NEWTON AND THE BOSS

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Sir Issac Newton is one of our very favourites. His Principa Mathematica changed the way we saw the universe . When he sat down to begin the Principia, he started with three laws, commonly referred to the laws of motion.

Maybe Newton can assist us today.

First Law of Motion: Inertia: Inertia describes the Florida Legislature. They tend to do nothing until something makes them do it.

Newton wrote:
Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Our inert politicians were just sitting on their front porches in Tallahassee, sipping ice tea, and laughing at Miami (“Wait..wait…wait…it gets better. They actually think we’re gonna build them a baseball stadium so those buncha drug addicted illegal aliens [That’s Tallahassee speak for the general population south of Broward] can sit and drink …whatta they call it? Cerveza…watchin a ball game” [General laughter amid the spitting of tobacco juice in spittoons]. ).

The Court appointment system was merrily rolling along until a group of politicians decided to change it. The politicians were the external force, and they have changed the system, probably for the worse.

Second Law of Motion: Acceleration.

Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration.
The rate of change of momentum of a body is proportional to the resultant force acting on the body and is in the same direction

There’s no doubt the Legislature has mass. Lots of it where they sit…less of it between their ears. Force in Tallahassee is stated in this complicated mathematical term, where F=Force.
F=$$$$$

So what happened to us is $$$$x(m)ass=quick loss of court appointments.

The Legislature would do well to heed the third law of motion: The law of reciprocal reactions.

III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Example- Some guy named “Hep” slapped his knee and spit tobacco juice in Tallahassee , and some lawyer in Miami was soon asked to represent some kid charged with murder for $10/hour, 20 hour cap.

The politicians have changed the system. There will be an opposite reaction. There will be a price to pay and we will all pay it.


Money is the heart of the matter. Oh Susannah Nesmith’s fine article yesterday detailed the familiar story of young prosecutors and public defenders in debt, unable to pay their bills, and scrapping pennies for food at the end of the month. The same story can be written about school teachers, EMT techs, just about any profession that is valuable to society. Of course the real important people, the athletes and performers don’t have such worries.

Right now there’s lots of talk and plans and possible heroics. Long time and careful readers of the blog know that we often recommend turning to the Bard in times of stress or trouble. However, there is a more modern day Bard who often fulfills the same role.

And he wrote this poetry in Thunder Road:

You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair


And perhaps as we spend this summer waiting in vain for a savior to rise from these streets, we can contemplate life after appointments:

And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.

Yes, we might just understand it if some of our colleagues packed it up and pulled out of here to win.

See you in court. We’re the one’s humming “No Retreat No Surrender” right before we pick a jury.