It is the economy, stupid!

The economy is at 0.1 %. The important thing is 0. 0 new jobs. 0 new business. 0 government competence. The gov't is printing money; prices for local stuff will go up. The value of the dollar will go down again; foreign goods, like oil, will go up. 47% of our people live on government checks, and most other Americans get small paychecks. Taxes on small paychecks are up.

If this sounds like boring white cracker stuff, go buy food for your family at the grocery store.  Most bread sells for $4 a loaf at local stores.

So, how long did Obama tell us the lie that the economy was above 2% or 3%? Does it matter that you were lied to?

Is it time to ramp up the hate speech on MSNBC against white Republicans?

How high do prices rise before the riots start?
Do you expect government checks to go up with prices?
Do you expect your county (or city) paycheck to go up with prices?

Really?

An Amazing Grant Writing Nonprofit Group

Listen!  I am a citizen of a county, state, and a federal government: no one listens to me or helps me. There is, however, a group that listens and will help you. You have never heard of them.

Circle of Ten: A Circle of Ten, Inc. - Network for Collaboration, is a nonprofit group that is amazing.

Grant Writing: The Circle of Ten has monthly grant writing sessions for persons in nonprofit groups. The attendees bring their hopes, desires and needs. Libraries need books and computers. Schools need computers, buildings, a/c systems.

Preparing a Grant Application: A Circle of Ten, Inc. session guides the preparation of applications, which are submitted during the session. A Circle of Ten knows who to ask for the money and knows, before giving out any money, what the agency is really looking for. A Circle of Ten also knows who to call at the agency. They are on a first name basis with the right people, at federal, state, and private agencies, who judge applications and sign the checks.

No Go.  Of course, you can buy a book of forms and fill in the blanks. And, you can fly to Washington D.C., and spend the summer trying to see the right person. Or, you can go to Google, get the names of charitable agencies, and start making telephone calls. Oh yeah. You probably tried that already.

Contact Info: A Circle of Ten, Inc. is not hard to find. A list of dates, times and places for grant writing sessions is found on your computer. Go to Circle of 10 or Virtual Village for info and schedules. Send them an email. Or you may pick up your cell phone and call 903-541-0013 (Fax 888-214-5210).

I remember sitting down for lunch in Tyler, Texas, at Cox's Grill, and meeting the director of the public health department for our district. For some reason, I shut up and listened. He told me that every day, some of his employees receive a list of names and some  medicines. The list of names is a list of those persons with a disease so dangerous (Tuberculosis) that his employees are instructed to go see them, and watch them take the medicines. Simply asking the people if they had taken their pills is not good enough, the employee had to see the person place the pill in his mouth and swallow it. A refusal to take the medicine would result in the person being locked up in a hospital and receiving his medical treatment there.

As dangerous as Tuberculosis is, it seems that some forms of mental illness, along with guns, is even worse. Sending someone out to watch the bi-polar person take his medicine (and see if he is playing with an AR-15) is fairly simple. It is certainly easier than finding and locking down hundreds of millions of firearms.

Isn't one solution to send someone out, watch the dangerous person take his medicine, and see what is going on?

From the lawyer to the artist:  Since prehistory, man has known that art came, in part, from a source outside the artist. The ancients worshiped 9 pagan goddesses, the Muses, who inspired artists. Around campfires, Arabs in North Africa watched dancers, when they saw a greater-than-human dance, cried, “Allah!”  After the Arabs conquered Spain, the Spaniards, who saw God in a bullfighter’s greater-than-human courage, cried, “Ole’!” (Ole’ being derived from Allah).

However, the modern rational man wrongly believes it all comes from inside the artist. This creates an intense pressure. As a result, modern artists suffer drug abuse, mental illness, and suicide at staggering rates. As an artist, pray and consider that you will do your part, but that God, if he wants your art to be great, will do his part. It is not all from you. Part comes from God. Take the pressure off of yourself. It is not all your success; it is not all your failure. Allow God to add to your art (and your law practice.) 

The Peace Treaty of Troup, Texas: A nice lady in our little country church, in her 90s, pulled up to the doughnut store in Troup the other day, and discovered a police car behind her with flashing lights. The officer shouted, "Why didn't you stop, when I turned on the flashing lights, 2 blocks ago?" She apologized, and confessed that the State of Texas had taken away her driver's license. She knew she was not supposed to be driving, but she just had to have a chocolate doughnut. As we all know, the cravings for (chocolate or buttermilk) doughnuts are powerful.

A Peace Treaty was agreed upon. The next time she just has to have a chocolate doughnut, she will call the Policeman, and he will get her the doughnut and bring it to her home just outside of town.

Peace and Safety for All. Back the Blue.

Mistaken Paternity Trial in Texas

This past November, I went to court in a mistaken paternity case
and learned that my client paid $36,606 in child support through the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General admired him because for years, he regularly paid support. A DNA test showed that my client was not the father. 

He will not be repaid a dime. He gets no apology from the State of Texas. The child support stopped, but he still owes for the rest of November, plus a medical support fee. This is the last unjust punishment of a slave on the child support plantation.

The Attorney General told me 1 out of every 5 men tested through the Attorney General’s office is shown not to be the father. The personal experience of the Judge is that about 1 out of every 3 men is excluded by a DNA test. There may be a million men paying child support, because no DNA test was given before the State of Texas made them pay.

I do not blame the mother, she was only making money: We lawyers, judges, and legislators are the ones who allowed her to make money this way. We are the ones who allowed this evil. It is our embarrassment and shame.

End the slavery, Attorney General, and give the DNA test before you force men to pay.

Let’s Deregulate All the Lawyers

The NY Times ran an opinion article by Clifford Winston, who promoted his book, First Thing We Do, Let’s Deregulate All the Lawyers. If you think this may be a good idea, please go to Wikipedia and look up a famous Texas lawyer, John Wesley Hardin. There is nothing new under the sun.


John Wesley Hardin is better known as a Texas gunfighter, who killed 42 white men. It may sound a bit racist, but he did not count the black men, Mexicans, nor the Indians that he killed. The story is about murder, gun fights, outlaw gangs, arrests, escapes, and more gun fights. He was finally captured and held long enough to stand trial, and got a 25 year prison sentence.


For 5 years, a bad attitude and attempted escapes could describe John Wesley Hardin. After that, he settled into prison life, was superintendent of the prison Sunday School, and studied law. After 16 years, he was paroled, went to Austin, and passed the bar exam. After another killing or two, (you know how these little misunderstandings can happen), he went to El Paso to practice law.


One can imagine the impact of a demand letter from John Wesley Hardin. 
“Sir, I represent Tom Smith.  You signed a contract with Tom Smith with regards to a cattle sale, and owe him $2,000.00. Demand is made that you pay him the money within 30 days.
Your failure to pay the money due will disappoint Tom Smith, who will become your enemy and 
I will remain,
Sincerely yours, John Wesley Hardin. 
P.S. Don’t make me send a messenger for you to meet me at my saloon to discuss this.


My first senior partners’s grandfather was a lawman in Comanche County, Texas, and was with the posse which captured the Hardin gang, and hanged them. (Lynch is a such an ugly word.) John Wesley Hardin was away at the time, but his brother was hanged.  Years later, when the grandfather was in El Paso on business, John Wesley Hardin sent him a messenger to say that “All is forgiven and please come down to the saloon for a drink, tonight.”
Grandfather stayed at his hotel.


The NY Times does not know everything. 


We have been down this road before. Let’s keep a few rules about who can practice law. Let's keep a few rules about how we practice law.