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Photo of the Day #potd
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As part of my resolve to get off my behind and walk more (note, not run, bike, hike, rollerblade, sprint, climb, or rappel) , I’m determined to take and post one decent photo each day, starting . . . three days ago.
There has got to be an interesting story here. 
Today’s photo.
In Without Sanctuary, historian Leon Litwack writes that between 1882 and 1968 an estimated 4,742 Blacks met their deaths at the hands of lynch mobs. The impact this campaign of terror had on black families is impossible to explain so many years later. That number contrasts with the 1,401 prisoners who have been executed legally in the United States since 1976. In modern terms, that number represents more than those killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and more than twice the number of American casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom — the Afghanistan conflict.
Turning to home, this number also represents 1,700 more than who were killed on 9/11.
via A Black Mississippi Judge’s Breathtaking Speech To Three White Murderers : Code Switch : NPR (emphasis added).
Why do mornings still get darker after the winter solstice?
BBC News – Why do mornings still get darker after the winter solstice?.
I’ve always wondered/grumbled about this; now I know.*
I’m declaring a new holiday called Nerd Solstice — or Nerdstice: when the sun finally does start rising earlier. The next Nerdstice is January 12, 2015. I’m still working on proper celebratory rites — though I’m certain it will involve coffee — and of course on insisting that everyone else wish me a Happy Nerdstice.
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* Read the article. I don’t really “know” it in the sense that I can re-explain it. I “know” it in the sense that I read an article about it that more or less made sense while I was reading it.
We know “normality” was designed by committee in London early in the reign of Victoria.
Yet another photo dump
That periodic post in which I gather all the photos since the last dump that are entertaining but not really worth an entire post.
Targeted email fail? Or maybe very accurate, based on the pallets of manure I have to lift in responding to opposing counsel!
When dudebros hit the farmer’s market.
Two from the “glad we cleared that up” department, starting with the helpful MS Word gnomes:
and Weather Underground:
I saw a link in Lifehacker to a logo generator, withoomph.com and thought I’d give it a try for CREEC. Our full name is too long, so I typed in the abbreviation and the description “civil rights non-profit.” I wonder what they think we’re up to? But it is sort of badass!
The next two are Signs You Know You’re Not Inside The Beltway Anymore, Toto. From the National Western Complex where the DeafNation expo took place this year:
This one is posted along the alley a block south of our house, in residential Denver. But you just never know when you’ll need a cattle raiser, and now I know where to find one!
I have no clue what moustache swag is but I have no doubt it can lead to good times!
From the silent auction of a local criminal justice reform non-profit. Very cozy!
Next, a couple of law nerd items. Who knew there was a reference book for zingers . . .
. . . and that standing could be as simple as buying the right clothes:
Finally, I have very very bad stapler karma. Do staplers fail for other people at a rate over 50%? This was one recent attempt:
Thinking of my Dad on what would have been his 79th birthday
Me with my Dad on a family trip to the west coast in 1970ish.
Appellate Law: Parking Division
I got a parking ticket last time I parked in the DU law school lot with a valid Dean’s Office permit. Because I’m related to Peter and Bruce Robertson, I could not just stfu and pay it. I had to appeal. I was all ready to write a blistering letter and submit a copy of my permit, when I read the fine print on the ticket and learned that I could appeal online. After being forced to create a DU Parking Account, I was confronted with this language.
Please read carefully before submitting.
All valid appeals will be presented to the University of Denver’s Parking Citation Appeal Supervisor. The Appeal Supervisor will undertake an impartial review of the circumstances surrounding the issuance of the citation(s) and provide a decision to the Department of Parking Services, which will then notify you, the appellant.
ALL DECISIONS REACHED BY THE APPEAL SUPERVISOR ARE CONSIDERED BINDING AND CONSTITUTE THE FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE APPEAL.
The burden of proof in the appeal rests with the appellant. Denial of an appeal makes the designated fine due and payable by the new designated due date. Any fine not paid by the deadline will be declared delinquent and it’s value elevated in accordance with our established policy.
The following are NOT valid grounds for appeal: (a) lack of available parking, (b) disregarding University parking rules and regulations, (c) length of time in violation area, (d) failure to observe posted signs and pavement markings, (e) class/instruction or meeting ran late, (f) faculty/staff other than Parking Services directed you to park in violation area, (g) non-receipt of the citation(s), and (h) possession of a valid DU parking permit, but not displaying it properly.
Frivolous or Abusive Appeals: If the Appeal Supervisor determines that an appeal is deemed frivolous or abusive in nature, the appeal is immediately denied and the full amount of the citation due within 15 days of the courts notification/decision letter. A “frivolous” appeal is defined as a bad faith or trivial appeal that is filed completely without merit in law or fact and cannot be supported by a reasonable argument. Other grounds classifying an appeal as frivolous or abusive may include, but are not limited to, appeals that use profanity and/or derogatory or threatening statements towards Parking Services staff members. All decisions by the appeal Supervisor to designate an appeal as frivolous or abusive are considered final. No further appeals can be filed.
The appeal process was established to provide an official mechanism for individuals who feel they were issued a citation that is not warranted or unjustly received. The appeals process is NOT the appropriate avenue for general criticism, complaints, or policy debates. Those arguments should be addressed in a letter to the Director of Parking Services.
By submitting this form, I certify that the information I provided is true and accurate and that I have read, fully understand and agree with the regulations, guidelines and instructions of this appeal, under penalties of the University of Denver Honor Code and the University’s Parking and Traffic Rules and Regulations.
Seriously? I’d like to know which of the pointy-headed law professors at the DU Sturm College of Law was responsible for this verbiage? Or perhaps the whole mess is karma for the fact that I drove five (5) blocks from home to park at the law school.
Know what a trimtab is? Me neither.
It’s a small part on the rudder of a large ship; by changing the direction of this small part, you can change the direction of the entire ship. It’s also a metaphor for making a small change with a large impact. My friend Unyong Kim — who teaches yoga and meditation in northern Virginia at Stress Burner Yoga — has started a Trimtab Project to bring mindfulness to busy, stressed activists and social change agents. I’m writing to urge you to give it a try.
I write this as a — how can I put this? — skeptical bitch. I am very un-new age. I have resisted yoga. I would like, in theory, to meditate, but IT’S TIME FOR COFFEE NOW! I am not mindful.
So when my dear friend Unyong suggested I be a sort of beta tester for her Trimtab project, I enthusiastically volunteered to help out, while my inner skeptical bitch rolled her eyes.
Joke’s on you, Skeptical Bitch! I’m really enjoying my Trimtab sessions and find them deeply helpful in precisely the way Unyong described.
I generally like things that help for reasons I understand like Benadryl or being edited by my smart co-counsel. The Trimtab project helps for reasons I don’t really understand. Helps what? The best way to describe it is to say: helps me come unstuck. I like to think of the work I do as significant — or at least as trying to wrestle with significant issues. But where my mental wheels often spin are the daily stresses of litigation, the small insults of opposing counsel, the brief section that I can’t get from my brain to the page, my own voice in my head telling me “ur doing it wrong.” It is these artificial barriers to thought that my work with Unyong helps to unstick. It is hard to be more specific without being more personal, which would be both awkward and irrelevant, as I’m convinced the unsticking is not topic-dependent and that the project — the method she uses — would be useful in any field.
Here’s how Unyong describes it:
The trimtab is a powerful metaphor from Buckminster Fuller: in order to change the course of a huge ocean vessel, you must turn the rudder. The trimtab is a small flap of metal which causes the rudder to turn. Turn the trimtab and you turn the huge vessel.
The Trimtab Project, aims to turn the trimtab that changes the course of your vessel, easily, elegantly, toward health, maximum effectiveness and enjoyment, with a minimum investment of time and energy.
There’s more info on Unyong’s website.
I’ve been doing one 15-20 minute Skype session per week for the past few months and have really enjoyed and benefited from it. I keep meaning to take the time to learn meditation, to be mindful, etc and always face the mental barrier that I don’t have the hours to set aside to do it right. (Also IT’S TIME FOR COFFEE NOW!) The Trimtab Project leapfrogs that barrier. My first session was right in the middle of trial prep and the sessions continued through oral argument prep; they’ve been little oases in the middle of all that stress.
Give it a try, bitches!
“Ferguson isn’t about black rage against cops. It’s white rage against progress.”
This woman nails it. White rage
goes virtually unnoticed, however, because white rage doesn’t have to take to the streets and face rubber bullets to be heard. Instead, white rage carries an aura of respectability and has access to the courts, police, legislatures and governors, who cast its efforts as noble, though they are actually driven by the most ignoble motivations.
The black rage that flares in response to individual instances of injustice is nothing compared to smouldering white rage — indeed, the smouldering rage of the privileged toward progress and equality: that whites are heading for minority status, that our democratically-elected President is black, that women can participate in society as equals, that gay and lesbian soul mates can marry. We see this rage, too, when obscenely rich white people respond to the prospect of a slightly more progressive tax system with analogies to Nazism. It often takes hilariously childish forms, the political equivalent of holding your breath until you turn blue. For example, some conservatives are now purposely making their cars spew black smoke to protest environmental policy. Wow – that’s powerful. Guessing the trucks also have “Obama is a poopy-head” bumper-stickers. Similarly, the “American” “Family” Association is refusing to open mail bearing the Harvey Milk stamp.
These are the dying gasps of a worldview that is fading, and will fade faster as more old farts who hold these views die off and younger generations are raised in a multiracial world where they and/or many of their friends and family have two mommies or two daddies. It doesn’t mean we can be anything but vigilant in the face of these last-ditch efforts, but it does give me confidence that
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Thought Snax 