Sunday, February 11, 2018

METAPHSYICS

Let’s get Metaphysical! (Apologies to Oliva Newton John).
UBER- FRONT OR BACK?
First, the burning question of the moment: Uber/Lyft- front seat or back?
It’s creepy to get into the front seat with a stranger, especially drivers that don’t talk. But I always feel bad when I get in the back seat arnd the driver is cool and chatty.
There doesn’t seem to be a solution to this dilemma.
LOG ME IN PLEASE
I was trying to log on to something yesterday and of course I forgot my info. So then I had to long on to my app that stores all my info. And then I logged on to the app I was trying to log on to. And I realized that I do that about three times a day. Five minutes per issue…fifteen minutes. TM says you should meditate twenty minutes a day twice a day. So what is my time better spent? Logging into apps so I can log into apps? Or meditating?
And then I thought this: Logging is now something we do all the time. Every day. Multiple times a day. Until we log out.
Until we log out for good. Until we are gone. And you know what? I can send texts and emails to friends who are gone. Dead gone. And it’s so strange.

NEW JUDGES
I know both lawyers who got appointed Friday. One is great, one not so much. Oh well, 50% isn’t bad.
I'LL BE THERE
TMC is the best cable channel and Sunday night at 8:00 is one of my fav movies: The Grapes of Wrath. Watch it just for a young Henry Fonda’s  (Tom Joad’s) speech at the end: “…wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build – I’ll be there, too.
 NOT ME TOO
I can’t believe I’m saying this but…the President is sort of correct on the #metoo allegations. People’s lives…men’s lives should not be destroyed on a mere allegation. Of course men like Harvey Weinstein and the like, men facing serial abuse and rape allegations over decades deserve no sympathy.  But do we destroy a person’s life over an unproven allegation?
There are two sides to every story and here is one. Call it a hypothetical. A hypothetical classmate in law school who (to use legal language here) knowingly and willingly  engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a married professor. When the professor went to end it, the classmate asked for and received a substantial sum of money…two times. The second time in exchange for unfettered access to their email and social media to erase all pictures, emails and text messages.
The Hypothetical student is a wrong as the Prof.
Great professor. Dumb relationship. The hypothetical professor has had a successful career. Won pro bono cases at the highest appellate levels for indigent clients. Should their career be ended because of a personal failing? Or to quote Jesus, “Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.”
(please note, the location of the hypothetical law school, and the gender of the hypothetical parties have not been disclosed, and should not be speculated upon.)
HARVARD
Harvard peeps- New prez selected Sunday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY T
Let’s end on a happy note. On February 8, 1820 my favorite civil war general- William Tecumseh Sherman (“Billy T” but known to his compatriots as “Cump”) was born. His father died when he was young and his mother sent his brother to be raised by a family member, and he was sent to be raised by Thomas Ewing, a friend of his father. Sherman later married Ewing’s daughter. Sherman’s service in the war, much like that of his friend U.S. Grant, was up and down. He was given commands, and relived of them, and at one point publicly accused of being mad (as in crazy). But if there is one thing Grant was, he was a superb judge of fighting talent. And he knew he had a winner in Sherman. In late 1863 Sherman was given command of the Army of Tennessee. The following spring Grant recommended his promotion to Supreme Commander of the Armies of the West. Upon taking command he received this famous order from Grant: “Create havoc and destruction of all resources that would be beneficial to the enemy.” And that Sherman did in a terrible manner not before seen on any battlefield. Sherman was the first general in modern history to employ a "scorched earth" military campaign. 
With almost 100,000 troops in his army, Sherman marched through the south (known as his “March to the Sea”- from Atlanta to Savannah ) in one of the great military campaigns of all time. We can only pray an army will never again lay waste on American soil what Sherman did in, and too, the South. As Lee held off Grant at Petersberg, Sherman lay waste to anything and everything in his way, and in Lee’s rear.
On the night before Christmas Eve in 1864, Sherman sent Lincoln a telegram presenting him with Savannah, Georgia, as a “Christmas Gift.”  It is fair to say that without Sherman’s fearsome march through the south, the war would have lasted far longer. When Grant retired, Sherman was promoted to General of the Army, a rank above a five-star general. Other Generals of the Army have been Grant (the first), Pershing, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Hap Arnold. And Bradley. Not a bad group.
Sorry, but let’s actually end on a sad note. I don’t see a Lincoln, Eisenhower, or Grant in our future.
No, let’s end on a happy note. Lincoln came almost out of nowhere to save the Union. Grant was a down on his luck merchant when the civil war revived his career. Eisenhower was picked from virtual obscurity behind a desk by Marshall over dozens of more experienced generals to lead the war. So we can only hope we have another miracle left to save our union.
Blog peeps were asking for me. And here I am. 👩 (Can't end without one emoji.)'
MM. 



19 comments:

  1. I am sure you don't know the asa who became judges cause they try murder cases and we know you are lucky to try a C case

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  2. 6:18 pm commenter is a male with erectile dysfunction.

    or a male who prefers silence in women

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  3. Rumpole, it's so creepy you post as MM.

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  4. I now know I will read anything

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    1. LOL. Sometimes I like to take a mental picture of myself and think of a caption to capture how silly I've become.

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  5. Uber back seat. No question or debate.

    Its not the "ride sharing" experience that it started out with. These folks are very much professional (even if sometimes only part time) chauffeurs at this point. Open the back door, smile and say hi, play on your phone, and sit quietly (give polite help with directions if you need to) until you say thank you and get out at your destination.

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  6. MM:

    The typos and grammatical errors are hugely distracting and suggest that you aren't terribly committed to writing something worthwhile.

    Here's a pro tip: Every writer needs an editor. Every one. You are not in any sense exceptional in this regard.

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  7. Sorry Rumph, but get your Civil War history correct-Grant went against Gen. Pemberton at Vicksburg while Lee was commanding the Army of Virginia. It is only after Grant took Vicksburg that he was sent east to confront Lee.
    And the South was outnumbered 2 to 1 at Vicksburg but held out for months because due to the intricate defenses Pemberton had designed.

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  8. What is the obsession with emojis and GIFs? Has communication devolved back to cave paintings?

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  9. Just curious about your description of General Sherman being the first general in "modern history' (1864) to use "scorned earth" as a tactic in war. When do you consider modernity to have begun? That tactic was used by the Russians and their allies against Napoleon in 1812 and the against the Swedes during their invasion in 1708.

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  10. The president is right generally but two different wives claimed to have been beaten and there were pictures. I'm not sure here is where I would take a stand.

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  11. Also:"Metaphysics."

    That is a word with a meaning. And I think the one thing that is clear from your post, MM, is that you don't know what that meaning is.

    Try harder.

    Do better.

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  12. RUMP WAKE UP. WHERE ARE YOU.

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  13. General Lee was busy getting his ass kicked at Gettysburg--on the other side of the Appalachians--while Grant was taking Vicksburg. Must not be teaching much about the Civil War in our schools these days.

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  14. Hey idiots- learn to read. There was a ten month siege between Grant and Lee at PETERSBERG which ended in April 1865 and coincided with the end of the war, based in large part on Sherman's rampage through the south.
    But at least y'all read the blog when I post, and I love ya for it.
    _kisses-
    MM

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  15. Eric I think mm might be right in the sense it was first army whose goal was to make the civilian populAtion suffer by wrecking the entire economy of the south and making civilians feel the pain of war

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  16. Thank you. I very carefully chose my words. Other armies employed such tactics. Viking invaders in England. Russian invaders on the steppes. Genghis Khan.
    But this was the first in what I consider the dawn of modern warfare- the use of cannons and artillery- where such brutal tactics were employed. Of course the term modern warfare is subjective. One could accurately argue the dawn of that warfare was the German invasions of Poland and France, as tanks routed Calvary soldiers on horseback and the use of tactical battlefield bombers in close air support of infantry replaced the deadly trenches of WWI.

    In any event, no matter how you characterize it, Sherman's march through the south was historic and unprecedented in many ways. And it broke the stalemate at Petersberg.

    MM

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  17. Eric
    I think the Russians destroyed their own territory to prevent it from being used by Napoleons army for sustenance. That war was fought between armies against each other in the field. Sherman destroyed the other sides land,cities and factories to bring the hell of war to the civilians who were otherwise comfortably supporting the opposing forces. Sherman was the first to attack cities and civilians in order to make the opposing nation "howl". You've got to remember that Napoleon was fighting against kings and it was his France that established the concept of the nation and it's distinct people as a political entity.

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