Thoughts of an Irish Thinker — Books 1 thru 4

I retired from the Circuit Court Bench on January 4, 2000.   

About five years later, I approached Jerry Taylor, a friend of mine from the Quad City Music Guild. 

I told Jerry, who was the publisher of the Moline Dispatch, that I would like to write conservative op eds for the Dispatch.  Jerry took me up on my offer, and my first op ed appeared in the Dispatch in 2005. 

Then, when the Dispatch acquired the Rock Island Argus, my op eds began to appear in both papers.

    Over time, the Dispatch and Argus were purchased by Lee Enterprises, Jerry was "retired," and my articles began to also appear in the Quad City Times. 

But things weren’t the same. The co-operative experience that I had enjoyed, while Jerry was my publisher and Kenda Burrows was my editor, disappeared. If Kenda felt I had made a mistake, she would contact me, and ask, “Did you mean what you wrote here? Is your calculation correct? Did you leave out a word here? I would make the fix, and the article would be published.  

When Lee Enterprises took over, there was next-to-no communication. If they didn’t like the article, they simply didn’t publish it without any explanation. 

After replacing a number of their editors, a new Editor, Tom Martin, advised that they were laying off all their "local correspondents"  in July of 2023 (for financial reasons.)

Note: In September, Tom Martin invited me to resume writing but asked me to shorten my column. I have, and he is again printing them, albeit sans compensation.

Since, Tom and I have discussed things in emails. And I like to think we have worked out any differences.

That being said, I enjoy expressing my opinions, and it's a privilege to have my opinions published. And I never wrote for the money, anyway. 

 I am proud of what I have written, and I believe my opinion pieces will stand the test of time. As for my predictions, well, that's a different matter. I will concede that I am not particularly good as a soothsayer. 

The bottom line is this: some political men make every effort to bury their past and hide their mistakes. I refuse to do that. 

To borrow Martin Luther's famous statement, "Here I stand!" 

You can applaud me if you believe that what I wrote, at the time, was correct. You can criticize me if you believe what I wrote, given the available existing facts at the time,  was error. 

I am particularly proud of my op eds 

on abortion, 

on the First Amendment as creating (in the words of Mr. Justice Holmes) "a marketplace of ideas, 

on my historical analysis as to why we have a Second Amendment, 

on my analysis of why the death penalty is appropriate in certain limited cases,  

on my analysis of "ends" and "means," and 

on my adherence to the "Constitutional doctrine" of "original intent." 

I believe these opinions will stand the test of time.