wisconsin

So, based on haiku received last week, it appears that most people have non -hipster dads.  I guess that I am just lucky! For example, this from Christine: Hipster; not my Dad He preferred London dry gin Couldn't grow a beard. and this from IPLawGuy: My Dad: Determination Stiff Upper lip, still hiding A sense of humor. Amy, though, had a different take (and a fair question): There must be a Hipster soul. Otherwise, it's just trying too hard: Osler's dad's beer is Hipster soul. Too-long, groomed beards Is trying too hard. [Can chicks be hipster?]

The United States has  a problem that other nations don't have: people taking a gun or guns to a public place and killing as many people as they can. Almost always, it is white men who commit these terrible crimes. Their reasons are hard to discern: sometimes they seem aggrieved about some personal issue or break-up, other times there is a deep racial animus, and sometimes mental illness plays a role. For some of the killings, it is almost impossible to discern a motive. Often, though, it seems that the killers are lashing out against people they think are threatening them, or are seeking revenge on those who have hurt them (or at least are perceived to have done so). I'm at a loss to explain how people get to the point of such evil. We don't put much effort into figuring that out though-- and shouldn't it be important? Part of the problem is that we don't trust what killers say and don't want to validate them, and there is that danger if we pay too much attenti

As part of haiku Friday yesterday, I posted the opening credit scene of the 1971 film "Shaft." As I watched it, one segment (starting at about 2:20) caught my attention: the part where Shaft weaves through some kind of demonstration where protesters are holding signs saying the following: "Fidelifacts spies on homosexuals" "I lost my job through Fidelifacts" "Fidelifacts traffics in human lives" "I got my job through the New York Times" [with a picture of an ostrich in a boater hat] It turns out that rather than being a staged bit for the movie, this actually is a snapshot of a fascinating bit of history. The makers of the movie just filmed Richard Roundtree going through an actual demonstration that was sponsored by the Gay Activists Alliance, just a few years after Stonewall. The target was Fidelifacts, a company that provided employers with information about the (supposed) sexual preferences of people seeking work-- so that those emp

Now here is a topic we haven't handled before! We have a lot of hipsters here in Minneapolis; the entire coffee and beer economies rely on them. If you are wondering, here are some of the core traits of hipsters: -- enjoy very cheap OR very expensive beer -- work in the gig economy -- unusual or unkempt haircut and/or facial hair -- enjoys music that is outside of the mainstream -- usually smart and witty Of course, dads are the original hipsters. Here are a few hipster dads I know: 1) IPLawGuy IPLawGuy hits almost all of the hipster qualities (his preferred music, for example, is a cross between hillbilly yodeling, Led Zeppelin, and novelty songs from Dr. Demento). The one exception is that he does not work in the gig economy. And if you are wondering, he is not covered in powder cocaine in this photo. It's uh, something else. I'm not sure what. Maybe something from the 1977 Dodge Dart he is restoring in his driveway? Or drywall powder from redoing his home office with stu

As I have mentioned before, I am honored and happy to hold the Ruthie Mattox Chair of Preaching at 1st Covenant Church here in Minneapolis. That church is facing a singular challenge right now. Over the past several years, the church has reached out to the community around it as part of its revitalization. As a downtown church, that brought in real diversity: young and old, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight. It was the last of these that led to some challenges, and the choice of 1st Cov to treat LGBT members as fully human, able to take part in all that the church does. The denomination 1st Cov is a part of, the Evangelical Covenant Church, has been hostile to this change. As a result 1st Cov is on the verge of being involuntarily separated from the denomination at the annual meeting later this month in Omaha. This saddens me. So, course, I wrote about it. I hope you will read that piece, which is appearing in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today, and which you can read h

Over the next several months, I am devoting Wednesdays on the blog to profiling some of my Yale Law classmates. Everyone knows about Brett Kavanaugh, but there are so many other people who are fascinating and accomplished! If you have read Bryan Stevenson's excellent book Just Mercy , you have already come across the remarkable work of Michael O'Connor. He appears in Chapter 7 of that book, when he comes on board to help Stevenson and Bernard Harcourt represent Walter McMillan , who had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. Stevenson, O'Connor, and Harcourt pursued the case until McMillan was exonerated after six years on death row. O'Connor came into law school like a ball of fire. He got to college late, but then blazed through his undergrad studies at Penn State and graduated summa cum laude. At Yale Law, he was both brilliant and deeply principled, a moral figure who often (rightly) challenged the rest of us. He cared about working people, the poor, cri