Crime Is Contagious

Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.  In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously.  Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher.  For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.  Crime is contagious.  If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.  To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal -- would bring terrible retribution.  Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face.

-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856 - 1941), dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

Happy Thanksgiving

For the first time in several years we were able to get the whole family together today for Thanksgiving.  I was joined by all 5 daughters with all 5 sons-in-law, and all 11 grandchildren, plus my 18-year-old granddaughter's boyfriend, and my ex-wife and her boyfriend, for a total of 25 for dinner.  This is the first time I've had to cook more than one turkey at a time.  Much food was consumed, much conversation ensued.  After dinner we decorated the Christmas tree and had pie.  Today I have no trouble remembering to be thankful for what I have.  

Say Thank You To Someone

I would encourage all people, especially with this beautiful feast that we have in the United States, which unites all people, people of different faiths, people who perhaps do not have the gift of faith, but to say thank you to someone, to recognize that we all have received so many gifts, first and foremost, the gift of life.  

The gift of faith, the gift of unity to encourage all people to try and promote peace and harmony and to give thanks to God for them and the gifts we can give.

-- Pope Leo XIV in a Thanksgiving message, speaking from his summer residence, Borgo Laudato Si in Castel Gandolfo, 25 November 2025

Empty Cup

It would be erroneous to consider the empty space in a drinking cup in opposition to the water that eventually fills it.  While true that the emptiness gets overcome and eliminated by the water that fills the cup, an empty drinking glass has not fulfilled its implied purpose.  Similarly, a full glass of water constitutes equal meaninglessness for its implied purpose remains unachieved.  Only by drinking the water and returning the cup to a state of void (*yin*) does the meaning of cup-and-water become realized.  Hence, an empty cup alone (*yin*) remains unrealized in its potential until filled (*yang*), which means that *yin* will be unfulfilled until overcome by *yang*.  At the same time, a full cup (*yang*) will remain unrealized in its potential until drank, thus returning to *yin*.

-- Dr. Steve Pearlman, author, instructor, and martial arts philosopher, The Book of Martial Power (2006) Chapter 69 "Yin and Yang" p. 210

No Lawful Authority

On September 25, 2025, Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience, appeared before a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.  Having been appointed Interim U.S. Attorney by the Attorney General just days before, Ms. Halligan secured a two-count indictment charging former FBI Director James B. Comey, Jr. with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.  

Mr. Comey now moves to dismiss the indictment on the ground that Ms. Halligan, the sole prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury, was unlawfully appointed in violation of 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.  As explained below, I agree with Mr. Comey that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid.  And because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice.

-- US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissing the federal indictment of former FBI Directory James Comey (24 November 2025)

Queens Men Meet

The first man from Queens to be elected president and the first Queens resident to be elected mayor of New York City met for the first time in the Oval Office on Friday. 

Both said they were united over a mutual love of New York City.  They did not mention Queens. 

"We've just had a great meeting, a really good, very productive meeting," said Trump, who was  complimentary of the democratic socialist, who just a year ago was a relatively unknown local Queens legislator.  "We have one thing in common.  We want this city of ours that we love to do very well."

Whether or not the relationship between the two one-time Queens residents remains as cordial as it was on Friday, remains to be seen. 

-- Ryan Schwach, "Queens men meet", Queens Daily Eagle, 21 November 2025

Non-Intention

Think about a dam holding back a reservoir of water.  Were we to punch a hole in the dam, the water would gush out that hole.  The water would not decide to gush out, and it certainly would not intend to gush out.  Nor would it "not intend" to gush out the hole.  Intention, as a concept, simply cannot be applied to the water.  As hole, so gushing water.

Let me put it another way.  When reading this chapter, were you Intending to read this chapter, or was reading "happening"?  Were you Intending to read or were you just reading?  You certainly were not "not intending" to read.  Were you thinking about reading the words or were you reading them?  As chapter, so reading.  As living, so breathing.  As sleeping, so dreaming.  (And if you are wondering if we can say that there is "a chapter" aside from your reading of it then you have understood this chapter quite well.)

-- Dr. Steve Pearlman, author, instructor, and martial arts philosopher, The Book of Martial Power (2006) Chapter 68 "Non-Intention" p. 208

Doubt All

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.

-- André Gide (1869 - 1951), French author, 1947 Nobel laureate in literature, Gallimard, ed. (1952), Ainsi soit-il; ou, Les Jeux sont faits ("So be it; or, The die is cast"), p. 174

Sought For And Attended To

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

-- Abigail Adams (1744-1818), wife of John Adams, second President of the United States, in a letter to John Quincy Adams (8 May 1780)

The Parent

Ignorance is the parent of fear.

-- Herman Melville (1819 - 1891), American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and poet, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) Chapter 3 "The Spouter-Inn" Paragraph 56

Contrary To Everything

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge.  I was 38 years old.  At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life.  However, I resigned Friday, relinquishing that lifetime appointment and giving up the opportunity for public service that I have loved.

My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom.  President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment.  This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench.  The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out.  Silence, for me, is now intolerable.

I resigned in order to speak out, support litigation, and work with other individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the rule of law and American democracy.  I also intend to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.

I cannot be confident that I will make a difference.  I am reminded, however, of what Senator Robert F. Kennedy said in 1966 about ending apartheid in South Africa: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."  Enough of these ripples can become a tidal wave.

-- Mark L. Wolf, retired senior United States district judge in Massachusetts, "Why I Am Resigning", The Atlantic (9 November 2025)

Shipwrecked

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

-- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicist, in his Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954), p. 26

Stop Making Cents

The U.S. ended production of the penny Wednesday, abandoning the 1-cent coins that were embedded in American culture for more than 230 years but became nearly worthless.

When it was introduced in 1793, a penny could buy a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy.  Now most of them are cast aside to sit in jars or junk drawers, and each one costs nearly 4 cents to make.

Billions of pennies are still in circulation and will remain legal tender, but new ones will no longer be made.

The last U.S. coin to be discontinued was the half-cent in 1857.

Most penny production ended over the summer, officials said.  During the final pressing, workers at the mint stood quietly on the factory floor as if bidding farewell to an old friend.  When the last coins emerged, the men and women broke into applause and cheered one another.

-- MaryClaire Dale, writing for Associated Press, "US Mint presses final pennies" (12 November 2025)

Brexit Impact Update

This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016.  Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey.  These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time.  We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%.  

These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process.  Comparing these with contemporary forecasts -- providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning micro-literature of social science predictions -- shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.

-- Nicholas Bloom, et al, "The Economic Impact of Brexit", National Bureau of Economic Research, November 2025

Immortal Truth

Lower a bucket into a well of self-deception, and what comes up must be immortal truth, mustn't it?

-- Charles Reade (1814 - 1884), English novelist and dramatist, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) Ch. V

One Never Notices

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

-- Marie Curie (1867 - 1934), Polish-born scientist, first woman to win the Nobel Prize (for Physics in 1903); first person to win a second Nobel Prize (for Chemistry, 1911), Letter to her brother (1894)

Continual Accretion

Congress, as a practical matter, can't get this power back once it's handed it over to the president.  It's a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people's elected representatives.

-- Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, in an exchange with Solicitor General D. John Sauer about Trump invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs (6 November 2025)

Web Crawler Meta

For the last 10 days I've been observing somewhat odd web traffic at trvth.org.  First I noticed that traffic was significantly higher than usual, with a few days of 300 to 500 page views, instead of the usual 70 to 100.  The next couple of days had more than 1000 page views each, and I started to look into it.

The culprit appears to be a bot running on Tencent Cloud Computing, connecting out of Singapore.  I suspect it is consuming trvth.org as training material for an AI.

The connections come every 1 to 2 minutes and last less than 5 seconds.  It started by reading the pages by year and is following every link, though not in any recognizable order, and the queries come from a range of IP addresses, not a single address.

I'm not sure how I should feel about all that.

A Price To Be Paid

All life is based on the fact that anything worth getting is hard to get.  There is a price to be paid for anything.  Scholarship can only be bought at the price of study, skill of craft or technique can only be bought at the price of practice, and eminence in any sport can only be bought at the price of training and discipline. 

-- William Barclay (1907 - 1978), Scottish author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister, and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow, The Gospel of John (1955) Vol. 2 (1964), p. 77

Refusing To Accept

It is only by refusing to accept the situation that in the end we can change the situation.

-- William Barclay (1907 - 1978), Scottish author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister, and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow, The Plain Man's Guide to Ethics (1973) Ch. 7, p. 89