I received a link to a New Yorker article from a friend.  The link lead to a seventeen page detailed exploration of the career and the present work of Attorney General William Barr.  The piece was entitled, Trump’s Sword and Shield by David Rohde. 

 Simultaneously drawn and repelled by the prospect of reading the article, my intent was to lay it aside.  I understand that Barr is effectively the consigliere for the President.  The purpose of the Attorney General is to shield the President unequivocally, to increase the power of the Presidency and to diminish the power of Congress. 

Why my visceral revulsion?  Over the years I have had occasion to encounter bullies and to defend myself, as well as defend aspects of life that are precious to me — against their violent overture.  Barr is an example of a bully in high office, the highest law enforcement officer in the land and a member of the Presidents cabinet.

I remember a summer afternoon.  I would have been around twenty five years old.  I was yet a sincere, “Bible believing Christian.”  I and a senior member of the church leadership team drove to call upon a couple who had visited our church on a Sunday morning.  Jim and Liz happened to be friends of mine.  We sat around the picnic table in their backyard, the four of us making small talk, getting acquainted.  Jim held a bottle of beer for refreshment on the warm afternoon.  I do not remember what beverage my partner and I held in our glasses.  To my surprise and embarrassment, my partner decided to take-to-task, to pass judgment upon our hosts on account of their consumption of alcohol.  I cringed inwardly.  I knew that any prospect of good will between our hosts and the church had evaporated in those awkward moments filled with hurtful words.

My partner was a bully.  At the conclusion of this visit in our vehicle he and I had an extended verbal dispute about his behavior.  I do not recall that I ever spoke to this man again. 

Bullies are dangerous and are to be avoided whenever possible.

If you’d like to read the New Yorker article in its entirety, CLICK HERE.

‘Evil resides in the very gaze that perceives Evil around itself.’ – –GWF Hegel

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The Mouth of Sauron is a character from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  He was herald and messenger of Sauron, the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr and one of the most devoted servants of Sauron at the time of the War of the Ring. His true name had been forgotten, even by himself.