f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

one-breath pundit  

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  At Legal Underground, today, you can meet an extraplanetary observer from Og who’s trying to figure out

  
  

  what makes American lawyers tick
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
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    did Evan put his classics education to work, choosing the Planet Og? 
    
    
    OG is the Latin abbreviation for Omnes Gentes (“All the Peoples”); or
    
    
    is the allusion to the Biblical, long-necked giant, Og?  On the other hand,
    
    
    OG also stands for original gum and Original Gangsta. 
  
  

  
  

                                                                                                                                                                       

  
  
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  Speaking of bibles, Prof. Bainbridge clucks and wonders how John Kerry will explain his positions

  
  

  on various stem cell issues to St. Peter.   We’ll leave what makes a good Catholic to other commentators. 

  
  

  But, we think St. Peter might have questions for religous “fundamentalists”: 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Why do you think that only the religion that you were born into or have chosen has all

  
  

  the answers?  Can’t we distinguish “faith” in a relationship with God from adherence to

  
  

  church-made dogma?

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Can a religion that excommunicated those who said the world was round and revolved

  
  

  around the sun be a good judge of the appropriateness of scientific research?

  
  

   

  
  

  Do you guys think you were given wonderous, curious, creative brains and a world

  
  

  filled with problems, so that you could find all the answers in one ancient book that’s

  
  

  filled with gossip, ambiguous metaphors, war crimes and ethnic hatred?

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  Ernie is seeking good taglines for Windows, in response to Apple’s “Think Different”. Mr. Svenson suggests:   “I’ll just do it the hard way.”  We offer: “Think Difficult” and “Don’t think, just update.”
  
  
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  Curious about any developments in Cat Stevens’ deportation case, I pulled up two articles that mention him: 

  
  

  
  

  – One from YellowTimes says “Yusuf’s Islam should be showcased, not shunned“

  
  

  – The other by immigration lawyer Alan Lee gives the Bush Administration poor

  
  

  marks on immigration policy and execution, and notes that “As of September 30,

  
  

  2003, the number of pending cases at the U.S.C.I.S. stood at a record 6 million plus.”

  
  

   

  
  

    I’ve been thinking that the best part for me about Yusuf Islam landing in the news is

  
  

  my digging out old Cat Stevens’ albums.  However, the worse part is that some of his tunes

  
  

  are so darn catchy, I can’t keep them out of my head and I’m singing them everywhere (to

  
  

  the chagrin of many, who are surely taking their various lord’s names in vain.)

 

    Now it’s time for some quiet haiku from our Honored Guest/Friend paul m.:

 

migrating whales
all our footprints
wash away

 

spring rain

the measured step

of a sandhill crane

 

canyon echo

sky-colored asters

among the rocks

 

 

credits: “migrating whales” – The Heron’s Nest, Feb., 2003, Readers’ and Editors’ Choice — Poem of the Year  [2002]

        “spring rain” and “canyon echo” – The Heron’s Nest, Feb. 2002, Readers’ Choice Popular Poet Award, Runner-Up