No Longer a New Normal ... Again

This time last year, I reported I was social distancing in my dreams. Last night, no word of a lie, I dreamed that the lockdown was over. 

I went to the gym, saw my yoga teacher, hugged her and wept.

Next, Bruce and I attended a wedding. I left him to sit alone at the table while I picked a fight about a soiled tablecloth with one of the serving staff. She tried to shame me in front of everyone. But I knew I was right and no one paid her any attention.

Bruce says I need to lay off the Kool Aid before bed.

Nothing's Going on Now ... How About in 1990?

In November, 1990, I sent a short note to the Jewinskis about law school:

... I just keep on sopping up more and more of the law on the understanding that it will someday do me some good.... [but], the more you look at the law, the more it disappears. It's pretty well arbitrary, all of it, and the only thing more chilling that what Lord Haldane (see fun facts below)* did to the Canadian constitution (when it was just the British North America Act) is that people actually believe we still have to take his decisions seriously. Weird. Why not just say, "Haldane was a maniac operating under insane misconceptions more than 100 years ago. His decisions were bunk and they've messed up the country long enough. Let's make our own arbitrary decisions based on our own misconceptions and when they, too, become injurious to the country, let someone else strike them down and start again."

But that would make the law seem capricious, I've been told, so we pretend that Lord Haldane wasn't saturated with laudanum when he decided that the provincial powers were the only thing that really mattered to Canada. You can see from this how people like [Donald Trump]** get their feet in the door. Everyone is so busy being REASONABLE, that truly crazy people have nothing stopping them. And their whimsy becomes the law. 

Some things haven't changed.

Thanks for reading!

Stay cheerful!

Karen

* As Lord Chancellor, Haldane was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the court of last resort for the Empire. He sat on several cases from Canada dealing with the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments under the Canadian Constitution. He... showed a marked tendency to favour the provincial powers at the expense of the federal government.... 

The effects of some of these decisions have subsequently been modified, but they have had the long-term effect of recognizing substantial provincial powers.

Haldane's approach to the division of powers was heavily criticized as unduly favouring the provinces over the federal government and depriving it of the powers needed to deal with modern economic issues. More recently, one major study has characterised him as "the wicked stepfather" of the Canadian Constitution.^[53]

** Clearly I did not say Donald Trump in the letter. I said Hitler and Saddam Hussein, but, in the 21st century, those two sound a little dated when there are far fresher examples to use of over-powerful maniacs.

Your reward for reading the fine print: