New Year's Resolutions for Other People. 2016 Edition

 Polly and Her Pals, January 4, 1919.

Yes, I know that this is rude, but I fear that if I don't do this form them, they're not going to do it for themselves. And some folks needs some resolve, let alone resolutions.  So, in spite of last year's failure of this topic, we'll try again.  Probably with an equal lack of success, but here goes.

1.  The American political system.  Hey, your broken and are not making sense.

Well, not completely broken, but the method of picking a President sure is. What's with this absurdly long period just to pick a party candidate that is, after all, the candidate for that party? It's presented like an actual national election.  Ditch it, and have a convention about eight weeks before the national election and pick the candidate then. No primaries or any of that baloney.

And while you are at it, let's admit that the two party system doesn't make natural sense either.  The Democrats are at least two parties, the GOP is at least three.  Let's admit it and get some variety rolling.  Why are Clinton and Saunders in the same party?  Why are Trump and Paul?  It doesn't make very much sense.

2.  The Upper Federal Judiciary.  Back to law school for the Federal bench, or at least the Supreme Court.

The job of the Supreme Court isn't all that hard.  It's just to interpret the law, which usually is fairly straight forward.  Don't worry about the consequences of that, but quit making stuff up when it suits some "evolving concept".  You aren't a legislature.  Last year was a bad year for you.  Try to fix what you botched up in the law this year.

While you are at it, look up "natural law".  If you don't get that, or think there isn't one, enroll in the local colleges night school classes in biology.  Really.  You may have been wearing weird obsolete judicial stuff so long that you've forgotten that there is a nature.

Speaking of obsolete judicial stuff, why are we holding on to robes?  It's strange.

Also speaking of obsolescence, even though I know it runs counter to cherished ideas, perhaps its time to seriously consider imposing a mandatory retirement age for Federal judges. This is, I know, the exact opposite of what our legislature has pondered in regards to our own judiciary in recent years, but I mean it.  Four of the current justices are in their 70s.  Sure, they may be sharp, but sooner or later we're going to get one that isn't, then what?  And beyond that, lawyers, and that's what they are, in their 70s began practicing law in the 1960s.  Most Americans were alive in the 1960s.  Experience is one thing, but time does move on, and recently they've issued an opinion trying to anticipate what they think the evolution of trends are.  People in their 70s aren't necessarily that clued in, really, to current social evolution on things.

3.  The Media.  Try focusing on real news this year. Not the photogenic stuff, but the real stuff.  Just because its photogenic doesn't make it really important.

4.  People who cite statistics routinely.  Oh, you know who you are.

Research what that stuff means, will you?  Just citing some statistic doesn't mean anything if you don't understand the background to it, and the context of it.  Quite often, you are actually boosting erroneous assumptions.

5.  The Wyoming Legislature.  Hey, take a year off on insisting that the Federal government "give back" the land that Wyoming never owned.   

6.  Politicians.  This year, let's admit that the west is in a war with Islamic fundamentalism and that's going to last a very long time.  As part of that, let's not mince words.  It's a war (most of you are finally admitting that).  The Islamic State is not insane, but grounded in a fundamental conservative, if radical, understanding of Islam.  We're going to have to get this right.

7. Saudi Arabia.  Okay, Saudi Arabia, you won't play nice on petroleum, so we don't have to play nice with you.

Saudi Arabia, like every other country in the world, should be subject to the "Mormon Missionary Standard of Civil Conduct".  Now, I'm not a Mormon, but what I mean by that is that if your country can't tolerate a clean cut kid in a white shirt and tie coming to the door to tell you about the Book of Mormon, or perhaps about the views of the Jehovah's Witnesses, it's not an adult country.

It isn't that you have to believe what they believe, but if you are so freaking insecure about your own beliefs that its illegal for Elder Jones or whomever to come to your door, you have a real problem.  Grow up.

So, Saudi Arabia, start acting civil. And, rest of the world, until there's a Christian church, no matter how small, in a Meccas suburb, quit treating these guys like they are our friends. They aren't.

8.  Muslims.  It is rude to tell a person what to believe, save as evangelization, which isn't rude even if perceived as such.  So I'm not telling you what to believe.  But what I am saying is that there's clearly a world crisis in which one branch of Islam is clearly at war with the rest of the world, and at war with less radical Muslims.

We don't hear from you faithful bystanders much, and we need to.  If you agree that the Islamic State is the new caliphate, say so and tell us why. If you don't, and particularly if you don't agree with its methods, we need to hear that.  That takes some courage either way, but we can probably agree that your faith would sanction that.

9.  Christians.  Again, it's not my position to tell people what to believe, but I will note that in recent years some of you seem to adapt to worldly social positions as if they are religious tenants.  A central message of Christ was that Christianity was going to be unpopular and might end up getting you dead at the worst, or put outside of the circle of your family and friends.  So, if the letters of St. Paul are making you squirm a bit, maybe they ought to, rather than making you look to your political party for answers.

10.  The Islamic State.  Just this week you issued instructions how how abhorrent your soldiers were allowed to go with female captives, and that's pretty darned far.

That's creepy.  Stop it.

11.  Celebrities.  Oh, just shut up.  Seriously.  We don't really need to know what you think on anything at all.

And I mean anything.

12. Wyoming drivers.  Enough is a enough on making up new rules at intersections.  The rules are all in a book put out by the DOT. Get it. Read it.  Apply it.

13.  Lawyers.  For all 25 years of my practice I've heard you lamenting about the loss of civility in the practice. And it is real.  Here's an ideal, start acting civil.  

14.  The Bar Exam Committee.  And not just the Wyoming one.  There is no "uniform" law.  All law, even uniform acts, are going to be modified locally.  You exist for your state and your state alone. Ditch the UBE.

15.  Ford Motors and General Motors.  Automatic transmissions to not belong in heavy trucks. Reintroduce the stick shift in them.

And, while you are at it, Chrysler, I like the diesel engine in the Jeep Wrangler, good idea, but with an automatic only?  Seriously?

16.  Law Schools.  We're flooded with lawyers in the  US right now.  This would be a good time to make the curriculum harder and reduce class size.  You'd be doing your students a favor.

For that matter, you'd be doing them a favor too if you went through the faculty and asked everyone if they'd practiced real law for at least ten years. Those who haven't can benefit by getting a pink slip and going out the door to practice what they've been preaching.

While speaking of law schools, perhaps we ought to consider making them a bit more erudite once again.  In recent years this seems to have declined.  Lawyers who don't have a theory of the law and a historical understanding of that theory aren't very well educated.

I'm not sure how to introduce that, but perhaps we should ponder adding a fourth year to law school to include such topics.

17. Chambers of Commerce and all you economic types.  Economic analysis of things is surprisingly shallow.  Growth is good is about all it amounts to as a rule.  Maybe its time to consider economics in an actual real world, this is what people want sort of way.  And not in the worn out Socialist manner that's getting drug back out this year.

I sort of suspect that most people most places aren't all that keen on growth, but might actually want stability more.  Might be worth pondering.

18.  Television.  Okay TV, I hit you last year, and I am again.

Enough is enough.  I don't care what "real housewives" of any place do.  If you show one more episode featuring a bunch of trashy rich women anywhere, and bill them as housewives, you ought to run a hundred about married Hispanic maids in the same communities. They, dear TV, are the real ones.

And no more shows on the Duggars. Ever.  Haven't we had enough?  Granted, maybe to somebody a show about a family with nineteen children was interesting at first, but now its been done.  And spinning it off into second generations is a bit much.

No more Cody Brown and his crew either.   Ack.

19.  Women.  Women, every year there's a story about how women have not reached economic parity with  men, and you haven't.

And then one of your sisters will make a big news splash by omitting most of her clothing, and be celebrated for that.  Don't emulate her, and let her know what you think. She's not liberating you, she's holding you down.

20.  Men.  Dudes, there's been a lot of press here and there about men being less many now days.  And that press has some merit.  Cut it out with the novel haircuts and skintight jeans and do something manly. Seriously. 

And, take a look at number 19.  Yes, that tart is sans apparel in order to sell her image to you, but you don't have to buy it. Take a look at the ossified freak who is credited with getting this debasement rolling.  You definitely don't want to be that guy.  And the current scientific evidence is that this stuff is in fact having a detrimental psychological and effect on you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!  Thanks for reading my blog.