For my regular readers I must apologize for an unexplained six week absence. I must apologize again because I’m not even going to explain it now. Maybe it doesn’t have any explanation other than it is just one of those things.
In any case a few things transpired during that time that might warrant a thought or two:
– The election went pretty much as I thought, to the extent I thought much about it at all. Being an exile in my own land I didn’t vote. I’m pretty much of the opinion that voting is worse than a waste of time: at this point its primary purpose is to pseudo-legitimize the illegitimate. Our collective public life needs to undergo a profound transformation that has nothing to do with who is president or what congress is doing. And there will be such a transformation soon (at least in historical terms) no matter what anyone does or doesn’t do. Personally, and although it’s not really a strong opinion either, I think constitutional monarchy is the best form of government, precisely because it leads everyone outside the government to the conclusion that the government doesn’t matter much. That’s much healthier than the current state of affairs.
– The Sessler v. Schiener bout in Livingston County went the way Sessler said it would go when he was assessing his chances objectively before the Republican committee that rejected him: The Conservative and Republican lines split and the Democrat was elected. First time a Democrat has held the Livingston County District Attorney’s office office since 1872, according to local news reports. I don’t know the new incumbent, a former Monroe County ADA named McCaffrey, at all. But a complete overhaul of that office, particularly with respect to ethics is long overdue and perhaps he will do something in that direction. One can never hope for too much, though. Institutional momentum is very powerful and of course crosses party lines.
In any case, Steven Sessler did a very necessary if unheralded public service. It would be nice if the people of Livingston County appreciated it, but they probably never will.
– This scandal is endlessly fascinating, but don’t kid yourself. The MIC is filled with them. How one surfaces and becomes an issue while thousands of others go unmentioned is always the real question.
– At various points in the remote past I tried to write songs. I found it extremely difficult, and have never written one that was any good at all. So I’m very grateful for those that do. I don’t envy them. It recently dawned on me that even from the greatest and most prolific composers – like Mozart – there are only a relative handful of compositions that endure. It’s much easier to just play music, yet that is how you can fill your world with good music. To each his own.
Lawyers on Strike 