Politics: the Exercise of Power

The Chinese believed that great natural disasters are omens. That rulers have lost their divine mandate to rule, or that they are about to die.  In the history of China, many emperors and kings have died or lost power after disasters.
More recently on September 27th 1976, a magnitude 8 earthquake struck Tangshan ... continue reading

My initiation into law came early and fast. We were required to “brief” two law cases for orientation. “Briefing”
is essentially summarizing, or restating the cases in our own words,
highlighting the essential points for discussion. We were given introductions on how to write effective briefs, and set on our paths... continue reading

Law
school registration is surprisingly easy, especially for first year
students, as class sessions are organized in advance for us. We simply had to fill out and sign a small bundle of necessary forms, buy books, and pay the tuition fee. Before I knew it, I was finished. And then as a surprise the school official... continue reading

I leaped into law. There is no other way to describe it. There were no serious ambitions in law for me; nothing in my youth that indicated a longing for a life in law. I was born and bred to be an engineer or a scientist. My family had three generations of engineers, farmers, fishermen, and sailors. Not a lawyer i... continue reading

After further generalizing of his "big picture" and his convictions,
Bush altered his campaign theme of "War on Terrorism" to a much more
general and more appealing theme of "War on Death"."Afterall," Bush claimed, "Whether you are a liberal, conservative, Democrat, or Republican, everyone is afraid of Death.""Death ... continue reading

Last week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington held Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in contempt as part of the investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. This week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found five reporters in contempt of court for refu... continue reading

Word of wisdom this week:  Beware of stupid laws and the men behind them. I speak of the Republican effort to pass the Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in the US Congress.  This is a stupid law, because its heavy on ideology and paper thin on legal and practical considerations.The last ... continue reading

Last week, the US bipartisan Senate panel released its damning report on the failure of the US intelligence community, specifically the CIAs analysis of intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The Senate panel felt that many of the conclusions were either overreached based upon flimsy data or simply conclud... continue reading

If you are thinking of becoming a leader of people some day, in any enterprise, heed this lesson from me, your local sage, Contingencies, Contingencies, Contingencies.    If you should become a leader some day, you will be required to make some very difficult choices based upon limited available in... continue reading

Find 1 dissenting voice in this group, and ask yourself, by what miracle is that possible in a REAL meeting situation? First, the old joke. The word Politics comes from Poly, which means many, and ticks, which means blood sucking parasites. Ha, ha. Now, thats over. Seriously. Politics is related to the word Policy, ... continue reading