Minor Wisdom

De todo corazón

"The Gospel story of the Widow's Mite (Mark 12:41–44) came to life this weekend for Msgr. Douglas Dossan and the members of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church, which sustained 8 feet of flooding from Hurricane Katrina. When an inner-city Los Angeles parish—St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in Watts—collected money for the devastated New Orleans parish, Catholics of modest economic means raised $7,000. But there was another incredible gift...."  Clarion Herald, Vol. 44, No. 23, at 1 (Oct. 29, 2005).

Haven't we suffered enough?

The NFL is lifting its TV-blackout policy for all Saints home games in Baton Rouge. That means the games will be broadcast locally, whether or not the game is a sellout. A post-Katrina "gesture of good will," they say. Gee, isn't that swell.

Wonkette's nominee for Supreme Court

Wonkette offers a lovable nominee for Justice O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court, and give seven irrefutable reasons supporting her pick. If only she were running the country.

For lovers of New Orleans

Here are three recent items from the Times-Picayune about why New Orleans is special:

1. Jarvis DeBerry explores a few idiosyncracies of the New Orleans dialect.
2. Michael Sartisky explains why New Orleans is "the only authentic indigenous urban culture on the continent, the defining soul of a nation sorely in need of one."
3. C. Ward Bond¹ quotes Lafcadio Hearn, writing in 1870, explaining New Orleans to a friend in Cincinnati. Hearn's words fit today's reality:

Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become only a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes, than to own the whole state of Ohio.

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¹ No idea whether he's related to this guy.

From bad to worse

In an entry titled Looming Catastrophe, Eugene of the Coalition for Darfur reports that "the situation in Darfur, already horrific, is rapidly deteriorating."

Minor Wisdom must be # 11

Here is TopTenSources's list of the top 10 law blogs.

It's okay if Congress does it

I'm shocked, shocked! to learn that Congress does not always obey the laws of grammar and usage when drafting legislation. But that's what Judge Northrop says in this blurb from United States v. Maryland Bank & Trust Co., 632 F. Supp. 573, 578 (D. Md. 1986). The good judge is trying to figure out § 107(a)(1) of CERCLA, which refers to "the owner and operator of a vessel"; the issue is whether one must be both an owner and an operator to fit the statutory description. According to normal English, the conjunctive and should mean that one must be both owner and operator. But Judge Northrop finds that Congress doesn't write in normal English:

The structure of section 107(a), like so much of this hastily patched together compromise Act, is not a model of statutory clarity. It is unclear from its face whether subsection (1) holds liable both owners and operators or only parties who are both owners and operators. This ambiguity stems in large part from the placement of the definite article "the" before the term "owner" and its omission prior to the term "operator". Proper usage dictates that the phrase "the owner and operator" include only those persons who are both owners and operators. But by no means does Congress always follow the rules of grammar when enacting the laws of this nation. In fact, to slavishly follow the laws of grammar while interpreting acts of Congress would violate sound canons of statutory interpretation. Philbrook v. Glodgett, 421 U.S. 707, 713-14, 95 S.Ct. 1893, 1898, 44 L.Ed.2d 525 (1975); United States v. American Trucking Ass'ns, Inc., 310 U.S. 534, 542-44, 60 S.Ct. 1059, 1063-64, 84 L.Ed. 1345 (1940). Misuse of the definite article is hardly surprising in a hastily conceived compromise statute such as CERCLA, since members of Congress might well have had no time to dot all the i's or cross all the t's. See generally Safire, Of 'The' I Sing, N.Y. Times, March 2, 1986, § 6 (Magazine), at 14 (As the most common word in the English language, the is too often taken for granted).

Rosa Parks — 1913-2005

Rosa Parks, known as the mother of the civil-rights movement, has died at the age of 92.

Dehumanization in Zimbabwe

As the Holocaust showed us, dehumanization is a step toward genocide. Dehumanization has happened in Zimbabwe, with awful consequences. As reported in the Times, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, has deemed the population of a region to be "rats" and "filth," and so justified the demolition of their homes. They have been left to starve, foraging in garbage for food.

This shows Mugabe to be a modern-day Hitler. What will our nation's response be?

Saints elsewhere

Rumor has it that, in the aftermath of Katrina, Tom Benson wants to permanently evacuate his football team, the Saints, to San Antonio. Benson has done little to quell the rumor. He issued a statement saying that "no decisions have been made" about relocating. But notice what his statement doesn't say: not a word about wanting to stay in New Orleans, or about not wanting to relocate to San Antonio.

It's tempting to criticize Benson—to say, for example, that the teams colors, gold and black, respectively stand for (a) Benson's first and only love, and (b) the color of his heart—or to point out that the team's chronic misfortunes may be due to his habit of firing competent people in the organization. But I'm not going to do that. Instead, I want to say two things to any fan who feels the least twinge of disappointment:

1. The NFL is not pro bono publico. It's a business. The sole purpose of this business is to transfer wealth from middle-class ticket buyers to 31 very wealthy owners.¹ That's not grousing; that's a fact. Get rid of any illusions you may have that the NFL has any other purpose besides increasing the owners' wealth, and you won't be surprised or disappointed when a team relocates.
2. If item # 1 doesn't adjust your perspective, then recent events should. According to last Sunday's Times-Picayune, Katrina's death toll in Louisiana stands at 1,056, including 700+ in New Orleans. (See yesterday's entry.) 1,056 deaths is a tragedy. Losing the Saints—not such a tragedy.

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¹ The Green Bay Packers are an exception: a publicly owned team, most of whose shareholders are also season-ticket holders. All teams should be like the Packers, but alas, they're not.