tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62260661289741811322024-03-12T17:14:02.924-07:00oldjudgesaysThomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.comBlogger444125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-40317161802640060402019-03-06T11:26:00.001-08:002019-03-06T12:00:10.718-08:00IN MEMORIAM: THOMAS E. BRENNAN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_rHr7JprbCYvuggex6F1F2zYxUb53Co14xmMcuERhel_eHarLyYHapb0CLfNCYl_iUecD9wLxaKurR1OdDuP8Ibl-7OrnoccLM-LUyjT78uu6TQpEu-RxqW2q6JbEsTrntHioz0f3pU/s1600/IMG_6015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_rHr7JprbCYvuggex6F1F2zYxUb53Co14xmMcuERhel_eHarLyYHapb0CLfNCYl_iUecD9wLxaKurR1OdDuP8Ibl-7OrnoccLM-LUyjT78uu6TQpEu-RxqW2q6JbEsTrntHioz0f3pU/s320/IMG_6015.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Honorable Thomas E. Brennan, Sr. </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>May 27, 1929 — September 29, 2018</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <br />Thomas E. Brennan, Sr. died peacefully on September 29, 2018, in Lansing, Michigan surrounded by family. He was 89. The family has shared <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/16s45vAwDZB4f-iYqoHiTTOOPMJjW3e0_/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">a funeral program</a>, including the full homily by Rev. Michael Murray and a reflection by Thomas E. Brennan, Jr.<br /><br />Born on May 27, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan, Brennan graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School, where he excelled in forensics. He attended the University of Detroit and earned a law degree from the University of Detroit Law School in 1952.<br /><br />In 1951, he married the love of his life, Pauline Mary (Polly) Weinberger, with whom he had six children. Immensely proud of his large Irish Catholic clan, Brennan often involved family in his various professional pursuits, from political campaigns to the inception of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He was quick to credit Polly’s invaluable support for virtually all of his success. <br /><br />Even so, success did not come easily in the early years of Brennan’s political career. He failed two attempts as a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives in 1952 and 1954 and lost to John Dingell, Jr. for the U.S. Representative from Michigan’s 15th congressional district in December 1955. <br /><br />In 1953, he joined the law firm of Waldron, Brennan, Brennan, and Maher, with whom he worked until 1961 when he was elected to a seat on the Common Pleas Bench. In 1963, he was appointed by Michigan Governor George W. Romney to the Wayne County Circuit Bench, and in 1964 he was elected to that same position. <br /><br />In 1966, at the urging of Governor Romney, Brennan sought the nomination of the Republican Party as Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He won the nomination and the election. In 1969 and 1970, Brennan served as Chief Justice, the youngest Justice to serve in that capacity. <br /><br />While serving on the Bench, Brennan received numerous requests for law school recommendations which inspired his vision for a new, non-profit law school in Lansing, Michigan. Noting that many qualified students were refused law school admission, he was determined to eradicate academic elitism and make legal education accessible to all capable students. Brennan incorporated Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1972 with the belief that “An educated citizenry that understands the law is critical to the strength and progress of the nation.” Brennan left the Supreme Court on December 6, 1973, to dedicate his professional career to the fledgling law school and ensure its success. Brennan served as first Dean of Cooley Law School until 1978, when he became its first president.<br /><br />Under his magnetic leadership, Cooley Law School grew from its initial class of 76 students to become the largest accredited law school in the nation. Known for ingenuity and perseverance, Brennan designed and instituted numerous unprecedented innovations, including the law school’s year-round schedule that allowed multiple first term classes to start each year. He is credited with founding the Cooley Legal Authors Society, the Student Bar Association, the Scholastic Review Board and the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review. He also composed the law school’s alma mater. <br /><br />During his tenure at Cooley Law School, Brennan ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senator from Michigan in 1976, and for Lieutenant Governor of Michigan in 1982. Brennan retired from Cooley Law School in 2002. The Thomas E. Brennan Law Library in Lansing is named in his honor. <br /><br />Combining insight and levity, Brennan was a captivating orator and engaging storyteller. He authored a self-published novel entitled The Benchin 2000, a memoir called Starting a Law School in 2007, a book entitled The Article V Amendatory Constitutional Convention: Keeping the Republic in the Twenty-First Century in 2014, and a blog, oldjudgesays, which ran from 2008 to 2017. New ideas energized Brennan, whether he was striving to establish a United States Constitutional Convention or trying to develop an American Golf League. An avid golfer, Brennan made a hole-in-one on five lucky occasions. <br /><br />He will be deeply missed by his beloved Polly and their children: Thomas, Jr. (Julie), Margaret (David) Radelet, John (Catherine), William (Lisa), Marybeth (James) Hicks, and Ellen (Peter) Campbell; nineteen grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; siblings Raymond (Loretta) of East Lansing, Michigan, Mary (James) Bernard of Fraser, Colorado, and Sally Giraud of Westland, Michigan, and sister-in-law Patricia Brennan of Rochester Hills, Michigan. He is preceded in death by parents Joseph and Jeannette Brennan and brother, Joseph Terrence, Jr.<br /><br />A Funeral Mass was held Thursday, October 4, 2018, at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, East Lansing, MI with concelebrants Rev. Michael Murray, Rev. Gary Koenigsknecht, Rev. Msgr. Michael D. Murphy, Rev. Richard Elmer, C.S.B., Rev. John Huber, C.S.B., Ed.D., Rev. Charles Irvin, Rev. Joseph J. Krupp, and Rev. James Mangan officiating. A private interment took place that day at Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery, Southfield, MI.</span>Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-8468962001015182142017-11-22T06:26:00.000-08:002017-11-22T06:31:42.606-08:00PETE JASON<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: center;">He was a law professor’s law professor. With a twinkle in
his eye, he could espouse the most preposterous position on any proposition of
law or politics and stubbornly defend it against any and every effort to uphold
reason and common sense.</span><br />
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He could make you think. He could make you analyze. He was a
born teacher who motivated his students to work, forced them to learn how to
learn.</div>
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I hired Pete Jason more than forty years ago. No search
committee. No formal application or interview. He was a friend of Bob
Krinock’s, a U. of Detroit guy and, at a relatively young age, had already
risen to the position of Corporate Council of the City of Detroit.</div>
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He had no academic credentials as I remember, but like most
of the early faculty at Thomas Cooley Law School, Pete Jason was a ‘good old
boy’ well liked, well recommended, easy to know, fun to be with.</div>
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Peter was the quintessential pixie. He could draw you into a
heated debate with some outlandish assertion or improbable contention. You knew
he wasn’t serious. But he would never admit a spoof or concede a point.</div>
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Looking back, I marvel at the chutzpa we all shared in the
salad days of Cooley. In many respects, Pete Jason and I, along with a handful
of others shared the task of making something out of nothing.</div>
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That is an experience like no other. The act of creating, of
founding, of launching an institution is not shared by many people. I know how
iffy it was for me; a young married man with a young family. It was certainly
as shakey a limb for Pete Jason and his wife, Sandy, as well.</div>
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But it was a limb he happily crawled out on. Nobody was more
dedicated or committed to the Thomas M. Cooley Law School than Peter D. Jason.
And no one is to this day, more nearly identified with Cooley and its
philosophy of access to legal education.</div>
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Pete Jason is dead. He died just a week or so ago and not
much more than a few days after he sat next to Polly and me at a dinner of some
old faculty people. </div>
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It’s a strange realty. One moment you are enjoying the
company of an old and dear friend, laughing at stories told and retold over the
years; then seemingly in the blink of an eye, the friend is gone; the
companionship, so real and so vital, is over; the present has become the past;
the friend has lost his own time and space, and he now lives only in the shared
memories of those who knew and loved him.</div>
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Polly and I, along with all the folks at Cooley Law School,
and a virtual army of his former students will keep him in our hearts and
prayers.</div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-16901857492055161012017-11-15T04:36:00.003-08:002017-11-15T04:36:49.643-08:00PUZZLINGI began working on a puzzle before supper. I finished it
around 10:30 at night. My rough estimate is that it took me five hours to fill
in the grid with all of the correct numbers.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So now it’s bedtime. I should be under the covers, saying
night prayers, thanking the Almighty for the blessing of another day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Truthfully, I am tempted to apologize to the generous
Creator. This marvelous planet is replete with activities, teeming with
interesting people, full of energy, daunted by challenges, and bursting with
opportunities to make the most of every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Lord has blessed me with a long, healthy life. And what
do I do with it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I work puzzles. Sudoku puzzles. Word puzzles. Number
puzzles. Jig Saw puzzles. Puzzle puzzles. Yuk!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, I assuage my conscience by telling myself that I
am exercising my brain; that acuity in logic and clarity of thought are the by-products
of mental activity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I go to Google to prove it:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.entertainmentbuddha.com/8-benefits-of-playing-puzzle-games/">http://www.entertainmentbuddha.com/8-benefits-of-playing-puzzle-games/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s an awful waste of
time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a shelf in the hallway upstairs there is a random
collection of diaries Polly and I have started, kept and abandoned through the
years. Many of those pages are filled with the minutia of daily living; going
to the office, driving kids to school, visiting and/or entertaining neighbors,
friends and relatives; household chores and on and on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They bring back the hectic days of midlife; the ice rink in
the vacant lot next door; the Baptisms, First Communions, Proms, Graduations,
Birthdays and countless crises encountered by a big and busy family.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever challenges we faced in those days, boredom wasn’t
among them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that I am currently afflicted by ennui. The basement of
our home in Harbor Springs is my special domain. Here are my locker room, my
computer and even an area to practice putting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And here is my library.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s not a big library. Just over 500 books. It would be
more, but I donated some to Saint Michael’s Academy, the new Catholic high
school in Petoskey.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That, incidentally, is an interesting<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and admirable project, launched just a few
years ago with the support of Catholic parents who remember their own teen
years spent in the Catholic High Schools of Michigan and elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a testimony to the perceived value of Catholic High
School education that parents are so willing to sacrifice in order to provide
the same opportunity for their children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A cursory examination of the curriculum at Saint Michaels
provides convincing proof that SMA students are getting a classical education.
From the Iliad and Odessey to Julius Caesar and Shakespeare, Socrates and Homer<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They read the classics, and study them in their classwork.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly those students are not wasting their time, even if
they should occasionally solve a Sudoku puzzle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It probably would be a good thing for me to pull one of my
books down off the shelf every day or so, if, for no other reason than to
revisit some forgotten intellectual exercise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And to enrich endless days of puzzle solving with the facts
of history, and the opinions of intellectual leaders.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am always amazed at
how many of those books I have never read. It is time to do something about
that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could still do Sudoku puzzles in aid of regularity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-58558956774636487492017-10-16T16:11:00.000-07:002017-10-17T09:08:19.133-07:00BEELZEBUB IN VEGAS<div class="MsoNormal">
It was sometime back in the 1960’s or 1970’s. The First
Friday Club was a group pf Catholic professional men in Detroit who met for
lunch in the Book Cadillac Hotel on the first Friday of the month to hear a
speaker on a topic of interest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On one such occasion, Father Charles Coughlin, the famed
‘radio priest’ of the depression years, who had been silenced by the Vatican
for his political views about the Roosevelt administration, came out of his
long absence from public appearances to speak to the men of the First Friday
Club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I shall never forget his opening words. In a rather high,
strong, expressive voice he announced: “I want to speak to you men today about
a subject that is as modern as tomorrow. I am going to talk to you about the
devil.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From those challenging words, he embarked upon a fascinating
description of myriad examples of satanic influences in human life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Father Coughlin reminded us that the existence of the devil,
a destructive, malignant, hate-filled personification of malice, is as much an
article of our Christian faith as are the benign angels and saints to whom we
address our daily prayers and petitions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a day and an age of such human enlightenment that sees
men walk on the moon and explores the atomic structure of every known particle
of matter; that gathers and disseminates every scrap of information and every
discovery of science, we struggle to explain and understand everything.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Including the vicissitudes of human behavior. We want to
know why. We want to understand how a perfectly normal, mild mannered, law
abiding, 64 year old accountant and real estate investor can suddenly become
the insane perpetrator of an inexplicable massacre of historic proportions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stephen Paddock has been described as a very ordinary, well
adjusted, unremarkable<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
man; a neighbor, a landlord, a gambler, an investor. His
live-in girl friend described him in these words:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I knew Stephen Paddock
as a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together
with him. He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of,
that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this
was going to happen.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No doubt criminologists and psychologists will seek to
explain what may have caused Paddock to snap. Certainly, it was not a sudden
onslaught. He accumulated an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. He researched
various venues. The massacre was something he had planned for a long time;
something he thought about, envisioned, and prepared for.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If he was deranged, it did not affect his ability to
function. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ask ourselves. “How could
anyone in his right mind do such a thing?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It would seem axiomatic that Paddock was not “in his right
mind” but if he wasn’t, who or what was in control of his thoughts and his
actions?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Father Coughlin would have given a ready answer: Paddock was
in league with the Devil.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is indeed a frightening thought that the Evil Spirit can
work his will through the agency of an otherwise ordinary and unremarkable
human being. Assuming that the police and the FBI are unable to come up with a
better explanation, that may be all we will ever deduce from the Las Vegas
massacre.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may or may not be enough. Certainly there is enough
mindless slaughter of human beings on this planet and in our beloved United
States of America to challenge our capacity to understand, accept and respond.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When a hurricane descends upon Texas or Louisiana, we accept
it as a natural disaster. We circle the wagons of our emotions and face up to
the need for collective, sympathetic response. Mother Nature forces us to come
together, to hold hands, to help each other with words, works and the soothing
oil of sympathy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is hard for us to accept that the work of Satan is
ongoing and is, in a very real sense, part and parcel of our lives on Planet
Earth. When someone like Stephen Paddock explodes into a demonic terrorist we
have to realize that human nature is part of Nature; that, as Shakespeare wrote,
“the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their
bones.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The slaughter in Las Vegas, as heart wrenching and
disheartening as it was, is only a more dramatic episode in the day to day
lives of the American people. More people are gunned down in Chicago every
month than Paddock killed in Nevada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may be less dramatic, but the truth of it is that the
Devil is as much in evidence in teen age gang warfare as he is in the mass
killing of the patrons of a country music festival.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Somehow, some day, the good Lord will raise up among us the
voices of men and women who will remind us that the beauty and success of
Christian civilization is founded in the eternal struggle between Good and
Evil.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No amount of arrest and imprisonment, law and order, or
probation and rehabilitation can take the place of the fire and brimstone of
classic Christianity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eternal damnation is the workplace and the residence of the
evil spirit. It was and still is, the best regulator of human conduct. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You and I had better believe it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-36144347191641447722017-09-29T22:07:00.001-07:002017-09-29T22:14:09.880-07:00GRIDIRON GRIDLOCK<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16pt;">A dear
friend has requested that I weigh in on the football v flag controversy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">I have to
say that the whole brouhaha should be laid at the feet of the lawyers who
drafted the million dollar contracts between NFL players and the owners of NFL
teams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Certainly,
the players are American citizens and certainly, like all other Americans, they
have the constitutional right to express their political opinions whenever and
however they choose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Unless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Unless they
have freely exercised their equally sacred constitutional right to enter into a
contract that limits their right of political expression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Professional
football is a very successful enterprise. It has become a national pastime; an
important and powerful element of American life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">If you
doubt that, I suggest you look at the economic impact of the Super Bowl; not
only in the city where it is played, but in every city and town from Bangor to
Chula Vista.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Football is
a peculiarly American sport. Every high school and college has a football team.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">And every
city of consequence has a professional team which bolsters home town chauvinism
throughout the land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Not to
mention that professional teams are economic dinosaurs that make millions for
their owners and occasion huge expenditures by municipalities and their
football mesmerized inhabitants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The playing
of the national anthem, and the raising of the American flag are typically part
of the pageantry that surrounds a professional football game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">That’s
because football is an American game. We love it. We celebrate it. It brings us
together as a nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Certainly
the owners of football teams must know that they are in a business that is not
defined and delimited by a couple of hours on manly combat on the field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">They must
realize that they are in the entertainment and recreation business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">And that
the celebration of patriotism is as much a part of their inventory as offense
and defense. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">So I should
think that any well advised team owner would insist on player contracts which
require the players to participate in the patriotic aspects of their
entertainment business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">And that
would certainly include standing at respectful attention during the performance
of the Star Spangled Banner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">If any team
owners or their counsel should happen to see this blog, the old judge would be
happy to draft the appropriate contractual language.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16.0pt;">For a fee,
of course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-79058575453374012322017-09-17T18:03:00.004-07:002017-09-17T18:03:32.598-07:00CAKE POLITICSThe United States Supreme Court has taken up a case out of
Colorado in which a baker refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The
merchant bases his refusal to bake the cake upon a strongly held religious
belief that marriage is a contract between a male and a female.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A decision by the high court is expected in October.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There have been a number of similar cases decided in various
State courts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Typically, these disputes arise in the context of State laws
which prohibit invidious discrimination in the market place. These are the so
called “civil rights “ laws which originally provided that businesses open to
and serving the general public are prohibited from discriminating on the basis
of race, color or creed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Michigan law expands on that, prohibiting discrimination
based on <span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height,
weight, familial status, or marital status.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was in law school, we learned in the Contracts course
that agreements to buy or sell things were based upon the free choices and
decisions of the buyers and sellers. Only enterprises known as public utilities
were obligated to deal with everyone and to do so without discrimination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Candidly, I wish the question of religious freedom were not
being injected into these cases. Freedom of contract is perhaps the most
fundamental and unequivocal liberty known to mankind. Unless there is a valid,
constitutional statute prohibiting or limiting our freedom to buy or sell as we
choose, no court should ever interfere with our freedom of contract.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Economic boycotts are classic exercises of political choice
in the marketplace. In a free country people have a right to hinge their
economic decisions on their political sentiments. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weddings are expensive. For most of us, a wedding is an orgy
of major spending decisions. Cakes, flowers, gowns, musicians, venue rental,
the list goes on and on, and every nickel of it is the occasion of a buyer and
a seller exercising his or her freedom of contract.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vendors in the wedding business have become particularly
susceptible to and capable of political boycotts since marriage has emerged as
one of the most divisive political issues of our time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Obergefell <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>case,
the Supreme Court claimed to discover a constitutional right of same sex
marriage. It did not decree that same sex marriage must be approved and abetted
by all wedding vendors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The civil rights statutes in Michigan and elsewhere, protect
various classes of people. They do not protect conduct. They prohibit discrimination
against people based upon who they are, not what they do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michigan farmer Steve Tennes, owner of Country Mill Farms,
in Charlotte, rents his barn as a wedding venue. But not for same sex
marriages. The City of East Lansing, presumably based upon someone’s complaint,
revoked Tennes’ permit to sell his apples at its Farmers’ Market.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Michigan Court promptly issued an injunction against the
City, so Tennes is back in business. At least that’s where the matter stands
today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, and unfortunately, Mr. Tennes argues that gay
marriage is not approved by his church, and he attributes his barn ban to his
Catholic faith. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too bad. I can’t help wishing that he had just said “It’s my
barn, and nobody is a going to tell me who I can rent it to.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Obergefell decision opened a can of worms. Its fuzzy
notion of a constitutional right to marry is a judicial intrusion into an area
that is peculiarly entrusted to the elected legislatures of our nation.
Marriage laws typically require a license to marry and spell out who can and
who cannot be licensed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Age, relationship, marital status, mental competence,
physical health and residence are all matters that legislatures have regarded
as important in the marriage licensing process. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Does Obergefell sanction incest or child marriage? Nobody
knows. One thing is certain: you can’t do it at Country Mill Farms. <o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-4871692134808620702017-09-12T21:12:00.001-07:002017-09-12T21:25:35.117-07:00GOLD CROSS<span style="background-color: white;">Every time William Devane appears on my television screen
pitching for Rosland Capital, my dander goes up.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">I always wonder whether I am the only person who sees the
inherent contradiction in his message.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">What he is telling us is simply this: You can’t rely on
paper money. If you want your wealth to be safe, you have to buy gold. In the
process of making that argument, he warns us against “paper money being printed
by unstable governments.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Devane is making his pitch on American television, for
heaven’s sake. He is talking to Americans. In some commercials, he talks about
the national debt of the United States. How big it is. How it grows and grows
out of control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">In one of his commercials he is standing under a cannon on
the USS Iowa<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bemoaning the fact that our
country used to flex its muscles and the world would listen; then insisting
that we need to return to those days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">The bottom line: Mr, Devane and his employer, Rosland
Capital, believe that you can’t rely on the Yankee dollar. It may well become
as worthless as a wet scorecard. That’s what they are saying to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Then, oddly enough, he immediately urges us to support our
military.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">I don’t get it. The United States military budget for 2018
is 824.6 billion dollars. It is the second largest item in the federal budget,
exceeded only by a trillion dollars for social security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Exactly where does Mr. Devane think that 824.6 billion
dollars is going to come from?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">The federal government basically gets its money from two
sources: taxation and borrowing. If the wealth of our nation consists of gold
buried in the back yard, how are we supposed to “support the military”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">I suppose Devane would argue that you should buy gold as an
investment to pay future taxes, since gold appreciates more than such
conservative investments as US Treasury Bills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">I did a little calculating. In 1982 gold was selling for
$447 per ounce. For $10,000, you could have purchased 22.37 ounces of it. Today
gold sells for $1,348.70. Your gold would be worth $30,170.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My research found <span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">that <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black;">prescient investors who
saw fit to buy $10,000 in </span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/30-yeartreasury.asp"><span style="color: #005b9d; text-decoration: none;">30-year Treasury</span></a><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black;"> Bills
in 1982, would have pocketed $40,000, when the bonds matured in 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">So which is the better hedge against inflation,
gold from Rosland Capital or bonds from the U.S. Treasury?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">And which purchase does more to help Uncle Sam
buy battleships and jet fighters?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Mr. Devane is correct , of course, in noting that
the United States now issues what is called “fiat” currency. Fiat is a Latin
word which simply means ‘let it be.’ So when our federal government prints a
dollar bill and says “Fiat” or “let it be worth a dollar” the piece of paper
becomes a dollar. Real money. Like magic. Abra Cadabra.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Is there a specific amount of gold in Fort Knox
to back up every fiat dollar?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Of course not, And every time the government
printing presses grind out another fistful of dollar bills, the amount of gold
backing each one of them is less and less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">After WWII, at Bretton Woods, the U.S.A. agreed
to buy back its paper dollars with gold at a price of $35 per ounce. Presidents
Kennedy and Johnson struggled to keep that promise, using various economic
strategies, without success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced that
the U.S. would no longer redeem its paper money. William Jennings Bryan must
have have rejoiced that Americans would be spared the ignominy of crucifixion on
a “Cross of Gold.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">So we have been playing with Monopoly money for
almost fifty years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: black;">Perhaps William Devane should stop leaning on the
panic button.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-87554189599170313662017-09-06T08:59:00.002-07:002017-09-07T11:36:09.555-07:00MEMORYThe onset of geriatric short term memory loss is a perfectly
normal and commonplace phenomenon for a man of my age, but damned if it isn’t
frustrating, annoying and embarrassing.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can remember the name of the little boy who had an personal
accident in Sister Mariam Joseph’s second grade class, but I cannot tell you the
name of the man with whom I rode around the golf course the day before
yesterday. Of course, if my golfing partner had done what Harry Bloink did
in 1936, I surely would recall his name, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Names have always been a problem for me. My law school classmates
bandied about the names of the cases we studied with comfortable familiarity. I
only remembered the facts of the case and the legal principle involved. For me,
the famous 1929 New Hampshire tort case of Hawkins v Mcgee was simply the case
of the “harry hand.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose my increasing difficulty remembering people’s
names would be more concern if it were an alarming new experience. It isn’t. I
have always had a problem with names.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was Chief Justice, I had many occasions to work with
the State Bar of Michigan. The name of one charming and gracious lady with whom
I often interacted in those days, never stuck in my craw. Every time I saw her, I
was immediately, and uncomfortably, aware that I could not call up her name.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Embarrassing as it was, I would ask to be reminded. I have
always felt that the embarrassment of asking someone’s name is at least more honest
than the embarrassment of not knowing the person with whom you are having a
conversation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In any case, no matter how many times I saw her, no matter
how many times I asked, and no matter how many times she told me her name, the
next time we met, I would draw the same annoying and frustrating blank.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It finally came to the point where, every time I saw her, she
would open the conversation with the triumphant question, “You don’t remember
my name, do you?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is perhaps a work of charity that I cannot call up her
name as I write this blog. I still feel my face getting red as I tell the
story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The process of people recognizing other people has
interested the medical profession for years. Wikipedia tells us that scientists
at Cal Tech have conducted brain imaging studies which show that we humans have
several tiny regions in our temporal lobes – about the size of blueberries –
that specialize in responding to faces. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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They have actually been able to record the crackling of
these brain cells in a monkey and identify who the monkey is thinking about!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of which harkens me back to the early 1940’s, when, on a
summer’s day, I ran into the street intent on playing catcher in a pick up
baseball game, only to catch the full force of a baseball bat on my forehead –
right between the eyes. I went down and out with two black eyes and a bump on
my forehead that is still there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Makes me wonder if it had anything to do with the pituitary
tumor I developed about twenty years ago. And my annoying inability to catalog
names and faces.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In any case, memory loss is all a part of the aging process.
My sainted mother used to write notes to herself to avoid forgetting things.
She simply <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>took it all in stride. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were concerned about her driving her beloved old Ford
Mustang. She insisted than she never drove over 20 miles an hour and never made
left turns. We took her car and when she realized it was gone, we told her she
had sold it. She smiled and said, “Did I? I don’t remember.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t write notes, although I do keep a diary on the
computer. It’s not fool proof, but it helps, especially when I check it against
Polly’s calendar, which is never wrong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the way, the kid with the baseball bat was Lee Johnson. I
wonder what ever became of him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-19056400397416250392017-08-23T06:40:00.003-07:002017-08-23T06:40:56.738-07:00STATUES<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
Statues are markers of human history. They are erected
because a significant portion of the population want to memorialize somebody.
They want future<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>generations to know
that there was such a person and that his or her life ought to be remembered
and studied, if not revered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Usually a statue represents someone who was successful. Or
honored. In short, someone worthy of being remembered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The current spate of tearing down statues is an unhappy
phenomenon. It stems from a desire to re-write history. Judging our forbears on
the basis of current opinion of right and wrong is a form of censorship
unworthy of a free and educated people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
History is the story of the human race. It is interesting
and it is important. It is full of good deeds and wisdom. It is also full of
bad deeds and stupidity. All of it needs to be remembered and studied.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A ten year old boy sees a statue of Robert E. Lee. He asks
his father, “Who was he?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That should trigger a discussion about the civil war. What
was it? When did it happen? Who won? Who were the good guys and who were the
bad guys?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If Robert E. Lee was one of the bad guys, why does he have a
statue?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer is very simple. He has a statue because the
people of his community didn’t think he was a bad guy. They admired him and
wanted to honor his memory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
History is nothing if not the truth. What was, was. George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson were great Americans; founders of our nation.
Their memories are revered and remembered. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, they were both slave owners. Should we, as
enlightened progeny of their efforts, now condemn them as racist bigots? And if
we do, does that mean that we cannot recognize or admire any of their
achievements?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Solomon is not remembered as a bigamist, but as a prophet.
Being endowed by our Creator with the faculty of free will, every human being
is both good and bad. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The war against statues reflects the modernist notion that
everything worth knowing is in the current edition of the book. The latest is
the greatest. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever happened to the idea that those who don’t study
history are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Political sensitivity is reaching a scandalous peak. Who,
exactly would have been offended if ESPN had allowed Robert Lee, a sports
announcer of Asian descent, to broadcast the play by play of the game between
William and Mary and the University of Virginia?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hard to imagine, but the network shifted him to the game
between Youngstown State and Pittsburgh, apparently to avoid the negative
fallout associated with his name after to the brew ha ha over the statute.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Political correctness is running amuck. Not only did the
City of New Orleans take down its statue of Robert E. Lee, they also renamed
the circle in which it was located from Lee Circle to Trivoli Circle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we take down statues of Robert E. Lee because we do not
want future generations to celebrate his life, or even to know about him,
doesn’t it follow that history books should also be cleansed of information
about him as well?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps. But first we ought to ask ourselves whether the
dumbing down of our children and grandchildren by the sanitizing of our history
books is really such a good thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Civil War did in fact occur. And there were good people
on both sides.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we don’t study about why that happened in 1860, we might
see it happen again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-84134796565088431682017-08-20T20:50:00.000-07:002017-08-20T20:57:26.765-07:00NUTSHELLBack in the 1970’s, a
member of the Cooley Law School Board of Directors, Jack DesJardins, was
invested in a small Lansing company that was manufacturing a device they called
a “personal computer.”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack was very enthusiastic about the product. He predicted
that the day would come when literally everyone would own one. He would talk at
length about the miracles that a personal computer would perform.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In those days, Cooley had a device called a ‘computer’ which
was as big as a desk. It had a keyboard with which we could input student
information; grades, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only output was a huge sheet of green paper on which all
the information about each student was printed on one line.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack insisted that his PC’s could do that and much, much
more. So I bought a bunch of them. I had one placed on my secretary’s desk,
expecting her to giggle with delight. She didn’t. After a day or two, she
insisted that I bring back her electric typewriter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So there we were, proud owners of several PC’s. Unfortunately, nobody
knew what to do with them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Undaunted, I stopped by a store called “Software City.” Not
wanting to admit my problem, I told the clerk I was the secretary of a bowling
league and wanted a program that would allow me to keep track of bowlers’
names, addresses, scores and averages.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He eagerly brought out a package called “Nutshell.” I told
him if he showed me how it worked I would buy it. He did, and I did.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From that day forward, I became what my niece called “a data
base junkie.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I spent countless hours on weekends and evenings typing in
the names, addresses and academic records of students. During the day, I spent
my time trying to convince the Registrar, Admissions Officer and Comptroller
that they could do their jobs on Jack DesJardins’s PC’s using my $200 Nutshell
software.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The dawn of the computer age at Cooley Law School wasn’t
pretty, but the fact is that Nutshell ultimately morphed into a product called
Filemaker which is highly sophisticated and still used, I believe, by Cooley
and in many other places.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am still a junkie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I use Filemaker for lots of things; the Christmas card list;
my personal filing system, and a diary which also serves as a calendar and, as
the passing of time dims the memory, as a place to tell myself everything I
promise to remember.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most recently, I have been developing a scoreboard for the
game of Golfball. If you want to know what Golfball is, take a look at my blog
of July 22<sup>nd</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much as the electronic age has made life easier and allowed
us to do things that simply were not possible in the age of pencil and paper,
there are some drawbacks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes, the computer just won’t compute. A week or so
ago, my Macbook Pro went down. Not completely, thank God, but I lost contact
with the Internet, which is sort of like having your house quarantined in the
1930’s because somebody had chicken pox.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No Internet, No Google. No Wikipedia. No email. Chuck
Donnelly, Petoskey’s computer guru, was on vacation. It was like being in jail.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Strangely, I discovered that there is such a thing as life
beyond the computer. I played a little golf, spent more time chatting with my
wife, and horror of horrors, found myself actually watching television.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Donnelly finally arrived, did his magic, and now I’m back at
the keyboard, all psyched up to write a blog. My first instinct is to write
about this damned computer and how it has taken over my life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the other hand, who really gives a fig? Everybody has a
computer, and nobody else is complaining.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it possible that this is the real world and everything
else is fantasy?<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-45911604918387260302017-08-12T09:04:00.000-07:002017-08-12T14:43:10.319-07:00KOREAN CON CONKorea has hosted human life since before 8,000 BC.
Apparently, some scientists who know about such things have discovered pottery
from about that time.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wikipedia gives us an idea of how things have been going
there since the fourteenth century. The Korean peninsula was a single nation
under the so called Joseon dynasty which lasted from 1392 until 1910.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1905 Japan defeated Russia in a war that ended with the
Treaty of Portsmith, negotiated in Maine under the auspices of U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt. Under that treaty, Korea was left as an independent nation
known as the Korean Empire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, not exactly independent. The Koreans had to sign a
protection agreement with Japan. “Protection” lead to annexation by Japan in
1910.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Koreans weren’t exactly happy with that arrangement, and
a number of resistance movements cropped up, mostly in neighboring Manchuria,
China and Siberia. These efforts were coordinated under the Provisional
Government of the Republic of Korea in exile. Korea remained under Japanese
control until the end of the World War II.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Soviet Russia was invaded by Nazi Germany in June of 1941.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that year, Germany declared war against the
U.S.A., but Russia did not enter the war against Japan. The Russians had their
hands full with Germany.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Stalin promised Roosevelt that Russia would enter the
Pacific War as soon as its war with Germany was over. Germany surrendered in
May of 1945. On August 9<sup>th</sup> Russia invaded Manchuria, which was then
occupied by Japan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That was just one day after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb
on Hiroshima. Three weeks later, Japan surrendered, Russia chased the
Japanese out of North Korea and the
United States occupied South Korea.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was agreed that Korea was a single nation and efforts
were made to reunite North and South. The U.S. and the Soviets were unable to
agree on the terms of unification and so the North and South remained divided.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, Korea is, by nature and its history, a single nation,
having a common language and ethnic culture. In June of 1950, North Korea
invaded South Korea, triggering a war that lasted until 1953. The Korean War
ended in a stalemate, with the establishment of a demilitarized zone along the
38<sup>th</sup> parallel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, North Korea is a communist dictatorship ruled by a
man named Kim Jong Il, who succeeded his father, Kim Il Song. Kim Il Song ruled the country as premier from 1948 to 1972 and from 1972 until 1994 as
President.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kim Jong Il is the first leader of a communist country to
have inherited the job. What we know about him is that he loves basketball and
had developed a friendship with Dennis Rodman. And that he has led his country
to become a nuclear power.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most recently, it has become known that North Korea has
developed atom bombs that can be delivered in inter continental ballistic
missiles. That prompted President Trump to do some sword rattling of his own.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does Kim Jong Il want? I suspect he wants the same thing
his father wanted in 1950: to unite the Korean Peninsula as one nation, with
himself as the leader.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s hardly big news when a politician wants to be the
leader. Unfortunately, the folks in Korea still live in the dark ages of
politics, when achieving pubic office was a matter of killing all the
opponents.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps, instead of escalating a war of words with North
Korea, President Trump would be better advised to send Secretary Tillerson and
Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang and Seoul to suggest that a convention be called for
the purpose of drafting a constitution for a unified Korea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
North Korea has more land, South Korea has more people. We
have the same problem among the United States. That’s why we have a bicameral
national legislature. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it too sanguine to suggest that such a convention might
produce a document that begins with the words, “We, the People of Korea…”?<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-86818475253865388192017-07-28T06:28:00.000-07:002017-08-03T10:06:08.798-07:00I HEAR YOU<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tuesday, July 25, was a big day. It was the day I purchased
hearing aids.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s no other way to say it. “Hearing aids.” When I first
obtained eye glasses; reading glasses, actually, that’s what we called them.
Just reading glasses. With a chuckle perhaps, we called them ‘spectacles’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But never “seeing aids.” Yes, they helped us to see better.
To read with less strain. But even the kids whose lenses were as thick as the
bottom of a bottle of coca cola weren’t blind. They could see without help.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is it then, with hearing aids? Why aren’t they called
‘ear plugs’? That’s what they are. Little plugs that you put in your ears. Why
“hearing aids”? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suspect it is part of what George Carlin mocked as the
sissy-fying of the American language. He did a marvelously funny routine in
which he traced the phrases used to describe a disability common to war
veterans. In 1918 it was “shell shock.” In 1945, they said “battle
fatigue.” Now the veterans of Middle Eastern conflict are said to endure “post
traumatic distress syndrome.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am sure the geniuses on Madison Avenue figured out that a
$5,000 price tag would be more palatable for ‘hearing aids’ than for ‘ear
plugs.’ </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But even with the sissified description, the devices have an
ominous connotation. The fact is that most hearing loss is related to old age.
Even little kids wear eyeglasses. Ear plugs are the badges of senility.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The doctor insisted that Polly come with me when I went to
be examined. I’m sure her experience is that wives are the first and foremost
victims of a man’s hearing loss. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My excuse was always chauvinistic. I would always insist
that I could hear her, but that I just wasn’t listening. That line never played
very well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, now I have hearing aids. Polly insists that I wear
them all day, every day. The first thing that struck me coming out of the
doctor’s office is that there is no such thing as silence. Not real, dead,
complete, absolute silence. The rustle of human, animal and vegetable life
always plays in the background.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even your own respiration makes an audible sound. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The audiologist explained the connection between the ear and
the brain. In effect, the brain is always listening and always trying to make
sense out of the noise we hear. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not sure my brain can handle a whole lot more input. I
may have to augment the hearing aids with old fashioned ear plugs to ward off
the noisy world out there. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In any case, I am not sure whether the hearing aids will
solve all the challenges of domestic communication. In addition to hearing,
there are the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>related problems of
listening, noticing, and remembering, all of which are related to the broad
syndrome called ‘caring.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, I wouldn’t know a daffodil from a geranium. Or
whether either one may or may not be growing outside my window.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Truth is, I don’t care. Admittedly, I have always admired
and envied people who have inexhaustible data-base type brains that receive,
assemble and retrieve information. I have known lawyers who remember every word
on every page of a 97 page deposition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And my beloved dentist who I used to call a “storehouse of
useless information.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my view, there is a difference between knowledge and
wisdom; between being smart and being wise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the last analysis, the idea is to care enough about those
we love to pay attention to what they say.</div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So far as I know, the only place where you can acquire a
“caring aid” is at church on Sunday. </div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-61048610921547606852017-07-22T20:50:00.000-07:002017-07-22T20:58:09.846-07:00GOLFBALL<div class="MsoNormal">
Friends have asked me why I haven’t been blogging lately. In
addition to the interruption of my daily life by a nephrectomy of my left
kidney (that was over a month ago, and is no longer a valid excuse for not
blogging) I have been busy writing an essay about golf.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In its final form, the essay runs to 31 pages and something
over ten thousand words.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll summarize it in a sentence: it is an argument in favor
of playing golf as a team sport -- all the way from little leagues for the
kiddies, to professional major leagues representing the metropolitan markets
that support professional basketball, baseball, and football.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a big idea, admittedly. But then I have been known to
dream big dreams, sometimes even with a modicum of success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, the gist of my essay, entitled “Golfball Now” is
that team golf should be played in a standard format; nine player teams playing
nine matches over nine holes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I call the game “Golfball.” That name fits with all the
other major team sports: Baseball, Football, Basketball. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tykes as young as 4 years old – that’s when little league
baseball starts – can play golfball on a putting green. By nine or ten, they
would be competing on pitch and putt courses and from ages 12 or 13 on, they
could play on standard nine hole layouts. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scoring of the game is simple. Your team gets a point
for every stroke by which you win a hole. Thus, if player A makes a four and
his opponent, player B, makes five, Team A gets one point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that is not all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Golfball, every ball must see the bottom of the hole. If
A is on the green in three and B sinks a birdie putt for three, A must still
putt, and keep on putting until he holes out. Every time he misses, a point is
scored for B’s team.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
It is, I suppose, a diabolical scoring system, which punishes the yipes without
mercy. But then, isn’t that the core genius of the sport of golf itself?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Certainly even four year old beginners will experience the
pangs of frustration that torture their parents and grandparents. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, it is necessary, after all, that the each generation
learns to cope with the exquisite pain of frustration. That’s the beauty of
golf.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A lot is being said and written these days about the decline
of golf in America. While it is still the most popular sport, in terms of
player participation, it is true that the construction of new courses is at a
practical stand still, that many courses and clubs are closing, and that the
number of rounds of golf being played continues to decline as the average age
of players creeps up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I, for one, am sanguine. Golf has too much to offer in terms
of exercise, fellowship, character development, tradition and old fashioned
fresh air for it to disappear from our national culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tournament golf: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Players
Championship, and a host of other established and popular tournaments are not
about to dim the lights and close the doors. If team golf prospers as a
professional sport, it will be in addition to those important events, and
indeed will enhance and augment popular interest in golf at every level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The PGA Tour is dominated by young players. Eighteen holes a
day for four or five days running dictates that players be in top athletic
condition. Nine hole Team competition is best suited for popular players who no
longer compete at the tournament level.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Indeed, I am convinced, and Jack Nicklaus agrees with me,
that there will one day be successful and popular major league golf teams in
all the metropolitan markets that now host the NFL, MLB, and the NBA.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And if I have anything to say about it, they will be playing
Golfball.</div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-51034174306486437692017-07-09T07:06:00.002-07:002017-07-09T07:10:36.274-07:00HOME IN HARBORMid day yesterday, the last piece of new furniture for our
new condo in East Lansing arrived. By half past one, we were in the car,
heading North.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We haven’t had two homes since we sold the place in Florida
a few years ago. That was easy to get your arms around. We lived in Michigan.
Michigan was our home. We vacationed in Florida. We were snow birds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We haven’t quite come to grips with having two houses in
Michigan. Our children, God bless them, who insisted we acquire digs in East
Lansing to be closer to family, are assuming that we have settled in, and are
now officially, practically, realistically and emotionally residents of the
Burcham Hills Retirement Community in East Lansing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am sure it was not arranged for our benefit, but the other
morning the Michigan State University marching band staged a concert at
Burcham’s main residential building, which was clearly audible at our condo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nice touch, but we still weren’t convinced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The issue is simple, despite the confusion of names: are we
residents of Burcham who own a cottage at Birchwood, or are we residents of
Birchwood who own a condo at Burcham?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there was any doubt, it was assuaged when our car merged
from U.S. 127 onto Interstate 75 just north of Gaylord. The perfusion of green:
trees, meadows, pastures and vistas too numerous to relate reaffirmed what
everyone from Michigan will tell you: this is God’s country.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The magnificence of His artistry is overwhelming.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here we are, home again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s Sunday morning. Polly is still sleeping. I am at the
computer, blogging, and soon will be writing a check payable to Holy Childhood
of Jesus to be dropped in the basket at eleven o’clock Mass.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We live here in Harbor Springs. That’s what it says on my
driver’s license. That’s what it feels in my heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We had dinner last night in the Casual Bar at the Club. Saw
some friends who were glad to hear that my recovery from surgery is gong well.
Perhaps on Monday, I will show up and see if Doctor Fred Hoffman can squeeze me
into his Monday golf group.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a lot of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>misery in this old world. Just turn on the television and it oozes into
the room and boggles your brain. Hardly a day goes by that doesn’t feature
another senseless, diabolical shooting or bombing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What passes for political debate is too often a harangue or
high decibel quarrel in which anywhere from two to five people all talk at
once, apparently in the belief that the louder and faster they talk, the more
convincing they will be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It used to be that the political party which lost the
election would function as the loyal opposition, which could be counted on to
serve as the Devil’s Advocate to keep the ruling majority from becoming
dictatorial.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since the election of Donald Trump, we have seen a different
kind of opposition emerge. More resistance that mere opposition, it consists of
a continuous stream of tasteless invective, snide ridicule, and outright
hatred.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leave it to Michael Moore, the filmmaking firebrand from
Flint, who found fame dissing the leadership of General Motors, to grab the
brass ring of opposition leadership by offering an anti Trump comedy on
Broadway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scheduled to open on July 28, the show is called “The Terms
of My Surrender” and is directed by Tony Award winning director Michael Mayer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Advertised as a comedy show, it will in fact be a one-man
diatribe by Moore himself, who has a talent for biting satire and a track
record of taking on big targets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moore apparently believes that his poison tongue will be caustic
and powerful enough to oust Donald Trump from the White House.</div>
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With such insanity floating around the airwaves and spicing
the Internet, it is comforting to know that little old Harbor Springs, Michigan
is still a safe haven for sanity, beauty, and friendship. It’s good to be home.</div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-18447679893514198992017-07-03T21:38:00.000-07:002017-07-03T21:38:33.749-07:00DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE<div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<strong><span style="color: #555555; font-size: 20.0pt;">Here are 344 words worth memorizing:</span></strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 20.0pt;">When in
the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature
and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 20.0pt;">We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a
long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-78304408894115186352017-06-25T16:42:00.001-07:002017-06-25T16:46:30.838-07:00SHAMROCK NATIONIt all began on Harper Avenue, just North of Downtown
Detroit when, in 1928, Monsignor Van Antwerp invited the Congregation of Saint
Basil, commonly known as the Basilian Fathers, to take over the Holy Rosary
parish school and convert it into a boys’ high school. Above the door of that
old school building was a statue of the Blessed Mother, and Mary was instantly
recognized as the patron saint of the school.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The initial enrollment of 260 boys had more than doubled
when, in 1934, the school was moved up Woodward Avenue to a site behind the
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament at 60 Belmont Avenue. It then became known
as Detroit Catholic Central High School.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The dream of a new building was fulfilled in 1951, when
Catholic Central moved to 6565 West Outer Drive on the West Side of Detroit. It
was there for 27 years, moving to Breakfast Drive in Redford Township in 1978,
where it was often referred to as Redford Catholic Central.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But in 2005, the school moved again, reclaiming the name
Detroit Catholic Central, honoring its roots in the motor city. This time, it
is lodged in a spectacular academic and athletic campus in Novi, Michigan, on a
street named after an Iconic Basilian teacher, Father Ned Donoher.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Last week, just 7 days after a radical nephrectomy, I
prevailed on my dear wife to drive me to Novi, there to attend Mass and a
luncheon and to mingle with other Catholic Central graduates of the Class of
1947, and of other years gone by.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s a certain sense of karma in a roomful of sixty,
seventy and eighty year old men sharing memories, telling their stories and kvelling
about the good old days when their voices changed and they sprouted into
manhood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One thing for sure. There were no losers in the room.
Whether theirs was financial, professional, academic or personal, every alumnus
had a similar story of success; fidelity to the code of Christian manhood instilled
long ago by Basilian priests whose motto and goal was to teach goodness,
discipline and knowledge.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Central to the occasion was the sixtieth anniversary of the
priesthood of Father Richard Elmer. The man is a legend among the Shamrock
community. With ebullient good humor, tireless perseverance, and genuine
concern for young men and their families, Father Elmer has been the life line
through which literally millions of dollars have flowed to Catholic Central
High School.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The economics of private education have changed since I
entered Catholic Central in 1943. Our tuition was $60 for the entire nine month
academic year. In today’s dollars, that represents about $841.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, Catholic Central’s tuition is on the high end of
private high school tuition in Michigan - $12,000 per year. To say that it is a
sacrifice for working families, puts too small a tag on it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a sacrifice, not only for parents, but also for alumni
and friends of the school who recognize the importance of populating each new
generation of Americans with Christian gentlemen, imbued with goodness,
discipline and knowledge, and capable of assuming positions of leadership in
every facet of American life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Catholic Central has long been an athletic powerhouse. Many
graduates went on to careers in professional sports. More importantly, the
Shamrocks have posted winning records in football, basketball, baseball, hockey,
wrestling, and golf, literally for generations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But it is not just a school for “jocks.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Detroit Catholic Central Academic Team has been the
model of excellence and consistency in the State of Michigan and on a national
level since its founding in 1985. The team has won 19 Michigan State
Championships and four National Championships and is the only program in the
nation to have qualified for and attended every National Academic Quiz
Tournament High School Championship and PACE National Scholastic Championship. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Are we proud of our high school? You’re damn right we are.
And not the least bit embarrassed to tear up a little when the alumni choir
sings ….<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Mary Alma Mater, your sons of Central honor, and trusting
in your goodness, we hopefully implore; that by your grace we may every day prove that we are men of Mary Alma Mater; inspire us
evermore.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-1716985212999435802017-06-20T08:35:00.002-07:002017-06-20T16:31:42.584-07:00AFGHAN WAR<div>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">It was recently reported
that President Trump has authorized the Department of Defense to determine the
number of American troops to be committed to Afghanistan.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">It strikes me as somewhat
inordinate to expect Secretary Jim Mattis to set troop levels without first
spelling out the military mission to be accomplished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Just what are we doing in
Afghanistan? Why are we there? What are we trying to accomplish?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Those are political, not
military questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">I had thought that fifteen years
in Viet Nam with over 50,000 casualties would have taught us that trying to
subjugate a hostile indigenous population is a fool’s errand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">We paid a terrible price to
learn that Viet Nam belongs to the VietNamese. Why can’t we understand that
Afghanistan belongs to the Afghans?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">It took the Russians nine years
to learn it. Acting under Leonid Breshnev in 1979, the Soviet Union sent more
than 100,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. Nine years later, Mikhail Gorbachev
brought them home, more in exhaustion and frustration than in victory. It was
the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Our soldiers in Korea and
Viet Nam used the word ‘gooks’ to define the locals. They learned that it was
too often impossible to distinguish the good gooks from the bad gooks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">When we take sides in someone
else’s civil war, we redefine our allies as traitors and our enemies as
patriots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">When we invaded Iraq in
2003, it was on the supposition that Saddam Hussein, the fifth President of
that country, had weapons of mass destruction which he was expected to use for
no good purpose. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Our goal was to depose him,
and we did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Then candidate Barack Obama
decried the Iraq War as “dumb” and promptly dubbed the invasion of Afghanistan
as a ‘smart’ war. By the end of his first year in office, President Obama had
authorized upwards of 38,000 troops in Afghanistan, without spelling out
exactly what they were supposed to accomplish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">By the end of his second
year in office, Obama’s administration had issued a an awkwardly titled report called “An Overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan
Annual Review”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which
earned the comment from Yale Law Professsor, Stephen Carter, that it “<span style="background: white; color: #02141f;">actually leaves us with less information
about the goals and plans for the Afghan War than we had before.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">The Obama administration made much of the
assassination of Osama Ben Laden. The American people were convinced, through
media reports and public statements, that Ben Laden was responsible for the
9/11 attack. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">Did Obama suppose that the American people
thought the Afghanistan War was being waged for the purpose of killing everyone
responsible for terrorist attacks in the United States? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">Indeed is there any statistical evidence or
other proof that our military adventures in the Middle East have in any way
reduced the threat of terrorism in our homeland?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">Certainly no thinking patriot subscribes to the
notion that it is better for our young men and women to be maimed and
slaughtered on the Arabian sand than for fans of the Boston Marathon or patrons
of an Orlando night club to die on our soil. Indeed, nobody has ever a
seriously asserted that our Middle East efforts represent a sacrificial
offering to the Islamic terrorist demons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">What then? Are we committed to capturing the
entire nation of Afghanistan and turning it into another Guam or Puerto Rico? Do
we really think it possible to subdue the Afghan people and install a Vichy
type government that will be agreeable to the United States of America? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">The experience of the French people during WWII
with the impotent government headed by Marshall Petain ought to convince us
that puppet governments don’t last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "arial";">History is a wonderful teacher, if only we will
listen.</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-6179205615155680362017-06-11T22:19:00.001-07:002017-06-12T11:12:50.202-07:00THE RUSSIA THING<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The world of computer mischief is arcane beyond
comprehension. I got a taste of it trying to get to the bottom of the much
touted Russian invasion of the 2016 Presidential election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Here is a sample of what I found:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">On September 1, 2011, the Laboratory of Cryptography
and System Security of the </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_University_of_Technology_and_Economics" title="Budapest University of Technology and Economics"><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt; text-decoration: none;">Budapest University of Technology and Economics</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> discovered
a collection of computer malware which used the prefix “DQ” to identify its
files. The Budapest scientists wrote a 60 page report describing the computer
threat and nicknaming its users “The Duqu.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Duqu were so skilled that they actually
compromised the internal workings of Kaspersky, the Russian cyber security
giant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">U.S. cyber intelligence nerds Americanized “The
Duqu” simply calling the malware mischief makers “The Dukes.” A December 13,
2016 New York Times story attributed the hacking of the Democratic National
Committee computers to The Dukes, describing them as “ a cyberespionage team
linked to the Russian government.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">No authority for that statement was given. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In January of 2017, the CIA presented a “top
secret” report to President Obama claiming that the DNC hack was the work of
the Russian government. That report has never been made public, but the Russian
government’s alleged participation was leaked to Reuters News by a source or
sources who spoke “on condition of anonymity”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The best explanation for the CIA opinion that
the Dukes are Russian depends on such dubious indicia as the fact that the
Dukes’ working day corresponds roughly with the normal work day in many parts
of Russia. A similar analysis suggests that the Dukes are Israelis since, in addition
to the normal work days and hours, the Dukes seem to take off work from Friday
afternoon through Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The later proposition has further evidence; one
of the Dukes’ first attacks was directed to Iran’s nuclear efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In short, my study persuades me that the
hacking of the DNC last year was not the work of the Russian government. That
conclusion is backed up by the assertion of Julian Assange, owner of Wikileaks,
who insists that his source was not any government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">My modest excursion into World Wide Web
wickedness reveals that the Web, sometimes called “the wild” by its
inhabitants, is much like the open seas or outer space; it is a place that is
owned by no one, but belongs to everyone. Out there, everyone is pretty much on
their own and free to do whatever they are able to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">When you
entrust your personal secrets to the Web, your only protection from having them
purloined and broadcast is your password. That’s pretty good protection. Your
Social Security number for example, consists of nine digits, enough to provide
a billion unique numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Still,
emails are out there in the wild. Like ships at sea or rockets in space, they
can be seen and examined by anyone who can find them. They get hacked by people
who know how to hack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So the
real question that needs to be addressed by the American People is not whether
internal emails of the Democratic National Committee were hacked, or by whom,
but whether the information that came out was true and whether it made a
difference or should have made a difference in the outcome of the election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Candidly,
I cannot recall anyone denying the reported contents of the DNC emails or
internal communications that were revealed by Wikileaks and thereafter widely
broadcast by all the mainstream media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Did the
Democratic National Committee favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders? Of
course they did. Nobody denied it. Did that favoritism hurt the Party? Of
course it did. Primary elections are conducted to give the people an avenue to
participate in the democratic process. A political party controlled by insiders
or bosses will not be popular with the average voter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The vast
basket of deplorable Americans who work with their hands, who build and buy,
and grow and sell, who clean and carry and fix and install and who serve other
people in a million ways don’t like closed door, boss-ruled political parties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Did the
hackers hurt Hillary and help Trump? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Of
course they did. Did it matter whether the hackers were Russian or Israeli or
just naughty college kids having fun with their computers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Certainly
not. The only thing that mattered to the American people was the truth. And the
truth was that the DNC was in the pocket of the Clinton campaign. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nobody
denied it. Not then. Not now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
current Congressional and News media flap over foreign influence in American
politics is a false narrative. Other countries have always taken sides in
American politics. In the 2016 election, for example, eighteen of twenty-three
foreign newspapers endorsed Hillary Clinton, one favored Trump, and four simply
opposed Trump.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">As a
private businessman, Donald Trump took his Miss Universe Beauty Pageant to
Russia in 2013. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one criticized him
for doing so. Indeed, it was exactly the kind of private business interchange
that was promoted by our national government from the time of Richard Nixon in pursuit
of détente, which led to the decline of the Soviet Union.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">While in
Moscow, Trump met more than a dozen top Russian businessmen, including Herman
Gref, CEO of Russia's largest bank.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">All of
which makes me wonder whether the shrill accusations coming from the Swamp are
not motivated by the fear that our new President may just be inclined to find
common ground with our cold war adversary and lead us to an era of actual peace
in every part of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It would
certainly be a disappointment to the Military-Industrial Complex that is
responsible for so much of the Swamp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: middle;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-20637261471217534052017-06-02T16:29:00.000-07:002017-06-02T16:29:40.296-07:00SPEAKING ENGLISHI just returned from Mayo Clinic where I was treated to
another Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiapancreatography. Compliments of Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Arriving home, I emptied the mail box. There, among the
usual inane offerings of the advertising industry, was an official looking
communication from something called the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After announcing in large letters at the top of the page
that “THIS IS NOT A BILL” the letter goes on to recite that 20 services for
which I am supposed to have made claim, have been denied by Medicare and that I
may be billed for $1,824.00. All of which is detailed in eight pages of printed
forms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What really got my attention, however, was not the eight
page letter about my denied claims, but an unnumbered, extra page titled
“Nondiscrimination Notice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It avers that the CMMS does not exclude or deny benefits or
otherwise discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national
origin, disability, sex, or age.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It then proceeds to repeat this comforting news in fifteen
different languages including Arabic, Farsi, Kreyol and Tagalog, telling all
and sundry that they have a right to get help and information in their own
language at no cost and that they may talk to an interpreter by calling
1-800-MEDICARE.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In almost every session of Congress one or more bills and/or
proposed constitutional amendments are introduced for the purpose of declaring
that English is the official language of the United States.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They are consistently opposed by the ACLU and with equal
consistency they are never brought up for a vote. This despite the fact that
more than 80 percent of the American people support the idea that English
should be declared the official language of the nation and in fact,
thirty-three of the States have laws making English their official language.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, English is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de facto </i>language throughout the United States, even in Illinois,
where the official State language is “American.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Making English official certainly wouldn’t prevent people
from speaking in other languages. Much of the charm of our great nation comes
from the diverse languages and customs of our people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the idea of an official language in which laws are written,
courts are convened, taxes computed, benefits defined, and elections conducted
is so obviously necessary and practical that it is hard to fathom why anyone
would oppose it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mischief of the CMMS memo it simply that the government
is requiring its agencies to be multi lingual. That idea is not only expensive
and cumbersome, it contributes to the isolation of non English speaking
Americans and reinforces the idea that we are a divided nation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s face it; citizens are presumed to know the law. The
corollary of that axiom is that the government has the obligation to promulgate
the law; that is, to tell the people - who are expected to obey the law - precisely
what the law says. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For more than 200 years, English has been the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">defacto</i> language used by the federal
government. Unfortunately, as the CMMS memo demonstrates, even that status is
now being challenged. Where does it stop? If people have the right to read
about Medicare in their native language, should they not also have the right to
read the tax laws in the same manner? And every other one of the myriad
statutes and regulations published by the United States of America?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That idea, of course is absurd, preposterous, ridiculous.
The Affordable Care Act, for example, consists of 365,086 English words and the
rules and regulations it has spawned amount to an additional eleven million
words. To publish 15 translations of those words would be an enormous and
expensive task.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That would be only the beginning. Wouldn’t citizens be
entitled to insist that litigation growing out of the law be conducted in their
native tongue? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, words like expensive, foolish and impractical
do not sit well with the activist Left. The same people who annually debunk
making English the official language of the United States can be expected to
support legislation requiring the national government to be
multi-lingual.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-42655926540951748222017-05-27T09:46:00.000-07:002017-05-27T09:57:10.248-07:00MY TEACHER<div class="MsoNormal">
My darling wife is the master of the imperative sentence.
Indeed, there are days when I worry that unless she tells me what to do, I
might just descend into a motionless trance, doing nothing whatsoever.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change your shirt. Or tie. Or shoes. Buckle up. Use the turn
indicator. Brush your teeth. Wash your hands. Comb your hair. Close the garage
door. Take out the trash. Call your sister. Write the check. Turn down the
thermostat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I usually make an effort to comply cheerfully. After all,
the woman is a teacher. That’s the profession for which she was educated.
Teachers are instructors. That is what they do when they teach. They instruct.
They give instructions. Do this. Do that. Read this. Study that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From my earliest days, my parents taught me obedience. I
never resented it. Indeed, I loved them without reservation; whether in spite
of being obedient or because of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I feel the same way about Polly’s imperatives. Father
Norbert Clemens always taught that love is desiring what is good for the person
we love.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elementary and secondary school teachers are almost
universally remembered by their students with good will if not actual
affection. That’s because as we mature – indeed if we mature at all –
we realize that what they told us to do was for our own good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so it is with the wonderful teacher who has shared my
life and my fortunes for more than two thirds of a century. I never tire of her
instructions. She is, as I often say, the best person in the whole world, and
she wants me to be my best self … all the time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t think that my wife is a whole lot smarter than I am.
I would guess that our IQ scores are about the same. But the fact is that she
knows a lot of things that I do not know. She notices things and she remembers
things. And she has instincts about things that never occur to me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Example. Some years ago we were visiting friends in a house
they had rented. Early one morning Dave and I were planning to play golf and
leave the girls to sleep in.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unhappily, I could not figure out how to redirect the flow
of water from the tub to the shower. Neither could Dave. Try as we might,
pushing, pulling, poking and prying the fixture every which way, the shower
wouldn’t work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, in exasperation, I told Dave that I would have to
wake Polly and ask her how to do it. I knew she would know instinctively how to
work the thing, and I dreaded the embarrassment our ineptitude would
demonstrate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, I had to take a shower. So I woke her up. She
stumbled into the bathroom still half asleep, and turned on the shower. How
does she know these things?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just yesterday, in a state of frustration, I wanted to
demonstrate how stupid the manufacturers of hanging files are. As evidence, I
showed her a little plastic thingamagig that is supposed to identify the
contents of the file and I defied her to explain how it could possibly be
affixed to the file.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In about thirty seconds she had it attached, leaving me
feeling like a complete oaf. No wonder she doesn’t want me loading the dish
washer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Truth is, I just don’t notice things. What’s hanging over
the fireplace?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know. Something. A Picture? A Mirror? She shakes her
head in disbelief. It has been there for twenty-five years.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s a pretty blouse. Is it new? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve had it since 2009.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You should wear it more often.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wore it last week.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She never gives up. Last night she hosted a fabulous dinner
party at a beautiful restaurant at which my 88<sup>th</sup> birthday was
celebrated with the four of our six children who live in Michigan and their spouses.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Even for me, it was an unforgettable celebration.</div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-41959889429584298132017-05-24T22:51:00.002-07:002017-05-24T22:55:59.910-07:00MEMORIAL DAYNext Monday is Memorial Day. I will offer special prayers in
memory of a man I never met, but who, had he survived WWII, would have been my
brother in law.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Polly’s brother, Emanuel Weinberger, was a paratrooper of
the 82<sup>nd</sup> Airborne. He was killed by enemy fire on the beach at
Salerno in 1943. He was 26 years old.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
World War Two affected millions of lives and in many ways
revised the map of Planet Earth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It was in name and in fact a “world” war. In Europe, it
began in 1939 when Hitler’s armies invaded Poland. In Asia it began when the
Japanese invaded Manchuria on September 18, 1931.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To an unschooled historian, like me, the idea that a little
country like Japan could invade and subjugate a massive nation like China seems
preposterous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In truth, the Japanese had much in common with Great
Britain, another tiny island nation which managed to assemble a world wide
empire, upon which, it was asserted, the sun never set.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Japanese, like the British, were an industrial people.
They made things and they sold things. They imported raw materials and exported
manufactured products. They were much in the vanguard of the Industrial
Revolution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Folks of my generation well remember the products of
Japanese manufacturing. We considered anything that bore the stamp “Made in
Japan” to be inferior. That was long before the descendants of Henry Ford and
William Durant were driving Toyotas and Hondas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the ten years between 1931 and 1941, Japan assembled a
massive Pacific Empire, at its pinnacle incorporating Korea, Manchuria (about a
third of China) Burma, Thailand, French Indo China, which included Viet
Nam, the Philippine Islands, and the Dutch West Indies, stretching nearly to
the shores of Australia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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By the waning days of 1941, Japan considered the Pacific
Ocean as an integral part of its Asian hegemony. Hawaii was considered to be
under foreign occupation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Historians have rather conclusively proven that Franklin D.
Roosevelt wanted the United States to enter the European war in aid of Great Britain,
but he realized that the American people were opposed to the idea. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
FDR was, of course, aware that Japan had a mutual defense
pact with Germany and Italy, and it was quite obvious that if America found
itself at war with Japan, Germany and Italy would immediately declare war
against us as well. So much for U.S. public opinion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The idea of populating Hawaii as a forward naval base came
directly from the White House. One voice raised in opposition was that of
Admiral James Otto Richardson.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Born in Paris, Texas on September 18, 1879, Richardson
graduated fifth in his class at the Naval Academy and rose to the rank of
Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet by 1940, when he was given the task of
moving the fleet’s base of operations from the West Coast to Hawaii.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Richardson balked at the idea. He believed that Hawaii was
basically indefensible, too far from reinforcement, and poorly configured to
defend itself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Richardson pleaded with Roosevelt to reconsider the move,
making the unusual effort as a naval officer to travel to Washington to present
a personal plea to the President as well as to members of Congress. Not only
did FDR ignore the Admiral’s warnings, he rewarded Richardson by removing him
from command of the fleet. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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As we honor the heroes who gave the last full measure of
devotion for their country on this Memorial Day, it is perhaps appropriate to
give a tip of the hat to those whose service and counsel were generously
offered but unhappily ignored by the political powers.</div>
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Admiral Richardson might have prevented the Pearl Harbor
debacle. For that, he deserves recognition which I gladly proffer to him. And
besides, he is, according to my brother, Ray, a distant relative of mine.<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-14778493454245485822017-05-16T13:51:00.003-07:002017-05-16T17:14:15.825-07:00TEN COMMANDMENTS<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt;">
<b><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">For those of us whose politics are rooted in history and
tradition, the American Civil Liberties Union is an organization which is often
at odds with our beliefs and our considered opinions on public policy.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">That said, I have to confess that I was pleasantly surprised to
find that the ACLU web site carries a full discussion of a 1995 position paper
endorsed by a number of religious organizations, entitled <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The Bible in Public Schools: A First
Amendment Guide.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The gist of the paper is very simply
that there is no constitutional ban on teaching the bible in public schools, so
long as it is taught as an academic subject with no effort to persuade or
evangelize the students.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">In short, it is OK to ask the
students to read the Ten Commandments, even to memorize them, as long as they
are not required or expected to agree with their message. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Candidly, I find it difficult to
imagine a value-neutral curriculum for an elementary or secondary school. The
Northwest Ordinance, which expressed the aspirations of our Founding Fathers,
put it this way: “Religion, Morality and Knowledge, being necessary for good
government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The motto of Detroit Catholic Central High School,
from which I graduated 70 years ago, affirmed that it taught us goodness,
discipline and knowledge, a fairly straightforward approach to good government
and the happiness of mankind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Despite its approval of value neutral biblical education, the ACLU remains a vigorous opponent of the promulgation of the ten Commandments.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The United States Supreme Court seems to be conflicted on the subject. In 2005, the Court decided two cases involving public display of the Ten Commandments on the same day. In the Kentucky case of McCreary v ACLU, the Court held the display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of two Kentucky courthouses violated the Federal Constitution. </span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">In the Texas case of Van Orden v Perry, the Court decided that a large display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the State Capital did not violate the Constitution. </span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Both cases were decided by a vote of 5 to 4. Justice Breyer was the swing vote. While there were a number of dissenting and concurring opinions in those cases, the most salient difference between them was the simple fact that the Texas monument was allowed to stand for more than forty years before being challenged, while the Kentucky litigation was started as soon as the monuments were erected. </span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">One must wonder what goes through the mind of Justice Breyer when he sees the Ten Commandments represented on the face of the Supreme Court Building, displayed verbatim on the doors to the Courtroom and etched again on the wall behind the Bench.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The principal argument against the public display of the Ten Commandments is that they represent the moral teaching of the Jewish and Christian faiths. It seems peculiar to me that a statement condemning homicide, for example, should not be publicly displayed or taught in school simply because it was reputed to have been first articulated to Moses on tablets of stone. </span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The curious thing about banning value laden teaching of the Ten Commandments in public schools is the fact that we expect our public schools to inculcate "good citizenship" in our children.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">I have to ask myself whether the ACLU would disapprove of teaching the values of the Ten Commandments in a manner that would disguise the origin of their promulgation.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">With apologies to Moses and his ghost writer, the Old Judge offers there ten "suggestions" to be added to elementary school</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">curricula:</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Whatever power is
responsible for the origin of the human species is entitled to the respect and
gratitude of all people.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">The name of the
originator of humanity should be used respectfully.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">There should be one
day each week for people to gratefully celebrate the existence of intelligent
life on Planet Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">People should be
good to their parents. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Killing other
people is a bad thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Copulating with
someone else’s spouse is undesirable conduct.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Stealing things
from other people is bad.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">People should not
tell lies.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Day dreaming about
making love to someone else’s spouse is not a good thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 18.65pt; margin-left: 63.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #373e44; font-size: 18.0pt;">Being jealous of
what other people have is not a good idea.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-75371635751810815502017-05-15T10:22:00.002-07:002017-05-16T16:38:01.504-07:00EMMET COUNTY RIGHT TO LIFE DINNER<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">I am indebted to Barbi
Aumiller and Shelly Horniman for their kind invitation to speak to you this
evening.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Y’know, psychologists
tell us that next to dying, the thing that many people fear the most is making
a speech.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">I must confess, I am
not one of those people. In high school, I won all sorts of awards for public
speaking. It always bolstered my self image to hear people applaud.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">In a couple of weeks,
I will be eighty-eight years old. I don’t get very many invitations to speak in
public any more, so if I seem to be having a good time up here, it’s because I
really am having a good time up here.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">There is nothing an
eighty-eight year old lawyer appreciates more than a good audience.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Many of you, I am
sure, were in the audience when I addressed the Right to Life rally in Gaylord
last year. You will remember that I predicted that we would vote for Donald Trump,
but not because we liked him. Certainly, many of us didn’t like him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">But I said that we
would vote for him because he had promised to appoint a Supreme Court Justice
in the tradition of Antonin Scalia.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Whatever else may be
said about President Trump, the fact is that <u>he kept that promise</u>. Neil
Gorsuch is now a member of the high court, and we have cause to hope that the United
States Supreme Court may one day begin to recognize the constitutional rights
of the unborn.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">But my friends, I have
to remind you that one victory doesn’t win a war.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Realistically, we have
to admit that the right of every unborn human being to complete the period of
natural gestation and see the light of day, will not be protected by some
sweeping edict from the United States Supreme Court.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">During his
confirmation hearings, Judge Gorsuch made quite a point of his respect for
judicial precedent. Stare Decisis is the Latin phrase which means “let the
decision stand.’’ Judges typically respect the decisions of their predecessors
on the bench. It’s what gives consistency and predictability to our Common Law.
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Frankly, I don’t think
the Supreme Court, even with a conservative majority, will directly reverse the
decision in Roe v Wade. I know you don’t want to hear me say that. You are,
after all, the vanguard of the Right to Life movement. You spend your time and
your money, your energy and your enthusiasm to protect and defend the lives of
unborn children.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">But the fact is, that the
best we can hope for, and the decision most consistent with our constitution,
would be for the Supreme Court to put things back the way they were before Roe
v Wade was decided.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">That means, of course,
acknowledging the right of the 50 States to make laws restricting or prohibiting
abortions, but it also means restoring the power of the State Legislatures to
allow abortions, either on demand or for some specified reason.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">And remember that,
before Roe v Wade was decided, abortion was permitted in 20 states for various
different reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">In short, what I see
happening as Judge Gorsuch weighs in on the Supreme Court docket, will be a
process of chipping away at the abortion culture which has grown up around the
Court’s infamous decision in Roe v Wade, and reinstating the authority of the
State Legislatures to restrict abortions; to spell out when abortions will be
allowed and when they will be prohibited.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Some of you will
certainly be disappointed. After all, we won the election. Our new President
has given us a pro-life majority on the Court. Why won’t the five conservative
Justices simply reverse Roe v Wade?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Let me see if I can
explain it. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">First of all, you have
to understand that the Supreme Court is a collegial body. Those nine people
work together, they eat together, they talk to each other every day, and they
try to convince each other. That’s what Judges do.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">They have lots of
disagreements, but they all work at trying to persuade their colleagues and
they often do change each other’s minds. Of course, they have many differences,
religiously, philosophically, politically and personally.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">But they do have one
thing in common: They love the Court. They all want the Supreme Court to be
prestigious, to be respected, to be honored by the people. If they could, they
would make every decision unanimous. They know that the more nearly unanimous a
decision is, the more it will be accepted and respected by the press, the
broadcast media and the public at large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Judge Gorsuch is the
new kid on the block. I suspect that he will want to be perceived as a team
player; a judge who puts the Court as an institution at the top of his
professional agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">A lot of horse trading
goes on in an appellate court. I know because I have been there. Sometimes it
only takes a word or a phrase in a Judge’s opinion to win or lose the vote of a
colleague.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">So the appointment of
Neal Gorsuch is not the end of the fight for unborn life. In fact it is the
beginning of a new phase in the crusade you and I have waged for so many
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">As we gather here this
evening, many people in the pro life movement are focused on Senate Bill 231
introduced in the 115<sup>th</sup> Congress by Senator Rand Paul and eight
other Senators. It’s called the Life at Conception Act of 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">This is what it says:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">To implement equal
protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person, and
pursuant to the duty and authority of Congress, including Congress’ power under
section 8 of article I of the Constitution of the United States to make
necessary and proper laws, and Congress’ power under section 5 of the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution, the Congress hereby declares that the right to
life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being. Nothing in
this Act shall be construed to require the prosecution of any woman for the
death of her unborn child, a prohibition on in vitro fertilization, or a
prohibition on use of birth control or another means of preventing
fertilization.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">On January 24<sup>th</sup>
that bill was read twice and referred to the committee on the judiciary.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The same bill was
introduced in the 114<sup>th</sup> Congress back in January of 2016. It was
then known as Senate Bill number 2464. It was read twice in accordance with
Senate Rules and then it was placed on the calendar. That is the last that was ever
heard of it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">I suspect that is what
will happen again this year. The fact that the bill has been referred to the
judiciary committee suggests to me that there are a number of Senators who
think the issue should be decided by judges, not senators.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">A good argument can be
made that it should be left to the courts. The Fifth Amendment – part of our
national Bill of Rights – specifies that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty
or property without due process of law.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">So we already have
constitutional protection of the right to life for every person. The problem
is; what does the word person, as used in the Bill of Rights, mean? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Did the framers of our
national charter consider a child in his or her mother’s womb to be a “person”?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Certainly their
knowledge of pre natal life was only a fraction of what we know today. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">So how does a
conservative judge; a judge who looks to the original meaning of the words used
in the Constitution; how does he or she interpret the word “person.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">I can’t answer for all
conservative judges, but I can tell you what I wrote in 1971 in the case of
O’Neill v Morse where an unborn child was killed in an automobile accident: The
phenomenon of birth is not the beginning of life, it is merely a change in the
form of life. The principal feature of that change is the fact of respiration.
But the law does not regard the incidence of respiration as the sole
determinative of life. Respiration can be artificially induced or mechanically
supplied. Life remains.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Frankly, if I were
sitting on the United States Supreme Court, I would have no trouble coming to
the conclusion that the founders of our nation intended to mean “an
identifiable human being” when they used the word “person.” In those days, a
name, a face, a family; these were the things that answered the question “Who
are you?” or “What are you?” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">In short, identity is
what makes a person a person, and it always has.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Since the DNA of an
unborn child can now be determined, the unborn can now be identified. An unborn
child in 2017 is now an identifiable human being, just as surely as a new born
baby was in 1789.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">That still leaves us
with this problem: Does the Congress have the power and authority to tell the
Court how they should interpret the Constitution?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">In my personal opinion
they don’t. I think the meaning of the Constitution is itself a constitutional
matter and should be decided by the courts or by the people who have the power
to amend the constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">If the Congress wants
the Constitution to be interpreted in a certain way, they have the power to
propose an amendment to the Constitution. That is the right way to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Anyway, whether
abortion is a legal or a political question doesn’t matter to most lawmakers.
They know that the issue is the third rail of our culture; it is the question that
divides our nation most bitterly; and the politicians don’t want to vote on it
one way or the other.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">It is interesting that
people on the Left accuse conservatives who are skeptical about global warming
of being opposed to science. On the abortion question, the shoe is on the other
foot; conservatives have science in their corner.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The strides that have
been made on the subject of pre natal life are truly astounding. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">My granddaughter is
pregnant. She has an app on her smart phone that tells her every day how her
baby is developing. She isn’t due until October, but she already knows the baby
is a girl.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">We know so much more
today about life in the womb; we hear the heart beat, we watch the formation of
hands, feet and face, we even determine blood type and the baby’s DNA, a unique
four digit number that stretches ad infinitum and belongs only to one specific,
individual human being.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">And as science has
advanced, as we learn more and more about pre natal life, the fact that the
unborn are human beings is more certain and undeniable. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">There is, of course, a
word for the killing of a human being. It’s called homicide.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The NARAL people don’t
want to hear that. They don’t want to think about it. And it’s not just the pro
choice activists who want to keep their heads in the sand.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The fact is that
abortion has a huge constituency in America. Sixty million abortions have been
performed here since 1973. That means there are millions upon millions of women
who have had abortions, and millions more who have counseled women to abort;
husbands, boy friends and girl friends, fathers and mothers, grandfathers and
grandmothers. And there are legions of people who have profited in the abortion
industry, because it is an industry. It is big, big business.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Still, the task that
lies before us is the same task that has confronted Christianity for two
thousand years. Somehow, we must learn to hate the sin and love the sinner.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">On February 18<sup>th</sup>
of this year, Norma McCovey, the woman who was the “Roe” of Roe v Wade died in
a nursing home at the age of 69. Her life is a story of conversion from being
the prime proponent of abortion to being a staunch defender of the right to
life of the unborn.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Her story is proof
positive that truth can and will overcome falsehood; that wisdom will conquer
selfishness; that decency can and will survive in a society beset by false
notions and twisted logic.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">That’s why I have come
here tonight to ask each and every one of you to stay the course. Keep up your
good work. Support those in public life who are with us. And don’t be afraid to
speak up, to let your friends and neighbors know where you stand.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">It will be a long and
difficult struggle, but it is a battle that can and must be won. Slavery was
abolished in 1863 by Abraham’s Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Still, it took more
than a hundred years before Martin Luther King Jr could say: “Free at Last,
Free at Last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Indeed, the battle for
civil rights continues this very day. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Our struggle for the
protection of the unborn is not over by a long shot. In due time we must and we
will win the minds and hearts of the vast majority of our fellow citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Of course, the fact is
that public opinion isn’t logical. It isn’t consistent. It is rarely well
informed. It is the sum of millions of personal experiences, and countless
personal preferences. It is affected by news; by real events and by
unsubstantiated rumors; by pictures and speeches and motion pictures and by
social media.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">But public opinion is
also formed by the lives and example of good and decent people in every
community who respect and revere the God given treasure of human life day in
and day out.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #525252; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Ours is a daunting
task. We know that. You and I have been in the trenches a long, long time. We
know that the abortion culture is a ubiquitous, powerful enemy. But we shall
not falter; we shall not fail. We will stand together for the right to life of
every human being. We shall keep the faith. We shall fight the good fight … and
we shall succeed.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-10312329178227440452017-05-07T13:07:00.000-07:002017-05-07T13:07:57.530-07:00BROTHER RAY<div class="MsoNormal">
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My kid brother, Raymond, will be 80 years old next month. A
little old to be called a ‘kid’ to be sure, but the habit of a lifetime is hard
to shake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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More than forty years ago, I persuaded Ray to abandon his
career at the Detroit Edison Company and come to Lansing to help me establish
the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I needed someone who knew what to do with tools. Ray
undertook the job of managing our physical plant. Every nook and cranny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Few people realize the contribution Ray Brennan has made to
the revitalization of downtown Lansing. Under his careful guidance and minute
attention to detail the mostly abandoned Masonic Temple was reinvented as a
classroom building; the old J. C. Penny department store was converted into a
magnificent law library; and a commonplace fourteen story downtown office
building was re-invented as the spectacular ten story Cooley Center.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ray retired from Cooley more than a dozen years ago, but
true to the teaching of his father, he has kept himself busy. One avocation is
to serve as Chairman and Secretary of a distinguished group of over fifty
retired gentlemen who play golf together and call themselves the FOF. For
popular consumption they translate that acronym as “Friendly Old Fellows” but
Ray tells me there is a more colloquial, flatulent rendering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Still, golf being a seasonal sport, brother Ray managed to
discover and become enmeshed in an activity that knows no season: the science
of genealogy, which has led him to compiling a massive database of information
about people to whom he (and I) are related.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Hardly a day passes that I, and indeed all of our family, do
not receive a copy of an email from Ray to a near or distant relative who is
celebrating a birthday or wedding anniversary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ray has a million stories. Yesterday, as we watched the one
hundred forty-third running of the Kentucky Derby on TV, he regaled us with the
tale of a distant relative named Noah Armstrong. Born in Kingston Ontario,
Armstrong migrated to Minnesota and from there to Montana in search of his
fortune.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He found it in silver mining, discovering what came to be
known as the Hecla mine and ultimately becoming a founder of the Hecla
Consolidated Mining Company. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He
did well enough to establish a large ranch he dubbed Doncaster, and to take up
the avocation of horse breeding. Not one to be satisfied with half measures,
Armstrong constructed a massive, round, three story horse barn. It has been
described as resembling a wedding cake. Boasting an indoor race track, the
building is now listed on the national registry of historic places.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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More recently, you can find Armstrong’s barn on the
Internet, where it is advertised as the Round Barn at Twin Bridges, a popular
site for wedding receptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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But back in the day of its use as an equestrian residence
Armstrong had a mare named Interpose who was pregnant by a Hider Ali, a
thoroughbred stud.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Armstrong was traveling in Spokane, Washington in 1886, when
he received the news that Interpose was foaling. He promptly and whimsically
dubbed his new stallion “Spokane.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Three years later, in 1889, the year in which Montana was
admitted to the Union, Montana foaled and bred Spokane won the Kentucky Derby.
His time was 2:23.50, a record for the mile and a half distance, which still
stands today. It will never be eclipsed because the Kentucky Derby was changed
to a mile and a quarter in 1896. Spokane remains the only Montana horse to win
the “most exciting two minutes in sports.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Spokane went off at 16.4 to one and paid $34 on a two dollar
bet. One bettor did particularly well, as he wagered $5,000 on the race. He
collected $170,000. His name was Frank James. And, yes, he was the brother of
Jesse James, the infamous nineteenth century American bandit.</div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fascinating how the tentacles of genealogy can connect us
with people, places and events. Brother Ray has learned much and made many
friends through his exploration, and he has enriched all of us with his
discoveries. In many ways, the pay off has been as bountiful for Ray Brennan as
it was for Frank James.</div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226066128974181132.post-83366280239642075612017-05-04T19:11:00.002-07:002017-05-04T19:16:10.079-07:00NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1965, about a week after our youngest daughter was born,
Polly and I moved our burgeoning clan to a beautiful six bedroom home in the
Sherwood Forest section of Detroit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was a Circuit Court Judge at the time, and by no stretch
of financial legerdemain was I qualified to make such a purchase, but with the
aid of cousin Leo at the Savings and Loan and Gertrude Harwin, who desperately
wanted to sell the property, we swung the deal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was a lovely home, and perfect for a family of our size.
Among its many benefits was the fact that our next door neighbor was a man
named Arthur J. Lacy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was known by all as Judge Lacy, despite the fact that his
judicial career <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as the first and only
Judge of the Wayne County Court of Domestic Relations, lasted only eight months
until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1913.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Judge was a kindly, pleasant man, born in 1876. By 1965,
when I met him, he was well into a ninety-nine year lifespan. As a young man,
he had been elected Mayor of Clare, and subsequently was the Democratic nominee
for Governor in 1934. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite his loyalty to the Democratic Party, the Judge took
great exception to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third and fourth terms. In fact, he
purchased radio time to broadcast speeches opposing FDR in 1940 and 1944.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To me, the old Judge was a father figure. As a young Circuit
Judge, I had a way of generating controversy which spilled into the newspapers.
I found the Judge to be a steady, wise and sympathetic counselor. His comment:
“There is nothing older than yesterday’s newspaper.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In his last years, the Judge donated his personal papers to
the Bentley Historical Collection at the University of Michigan. The index
reveals his broad circle of friends and acquaintances as well as his life long
interest in public affairs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am specially in his debt. On the upper shelf of my cozy
new East Lansing den there is a set of twelve volumes entitled simply,
“America.” Published in 1925, by the Americanization Department of the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, the books are a compendium of letters, speeches and essays,
described as a library of original sources. It was a gift from Judge Lacy
shortly before he moved to a retirement home.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A bonanza to a history buff, every page of those books
yields insights into the history of our nation that can’t be found elsewhere, even
with the help of Google.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example: this evening, out of curiosity, I pulled down
the volume that covers 1783 to 1803 and opened it to a page about the Northwest
Ordinance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Few Americans have ever read the Northwest Ordinance, and
fewer still appreciate its importance in the history of our nation. Adopted by
the Continental Congress during the fading days of the Articles of
Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance was a blueprint for the expansion of the
United States from a timorous thread of thirteen coastal colonies to the bold
nation that reaches from sea to shining sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It established our use of the common law, protected the
right to own private property, abolished slavery in the Midwest, and provided
for the creation of independent states chartered and governed with the consent
of the people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Along with the Declaration of Independence and the United
States Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance deserves to be enshrined as a
founding document of our nation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But interestingly, it was not the work of Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton or James Madison. Or any of the other Founding Fathers who
are celebrated throughout the land by the naming of cities, streets, schools
and Universities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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No indeed, the Northwest Ordinance was written by a lawyer
from Massachusetts named Nathan Dane. Perhaps you never heard of him. I hadn’t until I opened Judge Lacy’s book.</div>
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There I discover that Mr. Dane not only wrote the Northwest
Ordinance, he also wrote an eight volume treatise called “A General Abridgement
of American Law” which became the sine qua non of reference for lawyers
throughout the country. It was so successful that Dane donated the profits to
establish a law school at Harvard University.<o:p></o:p></div>
Thomas E. Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074239891233597277noreply@blogger.com1