27 October 2024

Interrupted Afternoon

Listen, you idiots: I got my ballot a week and a half ago; I took it, properly filled out, to a drop box almost immediately; I posted an "I Voted" sticker on the door. Don't waste your time sending FKAs (Future Karens of America) around to ring my doorbell to convince me to vote for a "tax cut" referendum sponsored by a hedge-fund trader who moved to this no-state-income-tax state from a high-state-income-tax state after his fortune became self-sustaining. Neither cool nor productive. And definitely annoying.

  • There's a contamination outbreak at McDonald's in progress. I'm not going to bother trying to keep up with current status — it's not being hidden — but I will speculate on the cause: Untrained workers who know nothing of food hygeine.
  • Recently, some assertions have been raised by people with better direct access to certain facts than I concerning a certain candidate's mental fitness for office. <SARCASM> I question whether there's been sufficient examination of the subject individual to distinguish between DSM-5 301.81 (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) overlaid with sociopathic behavior and DSM-5 301.7 (Sociopathic Personality Disorder) overlaid with narcissistic behavior. </SARCASM> Meanwhile, he's also been accused of being a fascist, which is not entirely consistent with that nonclinical diagnosis; "fascism" is both methodological and ideological, and a true narcissist (or sociopath) doesn't look far enough beyond personal self-interest/self-aggrandizement to have a coherent ideology, let alone be consistent with it.

    On the other hand, this is all too similar to disputing which serial killer is the most despicable with choices limited to Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and Gary Ridgway. Once "serial killer" fits, degree of despicability is largely irrelevant. Once "unfit for office" fits, the exact reason among competing explanations is largely irrelevant. Although since I already voted, maybe nobody cares what I think.

  • As yet another demonstration that state bars cannot effectively regulate the profession, the Washington bar has refused to discipline disgrace-to-the-profession Matt Shea. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his views, it's fundamental to the profession to neither violate an oath of office nor advocate violence in support of those views (especially when the two occur together) — and the presence or absence of criminal charges is irrelevant except as it goes to the reliability of the evidence at issue and perhaps — albeit not in this instance, as the bar relied upon in refusing to implement a disciplinary action — interference with pending process. There are times that violence may be the only means available — but that's never true for lawyers. Except, perhaps, the violence the profession does to language (which does not require military-grade automatic weapons or advocating atrocities).
  • Sadly, that appears more effective than regulation of insurers (especially when the insurers collude with each other). Profiting from others' pain is just so admirable.
  • On the lighter side — not literally, indeed rather the opposite literally — the American invasion of Europe is progressing. The spearhead units are oversized pickup trucks (and suburban assault vehicles).