wisconsin

I asked for haiku about Spring, and I got some great ones. Meanwhile, I am looking out of my window at great big snowflakes coming down, and I am getting over my annual winter into spring head cold, which almost knocked me out last week. But, yes, there were haiku! Tales of different places: The Medievalist described Texas: Everything is green, Trees bloom luxuriously pink, Blue bonnets explode. As did Megan Willome (quite winningly): Center Point Road The trees were green, so green(kelly green) except  for the few still bare,  still waiting. Still, they wait for what is already  here but not yet theirs. While Christine has more of an East Coast/NC vibe: White, pink, delicate Cherry blossoms drifting, down, slowly to the ground. And CraigA tried to get over Gronk's retirement by thinking about the Sox: Fenway franks grilling Sam Adams on tap, and Mr. Mookie Betts in right.

On Friday, we had a remarkable Law Journal Symposium at St. Thomas, and so many of my favorite people were there. For the last decade, I have worked hard on clemency, and having so many of my fellow travelers in one place was a dream come true! It was quite a week (I also found out our students chose me as "Professor of the Year," which means I get the happy task of hooding the graduates at commencement), but the symposium and those who were there really requires some additional discussion. One of those fellow travelers joined us in freedom only recently. For years, I knew about Alice Marie Johnson's case from Amy Povah (and eventually  promoted it on CNN ). She was freed on June 6, 2018, and immediately began working to free those she left behind. While in prison she became an ordained minister, and shared her talents with First Covenant here in Minneapolis not long after her release. And, of course, she was the best part of the last State of the Union address and recent...

Yesterday we had an amazing symposium at St. Thomas on clemency. The speakers, pictured above, included Shon Hopwood , Mark Holden , Alice Marie Johnson , Jason Hernandez , Erin Collins , Nkechi Taifa , Amy Povah , and Rudy Martinez . Such differences between these people, and such unity on what is important. It was a pretty incredible day.  I will write more about it tomorrow.

Razorites live all over, and the signs of Spring are different from place to place. Let's haiku about that today. Here, I will go first: The snow recedes now Leaving black ridgelines behind The green comes later. Now it is your turn! Use the 5/7/5 syllable formula, and have some fun!

One of the things I found captivating in the TV shows House of Cards and West Wing was the scenes where the candidates are out in little towns in Iowa, eating at the Pizza Ranch and trying to get good crowds to show up. We are to that season now, where exactly that is happening, and it must be fascinating to be in Des Moines (a place that might be less than fascinating at other times). I think what I like best about it is that the candidates constantly throw out ideas and come out with proposals on issues-- it is a real and genuine and usually well-founded debate about important things. What do you think they should be talking about?

Looking through photos the other day, I was struck by how cars appear in so many of the photos, even though they are rarely the focus of my photography. It's just that they are almost always there, it seems. The one exception is the pictures from Osler Island, a place cars can't get to and inhabit. I love cars-- I'm from Detroit, after all. But it is worth reflecting on how much these mobility devices shape our communities. Physically, it is inescapable: the sheer amount of concrete in a place like Waco, all designed to allow for plenty of parking, is the defining characteristic of the landscape. An alien visiting from outer space might, at first glance, think that cars are the sentient inhabitants of the planet. And yes, I do know that there is a series of animated movies about that. Freeways, of course, take out entire neighborhoods when they are built, but that is just a fraction of the impact of roads, parking lots, and everything else that cars demand. Is it worth it? ...

Megan Willome wrote a nice little haiku about the Mueller report yesterday: Dear Mr. Mueller, You could've summarized the whole in a haiku. She's right, too. I've got some thoughts on the Mueller Report (in addition to what I have said here  and here ): 1)  Regarding a conspiracy with Russians to influence the election, it seems clear that Mueller found insufficient evidence to recommend charges or impeachment. That's not totally surprising. From what we already knew, it seems that events like the Trump Tower meeting the Russians approached people in the Trump organization, talked about some stuff, but the Trump people never agreed to participate in the activity in any active way-- and that agreement is the essence of conspiracy. Sure, it turns out that the Russians went and did stuff to help Trump on their own, but that does not make it a conspiracy. 2) On obstruction, there is the legitimate question of "obstructing what?" I may disagree with the Barr analy...