There are times when I read about a current events like the recent suspension of constitutional civil rights in this country that make me think of the 1989 movie, A Dry White Season. In the movie, Ben du Toit, played by Donald Sutherland, is an Afrikaner school teacher who goes to the offices of a human rights lawyer, Ian Mackenzie, played by Marlon Brando. He wants the lawyer’s help in demanding a formal inquest into the murder by the police…
An unknown poet has written these words of wisdom: "You’ve got to have the goods, my boy, if you would finish strong; A bluff may work a little while, but not for very long. A line of talk, all by itself, will seldom see you thru; You’ve got to have the goods, my boy, and nothing else will do. The fight is pretty stiff, my boy, I’d call it rather tough. And all along the routes are wrecks of those…
Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer sold at auction in New York in June of 2006 for $135 Million dollars. This exceeded the previous sale of Pablo Picasso’s painting Boy with a Pipe which sold for $104 Million earlier in 2006 and Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Portrait of Dr. Gachet which sold for $83 Million in 1983. If oil paintings are worth multi millions of dollars because they are unique and irreplaceable, what are unique and irreplaceable human beings…
Here are seventeen words to ponder: Prepare – Listen – Smile – Care – Choose – Focus – Believe – Relax – Act -Forgive – Pray – Trust – Change- Persist – Accept – Risk – Wait
Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) U.S. religious author, Trappist monk and poet who lived at the Abbey of Gethesemani wrote this prayer that has universal appeal. "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing…
The Jesuit priest, Mark Link, has written a series of short meditation books with wonderful stories and metaphors. These booklets are available from Thomas More Publishing www.ThomasMore.com. In one of his meditations he refers to Lord George Macleod whom he quotes as saying: "Is there any greater pathos in our world than the number of youth, miles outside our churches, who are longing for a savior, looking pathetically toward …revolutionaries like Che Guevara…Do you know the hush that comes down…
For real facts about Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s illness and Rush Limbaugh’s abusive, ridiculous & unfair attack see:http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2129742nMichael J. Fox CBS interview
Experience has demonstrated that the justice system serves an important role in holding people and corporations responsible for their actions and in providing a strong incentive to change wrong behavior. Big business has always angled for laws which give them immunity for their actions and especially for laws which prevent them from being judged in open court by juries made up of citizens. It came as no surprise,when, by an extraordinary Presidential Executive Order, President Bush, in May of this…
Gary Trudeau has an amusing comic strip while courageously commenting on political issues as he sees them. His strips make fun of illogical spins. His comic strip is not only funny, but right on the mark. He recently focused on the idea that 2,700 dead and 20,000 wounded troops flies in the face of the mantra that the war is a "small price to pay to make the world a less dangerous place to live." He also attacked the idea…
Parade Magazine (R) reports Allison Fisher, the women’s pro billard’s champ, has the nickname "The dutchess of doom" because of the fear her opponents have of her skill. Good for her in what has been a man’s world. I can think of some women trial lawyers this nickname would apply to as well for the very same reason.
