What's wrong with lawyers?

As a class, there is nothing wrong with lawyers. The study of law is a noble profession which provides an invaluable service.

The vast majority of lawyers spend their working days in their office, with their staff, poring through law books in an effort to guide some client through the maze that is our legal code. We could hardly survive without them.

Somewhere between 1787, when The Constitution was offered and, say 2010 when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, we forgot how to craft laws briefly written and easily understood.

But then, as John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” We do indeed seem to have slipped from a lofty position of morality and religious fervor, so perhaps all the whys and wherefores and what-ifs, and WTFs are needed.

Another group of lawyers spend their working days in courtrooms, trying to assure that accused persons' rights are protected. A right so valuable, it is protected by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. In fact, our Founding Fathers, familiar with the commonly unjust treatment of the accused, devoted 40% of the Bill of Rights (4 of the 10 amendments) to the rights of persons charged with law-breaking. Again, defense lawyers are important to our freedoms-they are indispensable.

Growing up on the farm we planted potatoes. When the harvest was complete, we stored a lot of potatoes in a bin in our fruit cellar. They lasted well into the winter, but you had to monitor that bin. If one potato turned bad, that 'bad' quickly spread to other potatoes. Must have been some sort of bacteria, generally the source of stink everywhere from roadkill to sewage treatment plants!

Some lawyers are like the bad potatoes. Their stink can taint the entire profession. They are the lawyers who use their knowledge of the law and their rhetorical skills to persuade juries to make obscenely large cash awards to people they successfully portray as 'victims'. These lawyers, of course, pocket a large percent of the cash.

Think medical malpractice lawsuits. Or, the case of the woman who received a pile of cash because she bought a cup of hot coffee at a drive-thru window, then spilled it on herself.

My personal beef was lawsuits against aircraft manufacturers. During World War II, many of us first experienced flying in an aircraft. After discharge, we took flying lessons and hoped to buy our own light aircraft. Then, lawyers began suing aircraft manufacturers and soon liability insurance exceeded the cost of the aircraft. Result? The market dried up and manufacturers just quit making small, low-cost aircraft.

On the farm, we found the 'bad' potatoes and tossed them out of the bin. When will we do the same with bad lawyers?

Would you deface

a precious work of art?

Suppose you were to visit the Musée du Louvre in Paris and could gain access to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Would you spray paint a mustache and goatee onto the portrait?

If you were in Rome and could gain access to Michelangelo's David, would you grab hammer and chisel and proceed to carve your impressions on this incredible sculpture?

If you had visited ancient Greece and came upon the beautiful sculpture of Aphrodite, more commonly known as Venus de Milo, generally attributed to Alexandrus of Antioch, would you have broken off her arms, as someone did 2,000 years ago?

Now, suppose the artist were God, and the art were his masterpiece... a self-portrait, of sorts. A sculpture, which, as we are told in Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Then he gave this sculpture life, intelligence, reason. Would you deface His work of art?

Many people do. Recently I sat at our City's open market observing the passing crowd. Obesity was just the starter at defacing God's art. Slovenly appearance and unattractive attire were common. A slumped, lazy posture often was added.

Recently, basketball great Shaquille O'Neal recorded a TV commercial for some sort of body lotion. In that commercial, O'Neal read the line, "You can't improve on perfection but you can rub lotion on it!" I loved that line, that attitude! The human body is a miracle of perfection. Yes, all living things are miraculous, but only humans can build skyscrapers, fly to the moon, write great books and compose symphonies. Only humans were created in God's own image!

Before you leave home tomorrow, step in front of a mirror and ask yourself to judge if you are defacing God's finest work of art. If you agree that you are, decide what you are going to do about it.

Teaching old fingers

a new keyboard.

My long time favorite computer keyboard just quit. I was not surprised, I have been pounding those keys without mercy.

So, I bought a new keyboard. Lots of neat new features - plus, it is wireless. Using it? Not so neat. Some keys are a slightly different size and shape. Some are in slightly different locations. I misspell a word and want three back spaces. I get three back slashes. Now I need six back spaces, but I have to find that key!

Eventually these stiff old fingers will learn all the new key sizes, shapes and locations. Eventually.

The "Ride To The Wall"

stopped in my town this morning.

Actually they arrived last night. One of the local VFW Posts provided dinner for the Vets, who then spent the night and stopped by our Veteran's Memorial Park this morning before heading toward Midland, Texas, their next stop.

There were over 500 motorcycles on the ride this year, plus a number of "trikes" and "four-wheelers", as the Viet Nam Veterans made their annual cross-country trip from California to Washington, D.C., where they will observe Memorial Day ceremonies at the Viet Nam War Memorial.

I spent some time at the park, visiting, shaking hands and getting hugs. Uplifting!

Who said to... or didn't?

So the IRS is harassing certain Conservative groups, as well as some Evangelical and Jewish groups. People are asking if the White House "ordered" or even "knew of" this activity.

Erick Erickson of Red State explains all of this beautifully today. Erick points out that in 1170, King Henry II of England was troubled by the actions of the Archbishop of Canterbury, one Thomas Beckett. Henry II was quoted as having said words to the effect that "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

Shortly thereafter, some  of the King's devoted knights, went to the Cathedral and murdered Beckett. There was no proof that Henry II sent them, but that was hardly the point.

With President Obama making such utterances as "if they bring a knife, we bring a gun", and telling Congressional Democrats to "punch back twice as hard" at Republicans, Erickson asks, 'was not Obama asking Will no one rid me of this turbulent group?'

Is it any wonder then that certain loyal Liberal Democrats in an IRS office would try to comply?