The Press Monkeys

If you were wondering how the press has always worked, and not always for the Democrat party.

"We hear a lot about the “politics of division” these days. Indeed, that phrase was used in a few quarters as a criticism of DeSantis’s words. But I can think of fewer more “divisive” actions than falsely telling millions of people that the man who may well be their next governor believes that African Americans are monkeys. Those who did so should be ashamed."

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ron-desantis-press-gins-up-outrage-disgraces-itself/

Lest You Forget

The justice system in the United States is not here to protect you from criminals, rather it is the other way around.

"A MOB in Mexico has burned alive a pair of suspected child kidnappers after dragging them out of a police station.

Locals in the village of San Vicente Boquerón, in the Acatlán de Osorio region, initially handed over the two men to the authorities."
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7136143/child-kidnap-gang-burned-alive-after-150-strong-vigilante-mob-doused-them-in-petrol-outside-police-station/

The Zimbabwefication of South Africa

History may not repeat but it rhymes like mad.

"CNN sugarcoats what the South African government is planning to do, completely ignoring Zimbabwe’s disastrous experience, and omitting the fact that the planned seizures of the farms will be without compensation. It describes it euphemistically South Africa’s policy as “land reform” that “tries to reverse the uneven distribution of land” under which “white farmers still own the majority of land in the country.”"

https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/08/27/cnns-blatant-dishonesty-about-south-africas-so-called-land-reform/

Judge Michael G. Sullivan

Third Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Michael G. Sullivan, 68, died Tuesday, December 29, 2009. Judge Sullivan earned his BA from Spring Hill College in 1964. He served in the U.S. Army as a Thai translator/advisor in N.E. Thailand from 1966-69. Following his graduation from Loyola University School of Law in 1973 he was in the general practice of law until 1983 and was first elected to the bench as a judge of the City Court of Lafayette in October of that year. He was reelected without opposition in 1985 and 1991. He was elected to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeal beginning in 1995. He was a member of the Judicial Administration Division Traffic Court Committee and the Committee of Ethics and Judicial Responsibility of The American Bar Association. He also served as vice president of the Louisiana City Judges Association. Third Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Michael G. Sullivan

This man was one among those whom I admired most.  He was a quiet force of nature.  From his office drawer, he showed me a document that he kept and read every now and again.  Here is what it read:

DEATH SENTENCE (1881)

The following is a verbatim sentence imposed upon a defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico many years ago by a United States Judge, sitting at Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom.

~~~o~~~

"Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won't be there.

"The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see.

"From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.

"You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.

"And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch."

~~~o~~~

United States of America v. Gonzales (1881)
United States District Court, New Mexico Territory sessions

I Love You

When I take leave of members of my family, and sometimes good friends, I will tell them that I love them.  I mean it.

More times than I care to remember, I have heard sudden and unexpected news that I will never see or hear from someone ever again because they have been killed or died suddenly.  This happened twice in my immediate family and a number of times in my extended family and many many other times.

It is the human condition.  As Shakespeare wrote, everyone who is born owes God a death.

(Updated)
I forgot to place the link to the article that prompted this post:

"Among the greatest challenges of life is the struggle, when one is beset by tragedy, to remember to be grateful." (...) "Gratitude is not possible without humility."
http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/2018/08/one-coin-two-faces-sunday-rumination.html