I thought Dan Larison was a sheep rancher!

Eh. Is it hypocritical that Deneen isn't a gentleman farmer of outer County Bergen, forking hay bales in a green waistcoat? Or that Larison isn't running a grass-fed sheep ranch up on Detrás Rota Montaña in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo? Maybe. But no more hypocritical than chickenhawk neocons who can't even be bothered to sign up for the National Guard, or white boy liberals like Yglesias thinking that NBA fanaticism endears them to the black lumpenproletariat. As Michael Corleone told Senator Geary, "we're all part of the same hypocrisy".

Who knows? Maybe in a year or so, or less, after Belo has a fourth-straight disaster of a quarter, and his boss at the DMN has called him into the office while saying "close the door behind you", we'll hear that Rod is now freelancing, and has also started up a neat little craft brewery in St. Francisville with some seed money. Will it change his brand of opinion? Probably not. Will it change our measured attitude to it? Again, likely not. Whether or not it is written from a big-city newsroom or his own version of Weyanoke, his opinion pieces either stand up or they don't.

Context.

Fair point, I apologize. Still...

Mr. K, the reason that fbc and I both cited bar association work is that, in your initial post, you say you have never met a paleo who is "a member of a local professional organization." To then say how unimpressed you are with bar association work is pure unadulterated goal-post shifting. Color me unimpressed.

Fair point, I apologize. Still, the spirit of mentioning professional associations was meant to imply something of a true give-and-take guild, where the members are constantly refining standards of quality, weeding out the bad apples, and driving the profession's evolution. Something I think we can all agree bar associations have generally failed to accomplish in the past few decades.

What pro-paleo lawyerly professional activity outside the billable hours would I be impressed with? Organizing and chartering an Inn of Court. Working with a diocesan chancellor (or his/her Protestant or Orthodox equivalent) to build a diocesan legal network that would be a pro bono machine equal to any secular counterpart in your area. Establishing a local version of the Becket Fund. Working with the county and state GOP general counsels to lead the deployment of teams of polling place watchers and recount observers, and organizing seminars on election law to train them.

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As an admitted attorney myself, color me deeply unimpressed.

Paleocon here...member of multiple bar associations from the ABA on the national level to my local county bar association, where I serve on the courthouse committee

As an admitted attorney myself, color me deeply unimpressed. Harriet Miers tried to spin the same sow's ear into a judicial silk purse, but while some non-lawyers may believe that bar association schmoozing (in between hustling for speeding ticket cases and getting the monthly cut from the mortgage broker who shares your office building) makes one a real man of the polis, there are others who know better.

Coached kindergarten YMCA flag football team to unbeaten 13-0 season.

Congratulations, seriously. Plus you put yourself in a position where there were plenty of potential clients if one of the little tykes got hurt.

20 years as a Republican volunteer to various local, state and national campaigns. Volunteering, contributing, active Republican (til George W. Bush, that is.) Precinct captain, delegate to state Republican convention.

Twenty years of activism and you finished as precinct captain? With one state convention thrown in as a sop? That's kind of sad, actually. I can understand your disillusionment with the GOP. You'll be happier in your state Reform Party organization.

pure unadulterated bullsh*t

I guess the asterix is what paleos mean by "striving for a culture of virtue."

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