On Monday morning, February 19, 2024 as Kansas City Chiefs football coach Andy Reid was savoring his team’s Super Bowl victory along with his third breakfast pastry, team Executive Officer Clark Hunt hurried into Reid’s office and presented him with a legal notice from one Trump-appointed Federal District Judge in San Francisco, the sole Republican in California. Coach Reid read the following Petition as his blood pressure soared: “All persons affiliated in any way with the National Football League team the Kansas City Chiefs are ordered to immediately Cease and Desist claiming victory in Super Bowl LVIII pending a Score Recalculation Petition filed by the San Francisco 49ers in this Court … [Read More...] about Not So Fast Chiefs
Gavel Gamut
Recent Articles
Femme Fatales
William Shakespeare is the English language’s greatest writer, in part, because he was our greatest psychologist. No one understood and used irony as did Shakespeare. Hamlet, with Shakespeare’s tongue firmly planted in his cheek, laments, “Frailty thy name is woman”. Hamlet who is the unquestioned definition of vacillation, “To be or not to be,” is casting shade upon his mother, Gertrude. Gertrude was complicit and conspired in the murder of her husband, Hamlet’s father also named Hamlet, the King of Denmark, so she could marry his younger brother, Claudius. Gertrude also helped Claudius defeat her son’s rightful claim to inherit the crown. Hamlet, Act 1, scene ii. But the first woman to … [Read More...] about Femme Fatales
Equal Protection
CNN reports that Americans’ confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court: “[I]s at its lowest ebb in terms of public opinion in the history of Gallop polling.” CNN attributes much of this lack of faith in the competence and integrity of the Court to the overruling of Roe vs. Wade in 2022. Then, even three members of the Court publicly dissented and accused the six-member majority of playing politics. Justices Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor dissented in Dobbs v. Jackson that overruled Roe and stated: “Today, the proclivities of individuals rule. The Court departs from its obligation to faithfully and impartially apply the law.” The essence of the dissenters’ warning was that the majority was … [Read More...] about Equal Protection
A Dead Reckoning
When my sister and brothers and I have gathered in our hometown for reunions we and our extended families are often drawn to the cemetery where our parents have reposed for several years. Although none of us still lives where our lives were formed, we know it will always be our hometown because Mom and Dad are there. Invaders who wish to extinguish an original culture’s claim to their homeland know that as long as the graves of the conquered remain, there will always be a visceral connection to the land. Conquest of a people can never be absolute if evidence of the past remains buried in the land. That is why General Patton in the 1970 movie ordered guards to keep American soldiers’ graves … [Read More...] about A Dead Reckoning
Brain Food
Peg and I like snow. We almost bought a vacation home in the picturesque hamlet of Craftsbury Common, Vermont where her folks are buried. We also looked at locations at Lake Tahoe. Both areas are inundated by winter snows. Vermont’s property taxes were steeper than the snow and only the truly wealthy or truly reckless can buy property in Tahoe. Therefore, we chose Osage County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma does not provide as much snow but it has some and one can enjoy a balanced budget. However, we still are captivated by stories of those hardy humans who find ways to at least survive huge snowfalls such as occur in Nevada-California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and in the mountains of South … [Read More...] about Brain Food
Eternal Life
The ultimate human dream has always been to live forever. But, for those of us who have lived into the stage where passion and perambulation are less ascendent than relief from aches and the need for mobility enhancement devices, it may sometimes feel as if forever is not so attractive. However, most of us at all stages of life are not eager to test the alternative. Ergo, for most, to exist is preferable than to not. So, we humans spend a great deal of time searching for the elusive mythical secret to a life without end. Of course, when we envision eternal life, we are likely to see ourselves in a pre-serpent Garden of Eden rather than a Prometheus chained to a rock as an eagle devours our … [Read More...] about Eternal Life
Democracy At Risk
Donald Trump did not find fault with his election victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 even though many Americans were astonished. However, four years later President Trump and many others questioned President Joe Biden’s victory. Some Trump supporters even marched and more on January 06, 2021 in protest as still sitting President Trump verbally urged them on. Former President Trump is now seeking the presidency again, but some are protesting his right to do so. These never Trumpers are asserting that Trump is now prohibited from running by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that provides: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress or … [Read More...] about Democracy At Risk
20,000 “Accidents”
Israel’s soldiers killed three former Israeli Jewish hostages December 15, 2023 in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli Defense Forces accounts the three men were unarmed and shirtless. They carried a white flag with the word “HELP” written in Hebrew. The men cried out to the soldiers for help in Hebrew as they held their arms up while emerging from a building. The Israeli soldiers immediately shot and killed two of the men and wounded the third man who retreated back into a building. The soldiers followed him, and even after their commander ordered the firing to stop, the soldiers killed the third man. Israel called the incident a “tragic accident”. But the killings were intentional, not … [Read More...] about 20,000 “Accidents”
Merry Christmases!!
Last year (2022-2023) Peg and I were in the country of Georgia on Christmas Day (December 25th). However, when we wished some of our Georgian friends “Merry Christmas”, they said as Coach Lee Corso might have said, “Not so fast”. Many Christians in that one-time Soviet Union country do not adhere to Pope Julius’ date for Jesus’ birthday as December 25, but also celebrate the Gregorian date in 2023 of January 07. Many Georgians recognize both dates and the “Christmas Season” for many others runs from December 25 of one year through the first week of January of the next. The beautiful city of Batumi, Georgia where we worked for six months with Georgian judges was right on the Black Sea and … [Read More...] about Merry Christmases!!
A Slippery Slope
At December fifth’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce, presidents of Harvard, Penn and M.I.T. answered questions about free speech matters at their universities. One should first question what our government was doing micro-managing private speech and assemblage at non-governmental institutions. Another dangerous issue was raised when a wealthy alumnus of Penn threatened to withdraw a one hundred-million-dollar donation if Penn did not fire its president who did not testify as the alumnus approved. President Elizabeth Magill and Penn bowed to the combined pressure of politics and money; she and the Chairman of Penn’s Board almost immediately resigned. The Black female president … [Read More...] about A Slippery Slope
How ‘Bout Them Cowboys!
Our friends Debbie and Ron Reed have season tickets to Oklahoma State University football games. Their seats are in the first row where one can offer advice to Coach Mike Gundy as I did on several occasions Saturday, November 25, 2023 during the Cowboy game against the Cougars of Brigham Young University. Debbie and Ron spent Thanksgiving with their son’s family in Texas and generously gave us their tickets and their excellent parking pass at the Wesleyan Center in Stillwater. Even though my Grandfather Redwine was a Baptist minister and I was baptized in the Pawhuska, Oklahoma First Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church, the convenience of the Wesleyan parking space almost made Methodists … [Read More...] about How ‘Bout Them Cowboys!
Books
Unanimous for Murder
Live on Amazon.com and Kindle eBooks!
Unanimous for Murder picks up where JUDGE LYNCH! left off. A gripping story of small town murder and judicial shenanigans on the western frontier when the western frontier was east of the Mississippi.
Echoes of Our Ancestors: The Secret Game
Jim’s new novel tells the exciting story of a long hidden but important football game that occurred between representatives of Haskell Indian Institute (now the Haskell Indian Nations University) and professionals from the then Kansas City Cowboys in 1924 at a secret location on the Osage Indian Nation near Pawhuska, Oklahoma - where Jim was born.
JUDGE LYNCH!
“Judge Lynch Holds Court!” That was the banner headline in a Posey County, Indiana newspaper after seven African American men were murdered by a white mob during October, 1878.
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Gavel Gamut Greetings from JPeg Ranch
“Gavel Gamut Greetings" is an anthology of topical and historical selections mainly about regional events and personalities that have appeared in my weekly newspaper column, Gavel Gamut.
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