word-Lots of people are depressed, including those you meet in your practice. Our role is to help people, our profession is about helping people. Whether you recognize the possibility of someone being depressed because of your personal experiences or just from reading stuff like this, don’t simply ignore it. Some depressed people are living in a solitary hell-and are just waiting and hoping and praying for SOMEONE, for ANYONE to recognize that and take just a little initiative in directing the person to the help that she or he may know is needed. It tells them that they are not alone in the world. This is an opportunity to do a good thing that we cannot pass up.
We lawyers get a bit cocky, don’t we? This kind of thing should remind us that the blood which runs through us is the same as in any other human-and that, when it comes right down to it, we are all in this life together.
Ok, Tom-I’m done-Why have I written this? Maybe I’m just tired of feeling bad about feeling bad, and this is my goodbye to that. Bob, a wonderful therapist I know, always asks how you feel. And he requires that you first put your feeling into the “Six Words:” Happy, Sad, Mad, glad, Lonely, Scared. Well, I feel pretty glad to say this-and just a little bit scared. That will pass, though. This is just too important for us to ignore any longer.
Have a good day, Tom, and I’ll see you soon.
Your Friend,
Roger
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Self-improvement, Time Management, Entropy and Me + a couple of random thoughts
I keep a whole bunch of books going at the same time. I try to keep a variety of genres, so that I'll have something to fit my mood at any given time. I keep a modern fiction, a western, a philosophy, a space opera or other sci-fi, a bio, a political opinion book, and also something from the business or self-improvement genre. Well, this is the reason that my briefcase is so darn heavy. When I go through security at a courthouse, the officers (most of whom are friends of mine) always rag me about all of the books I carry. I don't tell them about the "ready shelf," where books I'm more or less slowly going through are kept.
The business/self-improvement books I consider to be very work-related, because they purport to improve my life and work, which really are about the same thing. I know that's not a healthy attitude, but it's mine. There are several types of the self-improvement books. There is the pure business related book - Time Management for Dummies is a good, basic example. As silly as the title is, it has a few good ideas. I'm reading now a book on law office management, which is extraordinarily dry. I consider it a victory when I get one or two good ideas from one of these books. There are the pure self-improvement books. Shut Up, Quit Whining and Get a Life, by Larry Winget is a good example. There are mixtures, business and attitude, including There's a Reason They Call it Work, also by Larry Winget. I think I've highly recommended his books elsewhere. I also count within these broad categories the pure modern philosophies. Conversations with God, by Neal Donald Walsch is a strange example of that. OK, a REAL strange example. Also, the works of Wayne Dyer have shown an evolution from 30 years ago when he wrote Your Erroneous Zone and Pulling Your Own Strings, down-to-earth take-care-of-number-one advice tomes, to The Power of Intention, which is to me an uncomfortable, silly, witch-doctor-ish read. (I also have a sister-in-law who has written a witch-doctor-ish book.) I put the works of Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins also here, Chopra on the more spiritual side and Robbins the high-energy full-speed-ahead type. (There is a wonderful parody of the whole self-improvement genre, God is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7-1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Success, by Christopher Buckley. He lampoons the "Choprans" and the "Robbinites" at the monastery. It's worth the price.) And lots of political books have a philosophical bent, so I think of them in this area, too. Al Gore's The Assault on Reason, Joe Conason's It Can Happen Here, and Gerry Spence's Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps are examples. In fact, pretty much everything Gerry Spence has written fits there, even his novel, Half-moon and Empty Stars.
From all of these, I look for ideas with which to approach work and life. (Here, by "work," I mean pretty much any useful or creative activity.) There is a duality among these books that's been percolating in my mind. One school of thought might be called the 80% approach. An Italian economist (I think he was an economist - maybe he was a con-man) by the name of Paredo announced the "Paredo Principle." Essentially, it says that every human activity is divided 80-20. For instance, 20 percent of the effort is supposed to be worth 80 percent of the value. If you want to get to 100 percent, then, you have to bust your ass for not much satisfaction or additional value. Therefore, this school reasons, you ought to work at about 80 percent of your capacity, and screw the other 20 percent. That has some attraction - leave work at a reasonable hour, don't worry about tomorrow, because today you did what you set out to do. I've seen suggestions that you put a tag reading "80%" on your computer monitor to remind you to keep your work flow steady and, like the tortoise, win the race. Well, I've done that. For whatever it's worth. The other approach is the 212 degree approach. That holds that if you have water at 211 degrees, you have some hot water, which is no big deal. But if you have water at 212 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course), it will make steam and steam has power in it. (They don't address the whole transition heat issue. Seldom does a scientific or mathematic analogy hold together perfectly.) Therefore, if you don't push to that last degree, you've failed. Vacations? Bad. Time at home? Bad. Heck, even time blogging would be frowned upon. Well, those folks suggest that you put a little tag on your monitor which reads "212 degrees." I've done that too. And I'm honestly torn. What is the "right" approach to life? Take it easy and enjoy life? Push like mad and do the absolute most that you can do? One of my heroes is Theodore Roosevelt, I've mentioned that before here. He came down FIRMLY on the running-flat-out approach. Of course, he also died of old age and exhaustion at age 61. (And an undiagnosed tropical disease may have contributed to that, too.) I really need to get one of those tags off the computer. I'm drawn more to the 212 degree school, but that is a difficult and lonely life. I guess what I need is a self-improvement book custom made for ME. Fat chance. This is rather self-revealing - maybe too much so - a taste of the demons who often drive me.
Let's see. What else is on my mind. Oh, you may recall that I've been on a careful Bible-quoting jag of late. Part of that is to irk the Great Right-Wing Conspiracy, where the folks wave the Bible, and thump the Bible, but don't appear to read very much of it. Well, on the theory that it contains lots of good stuff other than useful quotes, I splurged and spent $44 at Amazon for a new Bible. (A Masonic edition - no, we don't have some mystical separate Bible, it's regular KJV with a concordance of stuff out of the Masonic work.) I think I may found the "Church of the Red Letter." That is the church which uses Bibles where the words of Christ are in red. Our church would pay extra-close attention to the stuff in red, and not be so worried about myths, Daniel and the Revelation of St. John the Divine. I wish that people who call themselves Christian would give it a shot at being a touch more Christ-like, and a touch less judgmental.
Finally, a poem I've been studying on for weeks - darn hard to figure out, at least for me:
THE FOOL'S PRAYER
by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)
THE royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"
The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.
He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the Monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'T is by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.
"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.
"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say--
Who knows how grandly it had rung!
"Our faults no tenderness should ask.
The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders -- oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.
"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!"
The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"
Maybe that's what I need to be asking for, Be merciful to me, a fool.
Mizpah.
R
The business/self-improvement books I consider to be very work-related, because they purport to improve my life and work, which really are about the same thing. I know that's not a healthy attitude, but it's mine. There are several types of the self-improvement books. There is the pure business related book - Time Management for Dummies is a good, basic example. As silly as the title is, it has a few good ideas. I'm reading now a book on law office management, which is extraordinarily dry. I consider it a victory when I get one or two good ideas from one of these books. There are the pure self-improvement books. Shut Up, Quit Whining and Get a Life, by Larry Winget is a good example. There are mixtures, business and attitude, including There's a Reason They Call it Work, also by Larry Winget. I think I've highly recommended his books elsewhere. I also count within these broad categories the pure modern philosophies. Conversations with God, by Neal Donald Walsch is a strange example of that. OK, a REAL strange example. Also, the works of Wayne Dyer have shown an evolution from 30 years ago when he wrote Your Erroneous Zone and Pulling Your Own Strings, down-to-earth take-care-of-number-one advice tomes, to The Power of Intention, which is to me an uncomfortable, silly, witch-doctor-ish read. (I also have a sister-in-law who has written a witch-doctor-ish book.) I put the works of Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins also here, Chopra on the more spiritual side and Robbins the high-energy full-speed-ahead type. (There is a wonderful parody of the whole self-improvement genre, God is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7-1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Success, by Christopher Buckley. He lampoons the "Choprans" and the "Robbinites" at the monastery. It's worth the price.) And lots of political books have a philosophical bent, so I think of them in this area, too. Al Gore's The Assault on Reason, Joe Conason's It Can Happen Here, and Gerry Spence's Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps are examples. In fact, pretty much everything Gerry Spence has written fits there, even his novel, Half-moon and Empty Stars.
From all of these, I look for ideas with which to approach work and life. (Here, by "work," I mean pretty much any useful or creative activity.) There is a duality among these books that's been percolating in my mind. One school of thought might be called the 80% approach. An Italian economist (I think he was an economist - maybe he was a con-man) by the name of Paredo announced the "Paredo Principle." Essentially, it says that every human activity is divided 80-20. For instance, 20 percent of the effort is supposed to be worth 80 percent of the value. If you want to get to 100 percent, then, you have to bust your ass for not much satisfaction or additional value. Therefore, this school reasons, you ought to work at about 80 percent of your capacity, and screw the other 20 percent. That has some attraction - leave work at a reasonable hour, don't worry about tomorrow, because today you did what you set out to do. I've seen suggestions that you put a tag reading "80%" on your computer monitor to remind you to keep your work flow steady and, like the tortoise, win the race. Well, I've done that. For whatever it's worth. The other approach is the 212 degree approach. That holds that if you have water at 211 degrees, you have some hot water, which is no big deal. But if you have water at 212 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course), it will make steam and steam has power in it. (They don't address the whole transition heat issue. Seldom does a scientific or mathematic analogy hold together perfectly.) Therefore, if you don't push to that last degree, you've failed. Vacations? Bad. Time at home? Bad. Heck, even time blogging would be frowned upon. Well, those folks suggest that you put a little tag on your monitor which reads "212 degrees." I've done that too. And I'm honestly torn. What is the "right" approach to life? Take it easy and enjoy life? Push like mad and do the absolute most that you can do? One of my heroes is Theodore Roosevelt, I've mentioned that before here. He came down FIRMLY on the running-flat-out approach. Of course, he also died of old age and exhaustion at age 61. (And an undiagnosed tropical disease may have contributed to that, too.) I really need to get one of those tags off the computer. I'm drawn more to the 212 degree school, but that is a difficult and lonely life. I guess what I need is a self-improvement book custom made for ME. Fat chance. This is rather self-revealing - maybe too much so - a taste of the demons who often drive me.
Let's see. What else is on my mind. Oh, you may recall that I've been on a careful Bible-quoting jag of late. Part of that is to irk the Great Right-Wing Conspiracy, where the folks wave the Bible, and thump the Bible, but don't appear to read very much of it. Well, on the theory that it contains lots of good stuff other than useful quotes, I splurged and spent $44 at Amazon for a new Bible. (A Masonic edition - no, we don't have some mystical separate Bible, it's regular KJV with a concordance of stuff out of the Masonic work.) I think I may found the "Church of the Red Letter." That is the church which uses Bibles where the words of Christ are in red. Our church would pay extra-close attention to the stuff in red, and not be so worried about myths, Daniel and the Revelation of St. John the Divine. I wish that people who call themselves Christian would give it a shot at being a touch more Christ-like, and a touch less judgmental.
Finally, a poem I've been studying on for weeks - darn hard to figure out, at least for me:
THE FOOL'S PRAYER
by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)
THE royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"
The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.
He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the Monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!
"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'T is by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.
"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.
"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say--
Who knows how grandly it had rung!
"Our faults no tenderness should ask.
The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders -- oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.
"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!"
The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"
Maybe that's what I need to be asking for, Be merciful to me, a fool.
Mizpah.
R
Saturday, June 16, 2007
The irregular selective canon from the hills:
It's been a while, so I offer the following:
Al Gore - The Assault on Reason
+ + + +
This is the flagship book of the quarter. It is Al Gore's well-reasoned, well-researched and heartfelt call to action over the growing loss of citizen participation and growing concentration of wealth and political power. Gore finds the "consent of the governed" referred to in the Declaration of Independence as "becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder," usually in 30-second TV commercials in which persuasion is all and logic or reason is nothing.
Gore correctly points out that TV is now the primary (often sole) source of news and opinions for most Americans. The medium is a one-way street, because the viewer isn't called upon to think, rather s/he is enthralled by flickering images. Gore compares that to the freedom of public discourse at the time the Constitution was adopted, which he places in the "Age of Print." When people knew how to read, they also knew how to write, and could publish their opinions to be judged in what was truly a marketplace of ideas. The public discourse in the modern age is not only one-way, it is distorted by the twin sisters, fear and shared/remote trauma. Gore castigates the "Media Machiavellis" who have abandoned their duty to hold the Government up to the light, and says what many of us here contend, that the line of separation of opinion and journalism has for all intents and purposes disappeared.
Gore decries the "ineptitude and moral insensibility of our national leaders in the last several years." This is not a polemic against Bush & Co. It is an appeal to reason and to a return of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Gore says in one sentence what I have been able to say in long, rambling paragraphs: "It is the incestuous coupling of wealth and power that poses the deadliest threat to democracy."
The future of the American people seems to lie in media like the Internet, where there is at least a nascent rational discussion of ideas. Gore pushes citizen participation and citizen education. He cites, for example, research showing that 53% of Americans in 2006 thought that the President is not bound by decisions of the Supreme Court. (Of course, with the Reagan-Bush-Bush court-packing success, a Republican president will have less and less to disagree with.) Gore wants a "well-connected citizenry," and a return to Constitutional and transparent government.
Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth
+ + + +
The neocons and theocons are basically full of shit. God has NOT given us an eternal world governed by fixed precepts. He has (unwisely?) made us Stewards of a well-balanced system of life, physics and heat. The Earth is static (until recently) from our perspective because the feedback loops adjust minutely over very long periods of time. Sudden things like asteroids hitting the Earth make for mass extinctions. Our stunning release of carbon secondary to industrialization is warming the Earth, and is unleashing a number of fast-acting effects, including human-species-threatening effects. If we don’t listen, our children are going to curse us. It’s not going to wait for the grandchildren of many of us. It’s happening that fast. That being said, your reaction to the whole climate change question is probably driven by political outlook. That’s sad. A few “scientists” from the fringe pontificate, and suddenly basic scientific facts become untested theories. This is another call to arms.
Jeffrey Archer & Francis J. Moloney - The Gospel According to Judas
+ + +
Sir Jeffrey Archer is a strange duck. He is a former Member of Parliament who writes glibly about his period "at her Majesty's pleasure," i.e., when he was in prison for perjury. He writes books which are as different from one another as Ken Follett's. In this book, he has teamed up with a cleric-academic to write an apologia for Judas Iscariot, written in the style of the Gospels. I don't know if the scholarship is perfect, because my Biblical scholarship is pretty down-market. I don't know what a conventional fundamental or evangelical Christian would make of this. That ignorance aside, it is an engaging tale, and thoroughly out of the ordinary.
Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Treasure of Khan
+ +
Clive Cussler has been writing adventure novels since the early 70's. His first novel in this series (the "Dirk Pitt (tm)" novels), The Mediterranean Caper, was published only in paperback, and decent first editions are now rare and quite expensive. Cussler has aged his characters, and brought his son on as co-author. I've always enjoyed these books, but the stories are aging, just as I am. I think we're all about out of steam.
Brian Haig - Man in the Middle
+ + +
This guy is Alexander Haig's son, for whatever that is worth. His protagonist is an iconoclastic military lawyer. The plots are believable and, a rarity in lawyer-novels, grounded in reality. A smashing good read.
Gerry Spence - Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power
+ + + +
Spence has made hundreds of millions within the American litigation system because he is simply the best lawyer, possibly ever. That being said, he is still the red-blooded champion of people. In far harsher terms than Al Gore uses, Spence exposes the heartless conservative manipulators as frauds, intellectual pirates, and hypocritical whiners. Spence is an unusual liberal (like James Carville and Cecil Roberts), one willing to speak bluntly about his beliefs and the evil of some of the black-hearted conservatism out there. The rest of us could take a lesson here.
Larry Winget - It’s Called Work for a Reason
+ + + +
- Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life
+ + +
Larry Winget is one annoying son of a bitch. His ego is endless, and like most good doctors I know, he probably would be a very poor dinner guest in your home. But his advice is as valuable as the doctor’s skill. Essentially, his messages are pretty simple. Shut the fuck up, do your job. Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash. A deal is a deal. You get paid commensurate to the value you create. I won’t invite this guy to dinner, but I’ll certainly read and apply anything he writes.
John Mortimer - Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
+ + + +
- Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
+ + + +
I’d like to hear from Meme & Clank about how Mortimer is received in Britain. Often, I wish that I had the class Rumpole does. He’s a barrister (like me? I hope so.), of considerable girth (definitely like me), who represents real people and not things, and is poorly paid. On the door of my room is a sign, “No. 3 Equity Court” - Rumpole’s address.
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror puts Rumpole into the battle between the War on Terror and civil liberties. We are willing to sell out any of our freedoms for a bit of security. As it turns out, we are gaining neither freedom nor security, we are just switching oppressors. Actually, I’m surprised that Mortimer has written a novel with these kinds of political overtones. He is a barrister himself, indeed a “Queen’s Counsel,” a member of the “senior bar.” They are selected by the Lord Chancellor and aren’t normally known for radical opinions.
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders is strictly a fun retrospective explaining the long-ago case Rumpole won “alone and without a leader.”
Well, I suspect that Rumpole is like Hillary Clinton. You either love him or think he’s bloody silly. I like him.
Al Dempsey - What Law There Was
+ + + +
Thank God and Bookfinder.com. This is an older western (recall, I do so like westerns) with a strong Masonic theme. I know that sounds a bit eclectic, but it works. Indeed, while the novel exposes precisely none of the (rather open) secrets of the order, you can learn more about what Freemasonry is all about from this book. I found an extra copy of this on Bookfinder.com for a Brother who has assisted me enormously over the past few months with some personal and professional issues.
Harmon Leon - Republican Like Me; Infiltrating Red-state, White-ass, Blue-suit America
<+
You know, I’ve enjoyed and been inspired by lots of Progressive literature lately. It’s good to know that it’s not just a knee-jerk reaction. Leon’s schtick is to disguise himself, infiltrate right-wing groups, act like an asshole and ridicule them. His tactics are deplorable, his writing is as egotistical as Larry Winget’s, without any of the usefulness, and his conclusions, that the Right Wing is incompetent, are inaccurate and dangerous. I bought two of his books at the same time. Anyone want the other one? It’s unread.
Christopher Buckley - Boomsday
+ + +
Buckley (son of The National Review’s William F. Buckley) is a must-read author. He is a true humorist who still takes on cutting issues. Here, he deals intelligently and sharply with the coming “Boomsday,” when BabyBoomers retire and sink the American economy with their non-productiveness and needs. Buckley is neither a formula-driven conservative nor progressive. His strong opinions are admirably mixed. He is best known for Thank You for Smoking, his attack on tobacco with strong jabs at booze and guns, which was made into a (poor) movie. My favorite is God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth, where he lampoons all of the “personal development” gurus. Anything he writes, I’ll buy it in hardback.
Frederick Forsyth - The Afghan
+ + +
Forsyth has been going strong in the spy/adventure genre since The Day of the Jackal in 1971. The latest is a worthy addition to the stable. It won’t be read 100 years from now, and it’s not great literature, but it’s fun and is better than any of the other entrants in the post-9/11 world.
Russell S. Bonds - Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor + + +
If you don’t like detailed Civil War histories, you’ll waste your money on this. If you are a Civil War buff, it’s a laudable addition to your library. This is a very detailed, well-researched examination of the Andrews Raid, a Union spy operation which was (inaccurately) depicted in the 1050's Disney film, The Great Locomotive Chase. Andrews was a civilian spy who led 20 Union soldiers on a mission into Georgia to steal a locomotive and destroy bridges on a key rail line which supplied Confederate armies. I liked it.
Greg Bear - Quantico
+ + +
The author is a member of the sci-fi triumvirate, the “Killer B’s,” (Benford, Brin and Bear). In Quantico, he is writing near-future, plausible sci-fi about chemical and biological warfare. It’s believable, engaging and thought-generating.
Paul Levine - Trial & Error - A Solomon vs. Lord novel
+ +
Another lawyer novel, and this one is pure mind candy. Fortunately, I have a mental sweet tooth, and looked forward to reading this ever since its publication date was announced. If you like the lawyer sub-genre and don’t require totally creditable plots, you may like this. There has to be some significance in the fact that this was published straight to mass market paperback. Damfino what it is.
Robert Conroy - 1945
+ + +
There is a sub-genre known as “alternate history,” which describes what would have happened if key events in history were changed. Conroy postulates that the attempted military coup after Hiroshima and Nagasaki was successful, and the Allies were forced to invade the Japanese home islands at the end of WWII. The under-appreciated part of good altnerate history is that it requires a thorough knowledge of history, as well as the logic to project creditable cause-effect relationships.
A look ahead - Fiction to be published in the rest of 2007 -
Settling Accounts: In at the Death, by Harry Turtledove - The last (mercifully) of a ten-volume altnerate history where the South wins its independence in the Civil War.
The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars, by Ben Bova - You have to like sci-fi to like Bova. I like sci-fi.
Rumpole Misbehaves, by John Mortimer - see above.
A Threat to Justice, by Chuck Norris et al. - Not great, but there are no great western writers these days.
The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - I’m looking forward to this one most of all.
Mizpah!
R
Al Gore - The Assault on Reason
+ + + +
This is the flagship book of the quarter. It is Al Gore's well-reasoned, well-researched and heartfelt call to action over the growing loss of citizen participation and growing concentration of wealth and political power. Gore finds the "consent of the governed" referred to in the Declaration of Independence as "becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder," usually in 30-second TV commercials in which persuasion is all and logic or reason is nothing.
Gore correctly points out that TV is now the primary (often sole) source of news and opinions for most Americans. The medium is a one-way street, because the viewer isn't called upon to think, rather s/he is enthralled by flickering images. Gore compares that to the freedom of public discourse at the time the Constitution was adopted, which he places in the "Age of Print." When people knew how to read, they also knew how to write, and could publish their opinions to be judged in what was truly a marketplace of ideas. The public discourse in the modern age is not only one-way, it is distorted by the twin sisters, fear and shared/remote trauma. Gore castigates the "Media Machiavellis" who have abandoned their duty to hold the Government up to the light, and says what many of us here contend, that the line of separation of opinion and journalism has for all intents and purposes disappeared.
Gore decries the "ineptitude and moral insensibility of our national leaders in the last several years." This is not a polemic against Bush & Co. It is an appeal to reason and to a return of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Gore says in one sentence what I have been able to say in long, rambling paragraphs: "It is the incestuous coupling of wealth and power that poses the deadliest threat to democracy."
The future of the American people seems to lie in media like the Internet, where there is at least a nascent rational discussion of ideas. Gore pushes citizen participation and citizen education. He cites, for example, research showing that 53% of Americans in 2006 thought that the President is not bound by decisions of the Supreme Court. (Of course, with the Reagan-Bush-Bush court-packing success, a Republican president will have less and less to disagree with.) Gore wants a "well-connected citizenry," and a return to Constitutional and transparent government.
Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth
+ + + +
The neocons and theocons are basically full of shit. God has NOT given us an eternal world governed by fixed precepts. He has (unwisely?) made us Stewards of a well-balanced system of life, physics and heat. The Earth is static (until recently) from our perspective because the feedback loops adjust minutely over very long periods of time. Sudden things like asteroids hitting the Earth make for mass extinctions. Our stunning release of carbon secondary to industrialization is warming the Earth, and is unleashing a number of fast-acting effects, including human-species-threatening effects. If we don’t listen, our children are going to curse us. It’s not going to wait for the grandchildren of many of us. It’s happening that fast. That being said, your reaction to the whole climate change question is probably driven by political outlook. That’s sad. A few “scientists” from the fringe pontificate, and suddenly basic scientific facts become untested theories. This is another call to arms.
Jeffrey Archer & Francis J. Moloney - The Gospel According to Judas
+ + +
Sir Jeffrey Archer is a strange duck. He is a former Member of Parliament who writes glibly about his period "at her Majesty's pleasure," i.e., when he was in prison for perjury. He writes books which are as different from one another as Ken Follett's. In this book, he has teamed up with a cleric-academic to write an apologia for Judas Iscariot, written in the style of the Gospels. I don't know if the scholarship is perfect, because my Biblical scholarship is pretty down-market. I don't know what a conventional fundamental or evangelical Christian would make of this. That ignorance aside, it is an engaging tale, and thoroughly out of the ordinary.
Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Treasure of Khan
+ +
Clive Cussler has been writing adventure novels since the early 70's. His first novel in this series (the "Dirk Pitt (tm)" novels), The Mediterranean Caper, was published only in paperback, and decent first editions are now rare and quite expensive. Cussler has aged his characters, and brought his son on as co-author. I've always enjoyed these books, but the stories are aging, just as I am. I think we're all about out of steam.
Brian Haig - Man in the Middle
+ + +
This guy is Alexander Haig's son, for whatever that is worth. His protagonist is an iconoclastic military lawyer. The plots are believable and, a rarity in lawyer-novels, grounded in reality. A smashing good read.
Gerry Spence - Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power
+ + + +
Spence has made hundreds of millions within the American litigation system because he is simply the best lawyer, possibly ever. That being said, he is still the red-blooded champion of people. In far harsher terms than Al Gore uses, Spence exposes the heartless conservative manipulators as frauds, intellectual pirates, and hypocritical whiners. Spence is an unusual liberal (like James Carville and Cecil Roberts), one willing to speak bluntly about his beliefs and the evil of some of the black-hearted conservatism out there. The rest of us could take a lesson here.
Larry Winget - It’s Called Work for a Reason
+ + + +
- Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life
+ + +
Larry Winget is one annoying son of a bitch. His ego is endless, and like most good doctors I know, he probably would be a very poor dinner guest in your home. But his advice is as valuable as the doctor’s skill. Essentially, his messages are pretty simple. Shut the fuck up, do your job. Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash. A deal is a deal. You get paid commensurate to the value you create. I won’t invite this guy to dinner, but I’ll certainly read and apply anything he writes.
John Mortimer - Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
+ + + +
- Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
+ + + +
I’d like to hear from Meme & Clank about how Mortimer is received in Britain. Often, I wish that I had the class Rumpole does. He’s a barrister (like me? I hope so.), of considerable girth (definitely like me), who represents real people and not things, and is poorly paid. On the door of my room is a sign, “No. 3 Equity Court” - Rumpole’s address.
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror puts Rumpole into the battle between the War on Terror and civil liberties. We are willing to sell out any of our freedoms for a bit of security. As it turns out, we are gaining neither freedom nor security, we are just switching oppressors. Actually, I’m surprised that Mortimer has written a novel with these kinds of political overtones. He is a barrister himself, indeed a “Queen’s Counsel,” a member of the “senior bar.” They are selected by the Lord Chancellor and aren’t normally known for radical opinions.
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders is strictly a fun retrospective explaining the long-ago case Rumpole won “alone and without a leader.”
Well, I suspect that Rumpole is like Hillary Clinton. You either love him or think he’s bloody silly. I like him.
Al Dempsey - What Law There Was
+ + + +
Thank God and Bookfinder.com. This is an older western (recall, I do so like westerns) with a strong Masonic theme. I know that sounds a bit eclectic, but it works. Indeed, while the novel exposes precisely none of the (rather open) secrets of the order, you can learn more about what Freemasonry is all about from this book. I found an extra copy of this on Bookfinder.com for a Brother who has assisted me enormously over the past few months with some personal and professional issues.
Harmon Leon - Republican Like Me; Infiltrating Red-state, White-ass, Blue-suit America
<+
You know, I’ve enjoyed and been inspired by lots of Progressive literature lately. It’s good to know that it’s not just a knee-jerk reaction. Leon’s schtick is to disguise himself, infiltrate right-wing groups, act like an asshole and ridicule them. His tactics are deplorable, his writing is as egotistical as Larry Winget’s, without any of the usefulness, and his conclusions, that the Right Wing is incompetent, are inaccurate and dangerous. I bought two of his books at the same time. Anyone want the other one? It’s unread.
Christopher Buckley - Boomsday
+ + +
Buckley (son of The National Review’s William F. Buckley) is a must-read author. He is a true humorist who still takes on cutting issues. Here, he deals intelligently and sharply with the coming “Boomsday,” when BabyBoomers retire and sink the American economy with their non-productiveness and needs. Buckley is neither a formula-driven conservative nor progressive. His strong opinions are admirably mixed. He is best known for Thank You for Smoking, his attack on tobacco with strong jabs at booze and guns, which was made into a (poor) movie. My favorite is God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth, where he lampoons all of the “personal development” gurus. Anything he writes, I’ll buy it in hardback.
Frederick Forsyth - The Afghan
+ + +
Forsyth has been going strong in the spy/adventure genre since The Day of the Jackal in 1971. The latest is a worthy addition to the stable. It won’t be read 100 years from now, and it’s not great literature, but it’s fun and is better than any of the other entrants in the post-9/11 world.
Russell S. Bonds - Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor + + +
If you don’t like detailed Civil War histories, you’ll waste your money on this. If you are a Civil War buff, it’s a laudable addition to your library. This is a very detailed, well-researched examination of the Andrews Raid, a Union spy operation which was (inaccurately) depicted in the 1050's Disney film, The Great Locomotive Chase. Andrews was a civilian spy who led 20 Union soldiers on a mission into Georgia to steal a locomotive and destroy bridges on a key rail line which supplied Confederate armies. I liked it.
Greg Bear - Quantico
+ + +
The author is a member of the sci-fi triumvirate, the “Killer B’s,” (Benford, Brin and Bear). In Quantico, he is writing near-future, plausible sci-fi about chemical and biological warfare. It’s believable, engaging and thought-generating.
Paul Levine - Trial & Error - A Solomon vs. Lord novel
+ +
Another lawyer novel, and this one is pure mind candy. Fortunately, I have a mental sweet tooth, and looked forward to reading this ever since its publication date was announced. If you like the lawyer sub-genre and don’t require totally creditable plots, you may like this. There has to be some significance in the fact that this was published straight to mass market paperback. Damfino what it is.
Robert Conroy - 1945
+ + +
There is a sub-genre known as “alternate history,” which describes what would have happened if key events in history were changed. Conroy postulates that the attempted military coup after Hiroshima and Nagasaki was successful, and the Allies were forced to invade the Japanese home islands at the end of WWII. The under-appreciated part of good altnerate history is that it requires a thorough knowledge of history, as well as the logic to project creditable cause-effect relationships.
A look ahead - Fiction to be published in the rest of 2007 -
Settling Accounts: In at the Death, by Harry Turtledove - The last (mercifully) of a ten-volume altnerate history where the South wins its independence in the Civil War.
The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars, by Ben Bova - You have to like sci-fi to like Bova. I like sci-fi.
Rumpole Misbehaves, by John Mortimer - see above.
A Threat to Justice, by Chuck Norris et al. - Not great, but there are no great western writers these days.
The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - I’m looking forward to this one most of all.
Mizpah!
R
Saturday, June 9, 2007
A reunion, and also some random things
My wife, son & I spent the evening at the 35th reunion of my old rescue company. I come home somewhat sad this evening, and I’m not sure why. This is stream-of-consciousness, maybe I can figure it out. Maybe it’s the Christmas phenomenon, this was a very special occasion and we think we should experience some sort of silvery pure joy from such a time, so when it’s less than stirring, we are disappointed. Maybe that’s it.
I did see a lot of old friends, many of whom were very important in my life. We sat with JT & Patti, two old friends who met while working there, and whose daughter just graduated with our son, Tim. (I was best man at their wedding, twice.) Also with Tom, an official at FEMA, who got his start in the business right here. (I succeeded him as county emergency services director. We called the director’s Jeep the “Batmobile.”) But I talk to Tom frequently, and he is considerably closer to me than my DNA-related brothers. Ditto with John, who is at Homeland Security. Oh, I did see my dear friend Doug, who founded the Rescue Squad and was the first Chief. I hadn’t seen him since the funeral of another very dear friend, “Dr. Jim,” who started in medicine via EMS. And others, some of whom I see now and then, and others I only see at these reunions. I did enjoy introducing Tim to my old friends as the newest EMT in the company. JC couldn’t make it, I was sorry about that. She and an old boss of mine and I really changed the nature of the company when we took it from an all-volunteer organization to a mixed squad, career and volunteer. When we did that, it was not providing 100% first-call coverage and the finances were in the toilet.
I guess I no longer feel a connection with the organization, though. It was a huge part of my life, and I do look back on those days now and then with great longing. But a lot has happened in my life since then, not all of it pleasant, and that’s just no longer my world. It’s Tim’s place now. I need to keep in touch with some old friends – but I’m not sure if I’m terribly looking forward to the next reunion.
Random thoughts -
I’m reading Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason. Absolutely dynamite, and so extraordinarily disturbing. I also found an early John Mortimer Rumpole collection on bookfinder.com, and that’s most enjoyable. And lots of others in progress - I’ll do an updated canon sometime soon. On the eighth day, God got back to work and created bookfinder.com.
I turned on the TV for some background noise when I came home. The channel it was tuned to had a poker competition, complete with little cameras focused on the hands and breathless announcers. What the fuck? Have we descended so far down the non-participatory slope that the flickering images we watch hold us rapt and staring even when it’s a fucking CARD GAME?
Major personal project underway - more later.
Oh, back to the EMS topic for a moment. This week, Tim worked with a very good medic who started shortly before I hung up the stethoscope. I sent him an email and thanked him for teaching Tim the ropes. He wrote back the most curious email, and I’ve been thinking about it: “No thanks necessary. You taught me. I teach him. That is the way of the Jedi.” Damn, I wish I could think and write like that.
My trusty old Dell laptop lived through the operation. $111, and I could buy one on eBay for that, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Tomorrow, the week begins again. Pippa passes.
Mizpah.
R
I did see a lot of old friends, many of whom were very important in my life. We sat with JT & Patti, two old friends who met while working there, and whose daughter just graduated with our son, Tim. (I was best man at their wedding, twice.) Also with Tom, an official at FEMA, who got his start in the business right here. (I succeeded him as county emergency services director. We called the director’s Jeep the “Batmobile.”) But I talk to Tom frequently, and he is considerably closer to me than my DNA-related brothers. Ditto with John, who is at Homeland Security. Oh, I did see my dear friend Doug, who founded the Rescue Squad and was the first Chief. I hadn’t seen him since the funeral of another very dear friend, “Dr. Jim,” who started in medicine via EMS. And others, some of whom I see now and then, and others I only see at these reunions. I did enjoy introducing Tim to my old friends as the newest EMT in the company. JC couldn’t make it, I was sorry about that. She and an old boss of mine and I really changed the nature of the company when we took it from an all-volunteer organization to a mixed squad, career and volunteer. When we did that, it was not providing 100% first-call coverage and the finances were in the toilet.
I guess I no longer feel a connection with the organization, though. It was a huge part of my life, and I do look back on those days now and then with great longing. But a lot has happened in my life since then, not all of it pleasant, and that’s just no longer my world. It’s Tim’s place now. I need to keep in touch with some old friends – but I’m not sure if I’m terribly looking forward to the next reunion.
Random thoughts -
I’m reading Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason. Absolutely dynamite, and so extraordinarily disturbing. I also found an early John Mortimer Rumpole collection on bookfinder.com, and that’s most enjoyable. And lots of others in progress - I’ll do an updated canon sometime soon. On the eighth day, God got back to work and created bookfinder.com.
I turned on the TV for some background noise when I came home. The channel it was tuned to had a poker competition, complete with little cameras focused on the hands and breathless announcers. What the fuck? Have we descended so far down the non-participatory slope that the flickering images we watch hold us rapt and staring even when it’s a fucking CARD GAME?
Major personal project underway - more later.
Oh, back to the EMS topic for a moment. This week, Tim worked with a very good medic who started shortly before I hung up the stethoscope. I sent him an email and thanked him for teaching Tim the ropes. He wrote back the most curious email, and I’ve been thinking about it: “No thanks necessary. You taught me. I teach him. That is the way of the Jedi.” Damn, I wish I could think and write like that.
My trusty old Dell laptop lived through the operation. $111, and I could buy one on eBay for that, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Tomorrow, the week begins again. Pippa passes.
Mizpah.
R
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Notes on a Saturday
Dear Friends -
This was all-in-all a good day. I spent a good bit of time at 3 Equity Court (the name I've given the office), but I can't say that I worked real, real hard. Oh, and the darn server for the net is down there, which is moderately annoying. I think I'm pretty good about never getting angry at people, but things really bug me. My desk is pristine for a change. The picture below is a head shot because at the time it was taken, my desk was anything BUT pristine. Amy and Kathy (my paralegal) blitzed it while I was in Court on Friday, and I have the proverbial good intentions to keep it that way. (Anybody hear a road getting paved somewhere?)
This afternoon, my mother and I ran up to Morgantown for some errands and to hit B&N. Perhaps shopping at a physical world bookstore will lead Amazon to send me a get-well card. As much as I love online book shopping, they still haven't replicated the experience of walking into a bookstore and sweeping the tables and shelves with your eyes. I bought Land of Lincoln, by Andrew Ferguson, a new well-reviewed study, and a new Louis L'Amour. They are still processing his stray manuscripts. I have a picture of him writing like Thomas Wolfe did, writing incessantly and not paying total attention to what happened to the manuscripts. I'm reading The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore. It's been leading the Amazon sales list, but B&N had it over to the side on the bottom of a shelf. I don't know if the corporate owner of B&N is a part of the Great Right-Wing Conspiracy, so I'm barely suppressing my suspicions.
Sunday will be a full day. I have to get to the office early, as per normal. Read the Sunday paper, brew a pot of java, and repair upstairs to my room. I have a sentencing memo to finish first. My client WILL be incarcerated. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are now "advisory," but in our Circuit, they are closely followed. However, against my judgment, he does want me to earnestly argue for probation. I've warned him of my concern. When I was arguing a case at our Supreme Court 20 years ago, a fine judge named Sam Harshbarger gave me the best advice I ever got from the bench: "Counsel, don't drill your well so deep that the water runs out the bottom." If you argue for too much, it has a way of biting you in the ass. Let's see - then I have to write a lenghthy brief which is due Wednesday or, rather, dictate the first draft. The hardest part of a social security brief to write is the statement of facts. After that, the argument writes itself. Early afternoon, I'm going to a political fundraiser for what will be a very contested election next year. And to close the day, I have to drive over to the Regional Jail to meet an appointed federal client and his new privately retained lawyer. It's rather humorous, some people are certain that their lawyer will care more if they are paying them than if the government is. Oh, well, it's bringing money into the state economy, so I really don't care. And then the new week comes, and I'll run the gantlet that ends Friday night. Pippa passes.
Mizpah.
R
This was all-in-all a good day. I spent a good bit of time at 3 Equity Court (the name I've given the office), but I can't say that I worked real, real hard. Oh, and the darn server for the net is down there, which is moderately annoying. I think I'm pretty good about never getting angry at people, but things really bug me. My desk is pristine for a change. The picture below is a head shot because at the time it was taken, my desk was anything BUT pristine. Amy and Kathy (my paralegal) blitzed it while I was in Court on Friday, and I have the proverbial good intentions to keep it that way. (Anybody hear a road getting paved somewhere?)
This afternoon, my mother and I ran up to Morgantown for some errands and to hit B&N. Perhaps shopping at a physical world bookstore will lead Amazon to send me a get-well card. As much as I love online book shopping, they still haven't replicated the experience of walking into a bookstore and sweeping the tables and shelves with your eyes. I bought Land of Lincoln, by Andrew Ferguson, a new well-reviewed study, and a new Louis L'Amour. They are still processing his stray manuscripts. I have a picture of him writing like Thomas Wolfe did, writing incessantly and not paying total attention to what happened to the manuscripts. I'm reading The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore. It's been leading the Amazon sales list, but B&N had it over to the side on the bottom of a shelf. I don't know if the corporate owner of B&N is a part of the Great Right-Wing Conspiracy, so I'm barely suppressing my suspicions.
Sunday will be a full day. I have to get to the office early, as per normal. Read the Sunday paper, brew a pot of java, and repair upstairs to my room. I have a sentencing memo to finish first. My client WILL be incarcerated. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are now "advisory," but in our Circuit, they are closely followed. However, against my judgment, he does want me to earnestly argue for probation. I've warned him of my concern. When I was arguing a case at our Supreme Court 20 years ago, a fine judge named Sam Harshbarger gave me the best advice I ever got from the bench: "Counsel, don't drill your well so deep that the water runs out the bottom." If you argue for too much, it has a way of biting you in the ass. Let's see - then I have to write a lenghthy brief which is due Wednesday or, rather, dictate the first draft. The hardest part of a social security brief to write is the statement of facts. After that, the argument writes itself. Early afternoon, I'm going to a political fundraiser for what will be a very contested election next year. And to close the day, I have to drive over to the Regional Jail to meet an appointed federal client and his new privately retained lawyer. It's rather humorous, some people are certain that their lawyer will care more if they are paying them than if the government is. Oh, well, it's bringing money into the state economy, so I really don't care. And then the new week comes, and I'll run the gantlet that ends Friday night. Pippa passes.
Mizpah.
R
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