Before the Sabbath

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Before the Sabbath

"Before the Sabbath" is the title of a journal kept by Eric Hoffer, a San Francisco longshoreman.

November 9, 2008 -- The Night Sky

How often do we look to the night sky? When do we even see the sky these days? Let's say you walk out of your house and walk along the block on which you live. You look up. But, can you see the stars, can you see the heavens? No.

How often do we look at the night sky? Rarely. To do so one has to go out of his way to find it. One has to go out into the country, at night, on a clear night, preferably a cold night. One has to go out onto a frozen lake in the north woods.

Now, I ask myself, how many of us actually look at the night sky?

And now, I ask myself, how many of us who do look at the night sky think about the role we humans play in this vast incomprehensible cosmos? And, even if we look and think, how many of us have the opportunity to talk about it and to think about it with others? If you bring the subject up in a serious way you will probably be thought of as strange, daft.

I fear humans are vanishing from the earth. They were more prevalent, perhaps, in the Middle Ages, when one had time to look at the heavens and to think about what place humankind had in the great scheme of things. Maybe some even conversed with others about what one thought about what he saw, what he felt, how he, for himself, explained the vastness, the hard reality of facts observed.

October 16, 2008 -- The Sad Truth about America

I think there may be a sad and elemental truth about America. I have always thought human civilization was progressing toward a finer and truer understanding. I suppose I thought all of us were progressing toward a better more compassionate way of living. I now suspect I have been dreaming. What is America? What is it in truth?

A thought. How have we reacted to the West to Alaska. We have conquered, gouged and depopulated these places. The West is a place of predation. Is it possible that we might view the West and live in the West as a place of human and natural origin which offers redemption and eternal peace.

For me the West is a place of redemption and peace. I fear I am living in a dream world.

America is a violent and unforgiving place.

October 3, 2008 -- The Lender Bailout

The representatives of the people of the United States of America have changed America in one fell swoop. America will never be the same again. None of us will ever be the same again. We have confirmed this: We are no longer a nation of courage, we are a nation of followers. We are a nation which gives way to fear, mostly fear which has been falsely manufactured. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" FDR said. America has completely disagreed with FDR. "Fear itself, is is something to fear."

September 14, 2008 -- Got to file my office tax return tomorrow.

I have to file my office tax return tomorrow. My accountant got an extension. Now it is time to file.

I wish for simpler times.

Saw a movie last night. I escaped into dark humor for a while.

But, tonight, I do not wish to escape. I cannot. Tax returns simply have to be filed and the taxes paid. It is the same thing, really, as having to finish the harvest out on the farm. Just have to do it. Have to do something when you have been doing it for weeks, even years, and are tired of it.

But then I remember something which brings me to a place of grace.

In simply obligatory physical and mental effort there was a transcending truth. It was so simple and so close to life I could not help but remember -- the truth of good men and women, a truth which transcends effort and even hard times, just doing what needs to be done.

A simple truth, nothing momentous -- just the truth of a memory -- the farmers and the hired hands, all coming in from the ripe fields at the end of the fall day and going to the wash basin to wash up with fresh water from the well and lye soap and drying off with a towel made up of feed bags washed soft and rolling over a handmade towel bar a clean dry place for the next. Afterward, we all sat at the long table on the porch and ate supper and simply enjoyed each other's company, as the last light from the sun fell away on the Dakota horizon. In an hour or two we would be in our beds.

One of us would be looking for the passenger train coming east to Minneapolis from Seattle and even more magical places like Eastern Montana where the Rocky Mountains reached to the sky. Coming from the place of simple rest and peace.

July 7, 2008-- In the Churches Long Ago

In the churches long ago, one would sing hymns with his fellow parishioners which inspired and encouraged a person to not hide himself and what he was. One learned God wanted him to express his individuality and his courage, his unique truth. The message was that each was a gift and had gifts to give, but that it would not be easy. Taking up the Cross was not easy.

The words of such a hymn, one sung yesterday in one of the old churches, goes like this:

Your love, O God is broad like beach and meadow,

wide as the wind, and an eternal home.

You leave us free to seek you or reject you,

you give us room to answer 'yes' or 'no'.

Chorus: The love of God is broad like beach and meadow,

wide as the wind, and an eternal home.

We long for freedom where our truest being

is given hope and courage to unfold.

We seek in freedom space and scope for dreaming,

and look for ground where trees and plants can grow.

Chorus: The love of God is broad like beach and meadow,

Wide as the wind, and an eternal home.

But there are walls that keep us all divided;

We fence each other in with hate and war.

Fear is the bricks-and-mortar of our prison,

Our pride of self the prison coat we wear.

Chorus: The love of God is broad like beach and meadow,

Wide as the wind, and an eternal home.

We long for freedom where our truest being

Is given hope and courage to unfold.

We seek in freedom space and scope for dreaming,

And look for ground where trees and plants may grow.

Chorus: The love of God is broad like beach and meadow,

Wide as the wind, and an eternal home.

The Love of God is broad ... Anders Frostenson (1906 - )

In the Hymnal of the United Methodist Church

Not easy such a life, but liberating and necessary none the less. The message of the hymn is directly contrary to the message of conformity which has become so prevalent today.

May 27, 2008 -- These are dark times for America (and the rest of the world). In America, the great concerns of the day are housing prices, gasoline prices, the cost of television, phone and Internet services, what is happening in the world of the movies (isn't she so young and beautiful) and the local casino (I hear they are going to expand it and make more parking and bring in people like Leann Rimes and, I think, Soupy Sales, or maybe Dean Martin - he's not dead, is he? It will be so much fun, and the Buffet is really, really good.)

Meanwhile, we are becoming physically enormous and more and more of us are inclined to believe in illusion. Religion has devolved into intercessionary prayer for "good things" in our lives as Americans.

The whole she-bang has become childish and is coming undone.

Although America, on average, must be getting older at grand pace, those who should be becoming wiser, are not becoming wiser -- and certainly re not becoming philosophical. How can you become philosophical when you have to get your Dodge Ram pulling your Brand New Fifth Wheel to your new vacation "RV" space in North Idaho. Got to get there in a hurry so you can set up your satellite dish and catch up on the Tabloid News? (Do you really know what Tabloid News is? Look it up, find a link yourself.)

Meanwhile, our young men and women are off on a lark of a war in one of those countries we know nothing, absolutely nothing, about. This time it is a place where men have multiple wives and no jobs. And, he where the only people who really work are most of the multiple wives -- the youngest, the prettiest, the one still capable of instilling illusion, gets a pass.

Another intercessionary prayer or religious expletive! Praise be Allah, or praise be some facile American Television Personality.

But, our so-called enemies are no more enlightened than we are -- that's for sure. They are just as Banal as we are, no worse than we are.

The whole world, is in a bad way.

Meanwhile in the land of people who have stayed out of the fray (China) the air is so bad millions cannot breath. A whole country has become the London of Mary Poppins and Oliver Swift. So let's go there and have some sporting events. And, laud them for their response to a big earthquake and for their freedom of choice -- only one child and if you are about to have more than one we will take care of the matter for you and rip that interloper from your womb at any time, in fact, we might just kill him or her for you after she or he is born.

Maybe we are not moving into "dark times." Such freedom from unpleasure. We are good! Gotta love us all!

April 18, 2008 -- Haven't been to this page for a while. Looks like we are going to have some snow this weekend in Spokane. Interesting. My "there is no such thing as global warming friends" will have a lot to tell me this weekend at breakfast. They are so full of themselves. I am ready. While they were out being capitalists I listened to some science about Greenland and the melting of the glaciers on top of the continent.

My biggest detractor in the breakfast group where we discuss such matters is Croatian. I am pretty sure he has problems with me because I am Swiss. Despite the fact my people have the Alps I just know he is against me. He is really quite full of himself these days because Croatia is now a part of NATO and is soon to become a member of the European Union. I just know he is going to tell me Switzerland is a part of neither. I will tell him -- "so what" you do not have brown cows, animals as warm and loving as female Golden Retrievers. (He's also from Montana and thinks I do not know how to milk a cow!) (Yes, folks we are that old!.) I have a good deal of trouble with him.

Sometimes I think the real science we need is the science which will help us understand why we have no ability to accept we are the cause of out own destruction. Now I know my Croatians friend and his henchmen (both international elitists) will be out to get me!

A postscript -- I'll be damned if will I pay for their breakfasts even if I lose at the "guess the number game" we play to see who pays. I have lost the last three times we played. (I think they were conspiring against me. Since they engage in interstate commerce I am going to be looking into possible RICO claims against one or more of them.)

March 30, 2008 -- My main interest this past week was to work with one of my partners and our friend in renovating Suite 210 of the Minnesota Building. We finished in time to turn it over to the new tenants. Pictures.

March 27, 2008 -- Snow with an inch on the ground from the night before.

Spring in the Intermountain West is such a pleasure. Every day seems to bring a new and vivid taste of nature. It is 6:53 am and it is snowing! About an inch of snow is on the ground. The dogs are in a minor state of shock. The snow is so heavy I cannot see across the river.

Here is a picture of Mt. Stewart. My daughter got it while we were driving to Seattle last weekend.

The new snow in the mountains and found its way to the 2200 foot level. I am glad to be alive!

March 26, 2008 -- Clouds, very cool, Spring is having a hard time getting started.

War in Iraq. I "supported" the war in Iraq at the outset for a simple reason. I thought Unseeing was a tyrant and was killing the people of the area. His own people and the Kurds and the Iranians. I did not think at any time Hussein had so-called "weapons of mass destruction" or that if he did they would not be used.

I have changed my mind. This has taken about a year or so. I now believe we should withdraw as best we can and perhaps bring to the West (the United States of America) those whose lives will be in danger when we leave.

We cannot support nor should we stay in war which will last for decades. Are we in a war like the 100 Years War? I think we are.

We have to find a way to support our energy needs. We should use the resources available to us to solve those problems. They are not going to be solved spending another 3 Trillion Dollars on war in the Middle-East.

I am still the humanitarian I was back in 2001 - 2002. But, I am more realistic about it. Massive deployment of troops to an area will not solve the problems. Maybe an independent international police force could help, but it seems, and sadly I think I have to admit this, we have to let the peoples of nations work out their frightening problems on their own.

But, there may be another way. But I shudder to say it. If we want the kind of "peace" I think we want the way to achieve it would be for us, the people of the West, to in physical fact move to these geographic areas in large numbers and actually become the dominant members of the culture.

We cannot do it from Washington with troops and proxy troops.

Some time ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said Russia should embark upon a time of self-limitation and repentance. How true his words are today as applied to the United States of America.

March 17, 2008 -- Some clouds, 30's, yards are done (and so is the street along the block)

The US economy is going into a nosedive. We need a time for some Home Economics. National self-limitation and existential repentance should be given some thought. We cannot go on. We are on a drunken spree of self-indulgence.

March 11, 2008 -- Clear, cool, it will be about 48 today, time to finish the yards

The news this morning brings knowledge of the cause of the great Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The Dead Zone is dead because there is little or no oxygen in the water within the zone. The cause is the chemicals which run off the farming ground in the Mississippi drainage basin. Now matters are going to become worse because there will be more intense cultivation of land for corn and other crops which will yield fuel. The Dead Zone will expand.

Again, we witness how mankind, in its aggressive need to dominate the material world, is experiencing its own destruction. We are no longer creating the seeds of destruction. We have succeed with the seeds, they are truly bearing fruit.

Contrary to the illusions of dream state we live in, such truth cannot be changed by "popular opinion." And, what did our President say after 9/11? "Go shopping" and something like "show those terrorists they cannot scare us."

Just when is all this childishness going to be scuttled? One cannot have much hope that a reasonable view of ourselves and our world will come about anytime soon.

March 2, 2008 -- Sunday, clear, it will be warm about 43

I have been thinking about the overall mind or ethic of a country. Every now and then I go to compendiums of quotations from various people. I do this because I wish to understand, if I can, and if the quotations are comprehensive, which they never are but at least they are something, what the mind and spirit of the speaker was. This morning I looked at some quotations of Adolph Hitler. I was saddened not so much by what I read, but by the sense that what I read seems so much like the ethic and spirit of the world today. Of the world in which we live. A world whose religion is power, possession, ungraciousness, destruction and privilege for a few. A world based upon the judgment of power with an ethic which says the end justifies the means. A world which uses law as an instrument of brutality and the aggrandizement of power. A world which only pays lipservice to the principles of law and justice, the rule of law.

February 28, 2008 -- Thursday, Some thoughts from Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience (1849):

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right

Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also.

February 26, 2008, Tuesday, night, its in the 40's

Could not get the Wikiscruggs website to respond tonight. Do not know what is wrong but I am working on it.

Put in a new post on Spokane Up Close. It is about Rimrock Drive -- or now, the Rimrock Path.

I am finally getting to the point in life when I can still find some beauty in my surroundings even though I know the pain people are experiencing in the surroundings. I still feel the pain of the people but I guess I can put it off for a while and trust that I am not always responsible for trying to alleviate it. When I first came to Eastern Washington and the farming country I was overwhelmed by the beauty. But, it never seemed really beautiful when I thought of the people in pain I was trying to help and could not, or at least not as well and necessary to get them out of the fixes they were in. All the business and tax magic I could conger up still did not relieve them from the troubles they were in. Later I tried to help on a broader scale and found much frustration and only had minimal success. But enough success to make certain people and groups terribly upset with me. It is a hard world. It seems unreason always prevails over reason. I think it may have something to do with character. People just have a hard time having character. My guess is their god is the opinion of others, and not the opinion of God as they might imagine the mind of God. It is far easier to imagine the mind of the persons around them, as if such imagined minds were the mind of God.

We like certainty even if --- even if it spells destruction.

February 21, 2008 -- Sunny today, high 30's.

It has been a good day.

Ralph Nader and his group have issued a report on coal mine safety. There is no doubt that safety has been lax over the last several years. Coal mine "accidents" are not completely preventable, but they are mostly preventable with proper safety measures. This is where a strong union really has its place. But, why is the government not doing its job? See Coal Mine Safety.

February 17, 2008 -- Cloudy, calm, low 30's today.

Some time ago a friend said people did not understand him, rejected him, shunned him. My friend was quite troubled by this. It weighed heavily on him.

I thought about this for some time. Then I went to my friend and told him this: People come to their impressions of what the meaning of the life another is living. More often than not the impressions are those floating about as part of general public opinion. What a person thinks your life means makes the life he is leading uncomfortable. The person wishes not to have to think about, or confront, what the life you are living means to the way he is living. One must live his life in the way his conscience, his soul leads him to live it. Pay no attention to the opinion of others, live by your own opinion. And, accept the consequences.

February 15, 2008 -- Sunshine, in the 40's, the snow is melting, sun feels warm on the face.

Had some business at the courthouse yesterday. Some of the lawyers and the assistant clerks were having a conversation. They were talking about the "roundabouts" being built at various intersections in the city and the county. They all seemed quite sure these new fangled traffic devices were constructed to personally bother them. The conversation was somewhat lighthearted. I joined in. After a while I threw in a comment or two. I said the roundabouts were constructed because they created intersections safer than four stop intersections. I said the city got into the effort after a young man on a motorcycle, a "crotch rocket," permanently disabled himself running through a stop sign and into a car. I think I also said they were cheaper than fully signaled intersections.

Strange. Just after my friendly interjections the conversation broke up. I am going to think about why. But not now, maybe later.

February 6, 2008 -- Sunshine, in the 20's, more snow on its way, warm temperatures by the weekend, 40's. Most of the beauty will melt.

Listening to people express their love or hatred for the US presidential candidates makes me think how irrational we are. We pick people and express love or hatred. We put all sorts of our own fantasies on these people. We take our emotion and attach it, we only do so with irrational love or irrational hatred. Whatever we do it's libido, energy.

The Scruggs Matter is the same thing -- one sees great emotions about people. In the emotions we make "judgments" about people. In so doing we turn the person into something of our own fantasy, someone who is extraordinary, someone who is a demi-god. The judgments of demi-god status go either way -- toward good or evil estimates.

I think of how banal, common, ordinary the people were who inflicted great pain and suffering on the Jewish people of Europe during WWII. They were not extraordinary, they were just like the rest of us. A. Solzhenitsyn somewhere said the line between good and evil resides in the soul of every man and woman. We are all human.

The world is a lot more complicated than we would like to make it out.

February 4, 2008 -- Cloudy, 22 degrees F, more snow is on the way today. Will have to shovel some more to get ready for the new snow. Another 4 - 5 inches.

Twenty-two years ago last week, Derek Goldmark 12 died as a result of injuries he sustained along with his brother, mother and father on Christmas Eve 1985 at the hands of David Rice, a self-styled right-wing, anti-communist, anti-Jew killer. Derek and his family were none of these. Derek was just a kid who loved his family, his friends and his community. He was my close friend as were his brother Colin Goldmark 10, died December 28, his mother Annie Carlsten-Goldmark 43, died December 25, and his father Charles Goldmark 41, died January 9.

Not a day goes by without thinking of my friends.

A place of memory of them is in Seattle at a Lake Washington Overlook at the bottom of Madrona where the street meets Lake Washington Blvd. at the lake.

February 3, 2008 -- Blue sky today. But "they" say more snow is on its way.

One of the presidential candidates says he will defeat the "Islamic Terrorists." Did I hear correctly? I am not sure. This seems to be a fairly amorphous group. Who is or is not an Islamic Terrorist?

Reminds me of the rhetoric of the 50's calling for the defeat of the Communists. People started finding Communists everywhere. People who knew Communists were Communists. People who had had contact with Communists were Communists.

One can live any where in the world so long as he has an object to which he can attach his energy, his libido. The Internet and access to it makes it possible for people living in the most remote of places to become a part the world. Maybe not much of a part, but a part nevertheless.

A man knows he can live anywhere if there is a woman with him whom he loves and who loves him.

I wonder: Is this what we do? Do we find meaning by taking our libido and attaching it to objects, endeavors, works. Is this what Dickie Scruggs has done. I expect so. The Tobacco Cases were quite a creative effort. The Katrina Case was the same. Mr. Scruggs has found a way to use his energy. Many do not like it. In fact, many are really quite upset about it, quite upset.

February 2, 2008 -- A winter's day in the low 30's. No more snow today. Maybe tonight.

Been thinking about judges and judging. To be honest with myself, and as much as I would like to think judges can be selected who are truly rational creatures who objectively act on fact and decide based on law and reason, I have to admit I think I am deceiving myself.

Judges try to do the right thing, they try to do what facts and law require but they are human and they do not have all the resources they need. Judges decide how the case should come out and then they provide their reasons. Justice Hughes said 90% of the work of the United States Supreme Court was emotion, the other 10% effort to make decisions seem reasonable or rational. In my own experience I find Justice Hughes' comment to be applicable to all judging.

At the same time, I think what we know as law and reason do from time to time play out in the decisions of the work of the court. I also think those who follow decisions are somehow affected by them and their statements of law and reason. And this perhaps at an unconscious level -- the emotional level where most of the work takes place.

It seems civilization, despite war and unreason, still progresses toward reason, toward law, toward justice, toward "the good."

January 27 -- Warmer but with at least 10 inches of new snow. What a delight!

Spent some time today with my old friend Roy McL. Roy is about 93 and lives on his own north of the city. I have known Roy for at least 14 years.

Roy is from Laurel, MS. He lives here because this is where he came to rest after his time in the USAF. He did not make it into action in WWII but did move planes from here and there to the front. He was a navigator. He tells wonderful tales of captains of his flight crews at the time who were instinctive flyers only 19 years old.

After the war he stayed in the Air Force and went into "War Plans." I do not think I should even tell the tales he tells. I asked him about flying below radar because I had read about Dickie Scruggs coming up with a below radar approach. He explained it to me and showed how it worked!

The Mississippi Scruggs Matter is enlivened by Roy's tales of growing up in Mississippi well before the Second World War. What a rich treasure of memory my old friend has. I am looking forward to telling of it.

Just to give a hint: Roy told of the "tent shows" which would move about the South when he was a boy. The shows would come and stay a week or so. The last show was "men only." At the end, the dancers would raise the back of their dresses. They were not wearing panties that day so the result was quite tasteful. To ensure the men did not get out of hand, as soon as the dresses came up, the sides of the tent went down. Now the show was open to the world.

With great smiles, the young women would safely move off stage.

January 25 -- Still cold, about 8 degrees F. The packed snow at the back of my house makes a wonderful sound when I walk on it. It reminds me of hiking far out on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota in the dead of winter to go ice fishing for Walleye and Northern Pike. I like the warmth of summer, but there is nothing quite like the cold of winter to make one's soul feel good. [1]

Walter Olson at Overlawyered had a bit about Wikiscruggs yesterday. He said:

A public wiki just for Scruggsiana? After Keker's minions swoop in to do their edits, the Mississippi attorney may wind up portrayed as the next Mother Teresa, and not the Hitchens version either [WikiScruggs]

Same general category of point, my Wikipedia entry now suddenly describes me as "controversial", when but a month ago I wasn't;

This morning I sent a reply to him saying:

I intend to do my utmost to be sure the information put up on www.wikiscruggs.com is factual. My hope for the site is that it will serve as a resource for those who wish to understand the US v. Scruggs litigation and related matters and also explore concerns about the Mississippi judicial system and legal environment.

[1] Edward Gibbon in Reflections on the Fall of Rome said "[c]old, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue fortify the strength and courage of the Barbarians." Must be something to this "cold" business.

January 24 -- It is cold, about 4 degrees F. It is clear and still. The high sky is turning to a deep blue. In a while the dogs and I will go out for a walk of a mile or two. I have to be careful not to fall. Falling is hard on my new right hip. I use some sort of cable devices attached to the bottoms of my boots to keep me from slipping on icy places. Maybe next year I will be able to ski again.

I caught up on the Scruggs Matter this morning. I started at Y'all Politics. The news of letters between a lawyer who heads up one of the county bar associations and the state bar association were interesting. David Rossmiller at Insurance Coverage Blog. Then there was more about some correspondence from the Bar Association itself at Folo.

Looks like the real trouble is the Mississippi judicial system and the quality and integrity of its judges. None of what is happening regarding the judicial bribery would have come about but for corruption of the judicial system. I am sure there will be many who will say the problem is a few bad judges. But, in my experience there would not be a few bad apples but for a certain ethic which must pervade the Mississippi judicial system. Why would any lawyer even think he could bribe a judge but for some notion that bribery had become a part of the system?

But, enough of that. Before I go out I have to put my desk in order so I know what I have to do before the day is over. I am still practicing a bit so there is some of that work to do. And, there is the year end review of the accounting for the condominium association.

The City Utility Tax Initiative (Spokane Fair Tax) will go to the city council next week and I will be able to go forward with signature gathering. I will do the gathering myself. I want to meet people and see what they have to say about things. It will take quite a bit of time and I am sure I will not enjoy some of the public's responses but it will not hurt to thicken my skin a bit or a least try not yield to the negative feelings people can cause.