{"id":585,"date":"2024-02-18T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T16:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=585"},"modified":"2024-02-18T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T16:57:09","slug":"you-say-tomato-i-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=585","title":{"rendered":"You Say Tom\u0101to, I Say. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Politics is but the whetstone against which a man\u2019s value is honed and polished to an edge, the gleam of which catches the eye of the acolyte, pulling them to him, curious but unquestioning, as a magpie to a shard of broken glass. \u00a0 \u00a0 (<\/i>Anon.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Partway through a novel set in 1860\u2019s New Zealand and chronicling life in a coastal gold rush town, the author introduces a distinction between \u2018frontier justice\u2019 and the more \u2018civilized\u2019 version we like to celebrate as common law. The population of the time is a heterogeneous mix of Brits, Asians, indigenous, and all points in between. The value systems reflect an uncomfortable balance between that of the expeditious, opportunistic and the \u2018refined\u2019 \u2014 happy to take advantage but reserving the right to access \u2018due process\u2019. In short, not so very different from life and times 150 years on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the wheels of the contemporary judiciary grind on, invited forth by candidates from all the usual suspects, I was struck this week at the ready willingness of both<\/i> stripes (Red and<\/i> Blue, as it were) to at once be smitten by the law\u2019s censure and yet take shelter in its billowing robes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Little boy Blue that I am, it continues to be cause for a fist pump, when an $83 million \u2018wrist slap\u2019 is issued, and a period is placed at the end of a sentence of years of frustration for E. Jean Caroll, the decision bringing with it some semblance of closure. And then. . . as if it had left an \u2018i\u2019 undotted, said judiciary tacked on a $350 million sequel, penalty for a bit (well, quite a bit) of book-doctoring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elation fades as court rulings shift from a candidate barred for his part in presumed acts of insurrection . . . to these self-same arguments read as an affront to democracy, disenfranchising the electorate to their right to root for whomever they please \u2014 however, weird that choice might be. It\u2019s hard to keep up! And so January 6, 2021 fades to 2022, 2023, now 2024. The nuances of what the founding fathers \u2018meant\u2019 when they framed the Constitution or the wisdom of an 1868 amendment when it added its margin notes (\u2018no person. . .\u2019), continue to be debated. And the skirts continue to enfold \u2014 as the court motions pile up and the delays (due process?) spool out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally, doing what I do for a living (i.e., pronouncing on cognitive function), it was hard not to be troubled by Special Counsel Robert Hur\u2019s summary description of Joe Biden as \u2018an elderly man with a poor memory<\/i>\u2019 (no personalization here!). This mouthpiece for that same judiciary was now dissing the white hat in the piece. Bit too much gratuitous editorializing on Mr. Hur\u2019s part. Nevertheless, and while I absolutely take issue with his credentialing to essentially \u2018diagnose\u2019 Sleepy Joe, his comments did put the political shoe firmly on the other foot \u2014 time for the Dems to cry foul.<\/p>\n

And so the tennis match continues. Ad-in, ad-out \u2014 and back to deuce. Each waiting for the other to stumble \u2014 sadly all too common an occurrence with this pair. Then clapping hands, briefly celebrating, before calling Pelosi Haley or crossing up Mexico and Egypt. Just two old dudes polishing that edge (or what\u2019s left of it) and, in the process making the case for mandatory retirement \u2014 or at least a nice, full battery of tests as the price of admission to this event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politics is but the whetstone against which a man\u2019s value is honed and polished to an edge, the gleam of which catches the eye of the acolyte, pulling them to him, curious but unquestioning, as a magpie to a shard of broken glass. \u00a0 \u00a0 (Anon.) \u00a0Partway through a novel set in 1860\u2019s New Zealand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}