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

US Airways Flight 1549:  It’s very cold here in Upstate New York, but I’m still taking off my hat to praise the pilot (Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of Danville, Calif.), crew and passengers of US Airways Flight 1549, and all of the rescue workers (fire department, police department and Port authority police).  Together, they were able to bring today’s plane crash into the Hudson River to a remarkably happy ending — with all aboard surviving (most not even getting wet) and no apparent serious injuries. “All 155 survive plane crash in NYC’s Hudson River” (AP/Charlotte Observer, Jan. 15, 2009); “Jet Ditches in Hudson; All Are Said Safe” (New York Times, Jan. 15, 2009) [Click for “latest updates on the Hudson jet rescue” from the NYT City Room weblog.]

NY Gov. David Paterson got it right, when he said:

“This is a potential tragedy that may have become one of the most magnificent days in the history of New York City agencies.”

Apparently, the plan encountered a flock of geese. We now know what a “double bird” means to airline and safety workers — a bird or several birds entering engines on both sides of the plane.  According to a side article in the Charlotte Observer, there were at least 6 bird-plane collisions in 2008 — geese, hawks, owls and more.

— we’re left with yet another perspective on flocks of geese —

update (Feb. 12, 2009): The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board reported today that experts at the Smithsonian Institution have determined it was indeed Canadian geese that brought down Flight 1549, after examining 25 samples of bird remains found in the plane’s engine.  See AP report on CTA.ca, and CNN.

Master Issa wrote hundreds of haiku about geese, in the 19th Century.  Here’s a sample (find many more here)

another year
they’re back for the massacre…
rice field geese

wind is blowing
and so the geese
are honking

settling back
to dead silence…
rice field geese

finalizing the divorce
leaving my house behind…
departing geese

the departing goose
drops an enormous
crap

after many nights
telling me bedtime stories
the geese have left

straight out of a full moon
painting…
the geese depart

evening wind–
the geese turn around
honking

after the geese depart
back to normal…
Sumida River

…….. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

honking at my window –
geese above
cabbie below

… by dagosan

Grimmy . . .

holidays over  –
the dog puts a halo
on my snow angel

… by dagosan

.. f/k/a is going to the dogs today, inspired by a few stories in the news (about Colombian coffee, assistance creatures and Pavlovian partisan politics, which are discussed below), plus a haiku or two.

distant thunder
the neighbor’s dog
scratches the door

in the park
my dog fetches
a better stick

… by w.f. owen — from haiku notebook

tripping over the dog
again…
night of winter rain

… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

[full cartoon; Mother Goose & Grimm, Jan. 2, 2009]

Canned Canine? We reported last year that drinking coffee enhances your mood and makes you more sociable.  Apparently, the same cannot be said for growing coffee. Grimmy’s cartoon sidekick Attila brought the wrath of the Colombian coffee cartel down on his master Mike Peters, this week.  Attila made a crack in the Mother Goose & Grimm comic strip of January 2, 2009 [detail above; full cartoon] about the nation’s crime syndicates and finding “a little bit of Juan Valdez,” the fictitious symbol of Colombian coffee growers, in every can. See “Colombian coffee growers sue U.S. cartoonist,” Columbia Reports (Jan. 6, 2009); more coverage at Robot 6 (Jan. 7, 2009); The Associated Press, Jan. 8, 2009; and the SSFeral Children weblog (Jan. 7); via Overlawyered.com (Jan. 9).

Sun-scorched slope– 
an old donkey rubs his rump
against a mud-crusted post

…… by Rebecca Lilly – Shadwell Hills (Birch Press, 2002)

Feeling its national dignity, and that of the 300,000 small, independent coffee growers that it represents, was insulted, The Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers announced a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Mike Peters because his cartoon linked Colombia’s coffee with its crime syndicates.

The Juan Valdez strip, which is not one of Peters’ funniest, was part of a week-long series based on the fact that the inventor of the Pringles potato chip can had his ashes buried in one.

Going a bit over the top, federation director Gabriel Silva said last Tuesday that the guild seeks:

“not just an economic compensation for something that damages the intellectual heritage. We also want moral compensation. A public manifestation.”

Mike Peters is also a well-known editorial cartoonist. It’s a bit surprising (unless you take into account the $20 million request for damages) that he held back his tongue in responding:

“I had no more thought to insult Colombia and Juan Valdez than I did Pringles, Betty Crocker, Col. Sanders, Dr. Pepper and Bartles & Jaymes. . .

“I thought this was a humorous subject and all of my Mother Goose & Grimm cartoons are meant to make people laugh. I truly intended no insult.”

We’re pleased to see that some of Colombia’s most respected cartoonists are scoffing at the law suit and calling it a waste of time. Although the f/k/a Gang will continue to drink Colombian coffee every day, Grimmy and I are symbolically raising our legs, not our mugs, to salute the litigiously-over-caffeinated Cafateros Cartel and their New York lawyers.

the taste
of coffee –
the aftertaste

Park Closed ’til Spring —
yellow snow
behind the Rest Rooms

… by dagosan

.. Look Who’s Coming to Dinner: An article in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, “Creature Comforts” (January 4, 2009) by Rebecca Skloot, has left me more knowledgeable and open-minded than I was when I started the article.  But, I’m still not sure where I would draw my bottom line about how to define “service animal” for the purposes of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which says businesses must allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals into all areas of the business where customers are normally allowed to go. Only if a service animal is out of control and presents a direct threat to others, may you ask the customer to remove it from the premises.

For me, the whole topic of Service Animals and Therapy Animals (a/k/a Creatures) was, frankly, colored by my dislike of people who drive with dogs in their laps (see prior post) and other pet-lovers who insist upon bringing their much-loved “family members” everywhere they go — even into places like restaurants and drug stores, where pets are not normally allowed.

The NYT piece taught me one important point: To distinguish between Service Animals and Therapy/Comfort Animals, which are treated differently under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

• “Service animals” are animals that are individually trained to perform specific tasks for people with disabilities.
• “Therapy animals” (also known as “comfort animals”) are used for emotional support, comfort, companionship, or therapeutic benefits, but are not trained to do any particular tasks for an individual. They are not considered to be service animals and business do not have to let customers bring Comfort Animals into their establishments.

It sounds like I won’t be able to bring Grimmy along with me as my Service Animal — the therapeutic effects of his humor on my mood and well-being only place him in the Comfort Animal category.  It’s a good thing that I can sneak Grimmy into a restaurant in a briefcase (and that he’s paper-trained).  Mother Goose can’t claim his fetching the morning paper for her as a covered “task,” either, since she’s not disabled.

Seeing-eye Dogs are our archetypical example of Service Animals.  But, Skoot tells us in her article that:

“a growing number of people believe the world of service animals has gotten out of control: first it was guide dogs for the blind; now it’s monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go.”

Naturally, the line between therapy animals and psychiatric service animals has always been blurry, because it comes down to varying definitions of the words “task” and “work” — and whether something like actively soothing a person qualifies. D.O.T. guidelines for airplanes muddied the waters considerably, however, with new guidelines saying, “Animals that assist persons with disabilities by providing emotional support qualify as service animals.”  People started thinking they could bring their Comfort Animals everywhere, so long as they had documentation that the animal was needed.  As Skloot notes:

• “Soon, a trend emerged: people with no visible disabilities were bringing what a New York Times article called “a veritable Noah’s Ark of support animals” into businesses, claiming that they were service animals. Business owners and their employees often couldn’t distinguish the genuine from the bogus.”

• However, “To protect the disabled from intrusive questions about their medical histories, the A.D.A. makes it illegal to ask what disorder an animal helps with. You also can’t ask for proof that a person is disabled or a demonstration of an animal’s ‘tasks’.”  You can only ask whether it is a service animal and what particular task it performs.  You many not ask for documentation.

.. how do you feel about service animals? .. ..

The article focuses on the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice is considering a proposal that would ban all but canine service animals and leave “therapy animals” out of the definition.  At her Culture Dish weblog, Rebecca Skloot follows-up on the magazine article with several helpful and thought-provoking posts.  One gives you DoJ’s Rationale Behind Banning Non-Canine Service Animals (January 7, 2009); another has DoJ’s reasoning for allowing Psychiatric Service Animals but leaving Therapy Animals out of the definition.  Skloot also gives more details about various non-canine service animals, including Panda the miniature horse, Sadie the Parrot and an assistance monkey.

By the time I finished reading Skoot’s materials, I was far less skeptical of Skloot’s assertion that “What’s most striking about Edie and Panda is that after the initial shock of seeing a horse walk into a cafe, or ride in a car, watching them work together makes the idea of guide miniature horses seem utterly logical. Even normal.”  Nonetheless, I’m not sure yet where I would come down on the question of whether only dogs should be considered as Service Animals.  I am, however, still certain that businesses should be able to ostracize mere Comfort Animals.   The definition of Service Animal and the scope of related obligations and rights under the ADA is a topic that is both interesting and important.

cloudy valley
the dog barks
at himself

… by David G. Lanoue author of the novel Haiku Guy

.. Pavlovian Lapdog Politics:  Last August, we wrote of our dislike for the Norwellianly-named Employee Free Choice Act, while scoffing at the claims of its proponents that the Act has bi-partisan support. Our main complaint was that — as Carl Strock wrote in the Daily Gazette — it should have been called the “Election Suppression Act” or the “Strong-Arm Sign-Up Act.” As Strock noted in his post “Employee Free Choice?” EFCA permits “signing a card handed to you by a possibly pushy or intimidating organizer” to count just as much as a secret ballot.

We don’t like it any more today, and in fact find that the economic arguments made by those against EFCA, about hurting small business and their employees, ring true.  See, e.g., “A Labor Dilemma for President Bam,” at Point of Law.   One thing for sure: It is not change, nor new politics, for a Democratic President to be seen as the lapdog of organized labor.  Our only hope is that Barack Obama, should he hold his nose and sign EFCA, can now say to the unions who helped elect him, “That’s the last time I will support a bill on your behalf that does not meet my standards of fairness and intelligent economics.

in the park
my dog fetches
a better stick

… w.f. owen — from Haiku Notebook

all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog

… by Tom Painting – from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices

traffic jam
a plastic dog
keeps on nodding

………Yu Chang – Upstate Dim Sum (2002/I)

the village dog
suddenly disapproves…
the scarecrow

a long day–
the dog and the crow
quarreling

… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

distant thunder–
the dog’s toenails click
against the linoleum

not much afternoon left–
his dog runs loose
ahead of him

letting
the dog out–
the stars in

. . . . by Gary Hotham – breathmarks (Canon Press, 1999)

January 3rd 
only the panhandler
says “happy New Year!”

… by dagosan

It looks like I’m going to have to edit that senryu I wrote a couple years ago.  This afternoon (January 2, 2009), the pretty and popular young check-out girl at our public Library was quite taken aback when I handed her the items I wanted to borrow and said “Happy New Year.”   A few hours into her first work shift of 2009, and the idea of offering good tidings for the new year to someone she sees and chats with a few times a week had already floated into “whatever” oblivion for the young college student and part-time civil servant.  The same thing happened when I passed a neighbor on the sidewalk a block from home around noon.

Sigh. After expending all that effort trying to work up a head of steam of Christmas cheer, people are already sticking pins in my holiday balloon.  Well, I’m going to see what happens tomorrow — and Sunday, too — when I extend New Year’s greetings to folks encountered as I do my quotidian weekend tasks [Don’t you hate that over-used, pretentious word for “everyday”?  Maybe the New York Times could resolve to eschew quotidian in 2009].  Of course, by Monday (January 5th), if I’m still chirping “Happy New Year!” at all the passersby, people will be wondering if I’m going to hit them up for the price of a pint of dago red.

. . .  . While my old HLS classmate Christopher Edley (now dean of UC Berkeley law school, as I fiddle around with this darn weblog) and a few other deans are worrying about finding admissions criteria to help determine success after law school (via Court-o-rama); and USF law dean Jeffrey Brand is seeking lawyers with skill sets such as “empathy, persuasiveness and the willingness to have the courage to do the right thing — which the LSAT does not measure;” I’m going to settle for posting a handful of New Year’s poems by Master Haiku poet Kobayashi Issa, who always seems to find the right balance of bitter and sweet, hope and realism.

a present, a present
a New Year’s present!
her pink cheeks

my tumble-down house
just as it it…
“Happy New Year!”

the cat steals
a New Year’s nap…
sitting room

here and there
hanging in the thicket…
New Year’s ropes

a full round
of New Year’s greetings
at the inn

with a cheer
my hut’s New Year’s decorations
up in smoke

………………… by Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

afterwords (Jan. 3, 2009): Scott Greenfield expands (as he does so well) on this topic this morning at Simple Justice, in “A New Year’s Shelf Life,” where he laments that the problem of the “contraction of the Happy New Year greeting opportunity” is part of a broader societal insistence on immediacy and brevity.  Despite agreeing with Scott that most topics worth discussion require nuance and explanation, dagosan and the rest of the f/k/a Gang want to point out that demanding immediacy and brevity is just fine when it comes to certain poetic genre.

As the old year comes to a close, the only bakers I want to be contemplating are Mama G., (Aunt) Grace Papagni, Sylvia Briber, and other selfless souls who have been stuffing the entire f/k/a Gang with all sorts of Christmas cookies and similar treats over the past week.

empty cookie tin —
letting out last year’s
santa suit

frontdoor
to curb –
pine needles and tinsel

…. by dagosan – from “Holiday Haiku from Schenectady“

Nonetheless, I’ve been spending far too much time the last two days responding to Ron Baker and Ed Kless, who are defending Value Pricing (their version of vale billing) in comments to a prior post here at f/k/a.

. . . .  Despite his adopting a new-agey, feel-good image, and condemning hourly billing as unethical, it seems quite clear to me that Value Pricing guru Ron Baker wants lawyers to charge (and clients to pay) higher fees than can be generated using hourly billing. Value Pricing is the mechanism he touts — in books, seminars, private consultations, articles, and more — as the way to achieve those premium fees.

If that topic interests you, click the above link (and see our prior post and the links therein).  For another perspective on a topic that kept us busy at this weblog again in 2008, see the Washington Post article “Laws to Track Sex Offenders Encouraging Homelessness” (via The Moderate Voice, Dec. 27, 2008).

holiday thaw
a trooper emerges
from the snowmelt mist

… by dagosan

The f/k/a Gang would much prefer to be focusing on more pleasant topics.  Like seasonal haiku and senryu, and the wonderful sunset last night along the Mohawk River (at the end of my block of Washington Avenue, in the Schenectady Stockade), which I tried to capture with my Canon Powershot.

rising river…
sandbaggers pass
a brown paper bag

.. by Ed Markowski

— looking eastward into Riverside Park; Dec. 28, 2008 —

year’s end
the bartender
blocks my reflection

…… by Tom Painting – The Heron’s Nest

New Year’s Eve –
the lentil soup
again

…… by Tom Clausen – from Homework (Snapshot Press 2000)

blue sky
behind bare branches
year-end bonus

…. by David A. Giacalone – Legal Studies Forum XXIX:1 (2005)

……………….. ..

.. the view west toward the Western Gateway Bridge; Dec. 28, 2008 —

last week of the year
ice floes rush
to the waterfall

… by David Giacalone – Roadrunner Haiku Journal (Feb. 2006)

Boxing Day drizzle –
the inflatable snowman
keeps smiling

…………… by dagosan

A year ago, I reported that the inflatable snowman across the street from Mama G’s place in Gates, NY, was still smiling on a rainy December 26th. I’m not sure if it’s a sign of our rocky times, or just a result of 55-mph winds on Christmas Eve, but that same vinyl Snowman was rather tipsy — or maybe playing Peeping Tom — around sunset on Christmas Day:

Of course the big non-bio-degradable Snowman might have been trying to catch a glimpse Christmas morning of ABC’s Good Morning America and its segment featuring Bob Eckstein, author of ”The History of the Snowman [see our prior post], If you missed Bob on GMA, click here Science of a Snowman (Dec. 25, 2008) However, like the f/k/a Gang, Bob might not be too popular with inflatable snowpersons or their supporters. As we pointed out back in February, our friendly Snowman Expert told USA Weekend that:

“Every 8-foot-high blow-up snowman is a lost opportunity of a God-given gift we all have: artistic expression.”

The inflatable Frosty across the street is apparently sleeping in this afternoon, so I can’t describe his current state of uprightness. At a time when global warming might be reducing our opportunities to make art and fun from newly-fallen snow, I agree with Bob Eckstein’s assertion in today’s New York Daily News, that “As everything melts down, there’s no man like a snowman” (op/ed, December 26, 2008):

“We have all waited a long time for change. Change of leadership, change of seasons. And what we need to lift our spirits now is snow: cold, beautiful, malleable snow. We need joviality, an inexpensive treat that reminds us we don’t have to plug something in or stare at a screen to have fun. We only need the sky to open up and cloak our city with the fluffy stuff.

So, let us return to our roots. And begin the new year with a return to the basics. As never before, we need to make snowmen.”

winter fog
i stub my toe
on the snowman

………… by ed markowski

If you need a little post-Christmas inspiration today, the f/k/a Gang suggests reading the op/ed reminder in today’s New York Times, that “Boxing Day Is for Giving” — charitable giving (Judith Flanders, Dec. 26, 2008). Ms. Flanders gives us a history lesson:

“Boxing Day, usually thought of as Dec. 26, but technically the first weekday after Christmas, has a distinguished pedigree in Britain, and during this time of economic crisis, it is good to be reminded of it. It is on Boxing Day, after all, on the “feast of Stephen,” that “Good King Wenceslas” looked out and saw the snow, “deep and crisp and even.” The cold was notable not for its beauty, but for the hunger that it brought with it. The king calls for food, wine and “pine logs” not for his own feast, but that he and his page may “bear them thither” to give to the poor.”

She concludes with a suggestion that we make Boxing Day a national holiday in the USA — but, not just “another day in the round of shop-eat-family-family-family.

“Instead Boxing Day could return as a day of giving. Not necessarily cash — and not material to make uniforms — but rather one day a year to donate skills or effort, a day for sharing something of value in the larger community. . .

“What we really need to do is put down the punch bowl and pick up on what Punch magazine wrote more than 150 years ago: Don’t just keep the Christmas of the belly: keep you the Christmas of the heart. Give — give’.”

.. Boxing Day technically lasts the entire last week of the year. So, Prof. Yabut, dagosan and the rest of the Gang will first be catching a sugar-filled-tummy holiday season nap this afternoon, and then be putting Ms. Flanders’ Boxing Day advice into action. We hope that — unlike the family of Inflatables across the street — our charitable-sharitable feeling won’t be just a lot of hot air that is packed away the rest of the year. Happy Boxing Day to our readers!

Maybe Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler can help . . .

married a decade
she hides
the mistletoe

setting up the creche –
the Baby’s name
uttered over and over

“easy to assemble”
I put it back and
grab a teddybear

nine days ’til Christmas –
the tree and the cat
both shedding

…. from the “not quite the holiday” sequence at dagosan’s haiku diary (Dec. 6, 2007)

.. In a week, I’ve got to head home for Christmas with the Family of Origin.  Like every other year of my adult life, pre-Christmas Scrooge Syndrome has paralyzed me (e.g., 2007 and 2005). Neither the flesh nor the spirit seems willing to work through that ever-growing Holiday To Do List.

I was about to despair, until I saw an article in the new Harvard Law Bulletin: “Intelligent Design: Cass Sunstein shows how ‘choice architecture’ can help people make better decisions” (Fall 2008).  It reminded me that I’ve been meaning since last April to read Sunstein and Thaler’s much-praised book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” (Yale Univ. Press 2008).  A lifetime of Mama G’s “catholic maternalism” hasn’t helped me get my Holiday Act together, but surely the “libertarian paternalism” extolled in Nudge can lead me out of my annual Yuletime wheel-spinning and teeth-grinding.

wrapping and
packing –
she pastes on a smile

…. by grinchosan

Thaler and Sunstein seem to have me in mind when trying to understand how human beings make choices — and how to “nudge” them into making the best choices (for themselves and society) by better structuring the context in which our choices are made.  According to HLB:, S&T’s “choice architecture . . . acknowledge[s] that many people will take whatever option requires the least effort.”

. . . “Human beings will often consider required choice to be a nuisance or worse, and would much prefer to have a good default,” they write. “And, these tendencies toward doing nothing will be reinforced if the default option comes with some implicit or explicit suggestion that it represents the normal or even the recommended course of action.”

Naturally, I was hoping they’d already have a relevant Holiday Nudge to get me working on that To Do List right now.  But, a quick search at their Nudge weblog turned up nothing specific for turning on (much less sustaining or modeling) holiday spirit — no “holiday decision tree” for working past my punchbowl procrastination and finding seasonal renewal and inspiration.

I did find a link at their weblog to a dozen sample nudges from the book, and I’m planning to read them before heading to bed tonight.  If I sleep on it, I’ll surely wake up as converted as the post-visitation Scrooge.

Just in case that doesn’t work, I picked up a copy of Nudge from the Library today.  It’s almost 300 pages.  If it takes me a couple days to read and absorb Nudge — and construct my own Holiday Choice Architecture — I’ll surely have time to get that To Do List done. Buy those cards and write them on Thursday.  Start shopping Friday afternoon, and wrapping on Saturday.  Get together with my best Schenectady-area Friends on Sunday and Monday.  A bit of panic-packing on Tuesday. And, . . .

By the way, how late is the Post Office open on December 23rd?  And, does Santa have a Default Position?

update (Dec. 17, 2008; 11:30 PM): Thanks to the Nudge Blog for soliciting suggestions and solutions in response to our plea for help.  It remains to be seen whether the Nudge experts and their disciples can solve our chronic Christmas crisis.  As of this update, they’ve only attracted an additional To Do List for me.  Hmmm.

afterwords (Dec. 31, 2008):  As we wrote on December 22, a maternal nudge got us on the road to a happy holiday.   And, see this post for a Boxing Day de-briefing.

first doubts
santa sounds
like Uncle Al

…… by dagosan; photo by Mama G. (1952; larger haiga here)

.. As Blawg Review‘s righteous editor reminded us a few days ago, President Bush has declared today to be Bill of Rights Day.  You’ll find the text of the Bill of Rights — the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution — at the foot of this posting (click more).  The Bill of Rights was ratified by Congress on December 15, 1791.

No matter how ironic it might seem that GW is celebrating the Bill of Rights, I’m happy to say that you can find tributes and reminders of our rights (and our responsibility to work to uphold those rights) across the web, and especially on lawyer weblogs.

• For example, see Eric Turkewitz’s tribute to John Peter Zenger, who helped establish the right of freedom of the press in Britain’s American colonies. Eric’s post includes an inspiring reference to a shopping mall, Bill of Rights Plaza in Eastchester, NY.

It is no coincidence that our blawging paisan, the oft-irreverent libertarian Prof. Marc Randazza, is hosting Blawg Review #190 today at The Legal Satyricon.  Normally not fans of theme-based Blawg Reviews, the f/k/a Gang (like Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice) is grateful that Marc has focused on each of the ten Amendments, reminding us that (beyond the Biggies that get all the attention) there are several important Rights that rarely get mentioned in the media or in our everyday conversation.  Head over to Blawg Review #190 to find links to recent posting at lawyer weblogs about every one of the Amendments contained in the Bill of Rights.

Fresh from a liberating weekend, during which an ice storm prevented us access to the internet and freed up a bit of time for just lazying around our 4th-Amendment-protected home, the f/k/a Gang doesn’t feel much like heavy pundit-lifting this morning.  So, we’re merely going to praise the Founding Fathers for adding the Bill of Rights:

“in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of [the powers of the federal Government . . . and] best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.”

And, as we have every right to do, we’ll also try again to clear up a misconception that is far-too-prevalent about the First Amendment.  To wit, as we’ve said before:

. The mistaken invocation of the First Amendment against private action is something that every American has heard since birth. [Try living with a teenager and see how often you face such arguments.]  Those who erroneously believe that all Americans have the right to say whatever they want whenever they want come from all walks of life and all ideologies and parties.  . . .  The Bill of Rights limits Government action, not private action. It is basic ignorance of the meaning of the Bill of Rights . . and not some “lex-centric” liberal worldview that causes most Americans to decry private forms of “censorship” as unAmerican.

In the context of weblogs, Walter Olson put this right rather well last week at the new website Secular Right (via SHG):

“Let’s make it clear right now, though, that this is a moderated comments section. It may resemble a very broadminded letters-to-the-editor column; it is not going to resemble a public-access cable channel, graffiti wall, or Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner if I or DH can help it.

“What’s more, it’s moderated for the benefit of this site’s intended audience, bearing in mind that some lines of discussion more quickly become tedious and irrelevant to that audience than others. . . .

“One group we’d be better off without are those who feel that commenting on this site is somehow a matter of right, no matter what the tedium factor, and radiate wounded entitlement when they learn that’s not how it’s going to work. They really would be happier elsewhere.”

Finally, here are some favorite haiku from two Bills who never bring tedium or irrelevance to this website:

early spring
before she can tie it
the balloon escapes

.

in the park
my dog fetches
a better stick

werewolf movie
at the commercial
letting the dog out

prostate exam
the doctor and I
trade jabs

long day
his finger slows
the spinning globe

… by W.F. “Dr. Bill” Owen —
“prostate exam” – HSA Brady Contest 2001; The Loose Thread: RMA 2001
“werewolf movie” – HSA Brady Award — Second Place 2001
“early spring”  – Selected poems by w.f. owen
“long day” – Two Autumns Reading (San Francisco, 2003)
“in the park” – Modern Haiku XXXI:3 (2000); A New Resonance 2

November chill–
a barefoot man waits
for the northbound ferry

avalanche warning–
how very still
this winter night

storm clouds roil
across the prairie—
she marks her place

trail’s end—
the taste of wild onion
still sharp on my tongue

… by Billie Wilson . . click for publication credits

(more…)