The Rest of Everything Archives - Page 33 of 56

Whither Empathy?

September 27, 2015

Whither empathy? Empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.” I think about empathy often, in part because a friend offered up a lack of empathy as an explanation for all of our many ills. I’m not sure he’s right, but I don’t want to say he’s wrong, either.

The immediate trigger for this piece—as in, what did I read today?—comes from a Facebook comment to Walmart could pay workers $14.89 an hour without raising prices at Daily Kos. I can’t find the comment but a pretty close approximation is

I could support a wage increase for Walmart workers, but not until the shelves are stocked better. Every time I go to buy something they’re

empathy, kim davis, Pope Francis, Walmart

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No Government Shutdown … I think!

September 25, 2015

Mark Rubin

John Boehner Will Resign from Congress is today’s big story. This is big news, of course, although it’s not surprising news, at least to me. The third paragraph in the New York Times story sums up Speaker Boehner’s legacy very well:

The Ohio representative struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members.

So here are my predictions: (1) There will be no government shutdown; and (2) we may see progress before October 30 on a number of issues that matter.

There will be no government shutdown. I’m more comfortable with this prediction. Speaker Boehner has observed, mostly,

Mitch McConnell, Speaker John Boehner

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The Kim Davis Story: More Thoughts

September 14, 2015

Mark Rubin

Like a moth which cannot ignore the flame, I’m finding it hard to walk away from the Kim Davis story. She has clearly arrived, as I have linked to her Wikipedia page. Do you have a Wikipedia page?

You know the basics. Kimberly Jean Bailey Davis does not believe in same sex marriage. The law interferes with her beliefs, so she thinks she’s entitled to an accommodation. That position has gotten her a contempt citation and jail, courtesy of U.S. District Judge David Bunning. Now she’s out, back at work, and planning to sue Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D).* (Details are reported by Caitlin MacNeal for TPM, in Kim Davis’ Lawyers to File New Lawsuit against Kentucky Governor.)

kim davis, nepotism

Law, The Rest of Everything

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Omission – A Legal Writing Guide

September 12, 2015

Mark Rubin

I often call myself a “technical writer.” In fact, most everything I do as an attorney involves “it matters” writing. To lay people attorneys are on their feet, back and forth. In almost every instance, however, the battle of wits follows written submissions on the facts and law. Even in trials, where the jury relies on the evidence it sees and hears, writing plays a role in determining what the jury sees and hears.

Omission, written by John McPhee for the September 14 issue of the New Yorker, is an essay about writing, and a most gentle cri de Coeur for less is more. Unintentionally, it’s also a legal writing manual.

Before I get to legal writing I

Ernest Hemingway, John McPhee, legal writing, New Yorker, Omission

Law, The Rest of Everything

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The Refugee Crisis: Where’s the Noise?

September 12, 2015

Mark Rubin

I’ve also been following the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East. Middle class families from Syria are walking to freedom—freedom from a tyrannical government, but also freedom from bullets and other killing products—as I write. And I keep asking myself, “Where’s the noise?” “Why is there no talk about this situation here in the United States?”

To be fair, Secretary of State John Kerry did raise the issue on Wednesday, September 9. And later in the week the Administration committed to taking in 10,000 people in the next year. (Gardiner Harris, David Sanger, and David Herszenhorn have details in Obama Increases Number of Syrian Refugees for U.S. Resettlement to 10,000, from the Thursday New York Times.)

Gee,

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Big News!

August 30, 2015

Mark Rubin

News! Big news, at least for me, and it relates to my work life. The news comes in three parts:

Since August 1, 2015, I have been General Counsel for Pima Medical Institute;
As of August 31, 2015—tomorrow—I will no longer be practicing law at Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, P.C.; and
On September 1, 2015, I will be practicing law at the Law Office of Mark Rubin.

Before I go forward, thanks are in order. I was happy and successful in late 2009. Nervous about being a solo practitioner, after my building flooded and I was sick for a week, leaving me about three weeks behind on my work; still, happy! Along came MCR, with a terrific

Law Office of Mark Rubin, Mark Rubin, Pima Medical Institute

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The Debate

August 7, 2015

Mark Rubin

I missed last night’s Republican Presidential Debate. I am sans cable right now—and loving it—and was training for tonight’s 4th Annual EEF Celebrity Spelling Bee. (Training? Yes, for reals, albeit with liquid refreshment to make the process bearable.)*

Since I didn’t see the debate I’m not going to comment on it. Instead, I focus on the absence of a serious debate about government.

Let’s start with Grover Norquist. He developed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge—a website he sponsors says those who follow the pledge “solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases”—and has said

I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom

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4th Annual EEF Celebrity Spelling Bee

August 2, 2015

Mark Rubin

Special Update! The 4th Annual Education Enrichment Fund Celebrity Spelling Bee starts at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 7, 2015. That’s this Friday, which brings to mind m-e-r-d-e, for I haven’t studied at all.

The Bee is tons of fun, and the cause—supporting needy children in the Tucson Unified School District—is a great one. Go to 4th Annual Celebrity Spelling Bee for information and giving instructions. Note that I’m way behind on my goal. Help will be much appreciated, and please attend, for it really is lots of fun.

Yours truly, on the way to a 3rd place finish.

P.S. Yes, that is Congresswoman Martha McSally on my far right. (She was not yet elected as of last year’s

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Happy Birthday, Boss!

August 2, 2015

Mark Rubin

Lowell Rothschild is 88 today. (He’s claimed 88 as his age since very soon after August 2, 2014, so I expect he’ll be 89 before lunch on Monday.)

Lowell shares his 8/2/1927 birthday with no one more famous than he is, but James Baldwin and Carroll O’Connor left the “terrible twos” behind the day he was born, while Shimon Peres turned four on the same day. On his birth date the Internet tells me only one thing worthy of note, other then Lowell’s birth, happened: President Calvin Coolidge issued a written statement. It read: “I do not choose to run for President in 1928.”

I have practiced law with and against Lowell for 30 years. In my first

Lowell Rothschild

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The Rut of History and Leon Wieseltier

July 30, 2015

Mark Rubin

An old friend whose devotion to Israel is very, very strong shared The Iran Deal and the Rut of History on Facebook a couple of days ago. The piece is from The Atlantic and was written by Leon Wieseltier. Mr. Wieseltier was the literary critic for The New Republic forever—well, only from 1983 until 2014—and writes now for The Atlantic. His writing has focused often on Jewish and Middle East subjects, and his parents survived the Holocaust.

The piece opens with these words: “The president said many times he’s willing to step out of the rut of history.” Mr. Wieseltier is quoting Ben Rhodes, a White House aide. Three sentences later—not many extra words here—Mr. Wieseltier states his thesis:

Cuba, Iran deal, Leon Wieseltier, Rut of history

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