The Shafter Shafted
Well, James McMillan Shafter, you're a Judge
At least you were when last I knew of you;
And if the people since have made you budge
I did not notice it. I've much to do
Without endeavoring to follow, through
The miserable squabbles, dust and smudge,
The fate of even the veteran contenders
Who fight with flying colors and suspenders.
Being a Judge, 'tis natural and wrong
That you should villify the public press
Save while you are a candidate. That song
Is easy quite to sing, and I confess
It wins applause from hearers who have less
Of spiritual graces than belong
To audiences of another kidney
Men, for example, like Sir Philip Sidney.
Newspapers, so you say, don't always treat
The Judges with respect. That may be so
And still no harm done, for I swear I'll eat
My legs and in the long hereafter go,
Snake-like, upon my belly if you'll show
All Judges are respectable and sweet.
For some of them are rogues and the world's laughter's
Directed at some others, for they're Shafters.
poem by Ambrose Bierce
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
The Talent Show
Hundreds of people wait in the queue.
All eager to show off what they can do.
At today's talent show,
They hope for a 'yes', but may get a 'no.'
The panel of judges, they want to wow.
Their families, they want to make proud.
The singers range from bad to good.
Some can't sing, but someone told them they could!
A few singers are totally amazing,
And they lap up the judge's praising.
Represented, are all types of dance.
Round the stage, the dancers prance.
Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Folk and Street.
To the music, the dancers move their feet.
Stand-up comedians go through their paces,
Hoping to put a smile on the judge's faces.
A martial arts duo show off various kicks.
There's many magicians doing magic tricks.
A ventriloquist takes the stage with his furry friend:
To his friend's performance, a hand he lends!
The contortionist can do many a weird pose,
Like getting her toes to touch her nose!
There's dogs who can dance or sing,
Or, indeed, try their hand at anything!
Some people have turned up, just for a bet,
And some of the acts, the judges just don't get.
It's been a long day, but it's been fun,
And soon the judge's shortlist is done.
All of the acts have now been put to the test.
Now it's the moment to decide who is best.
poem by Angela Wybrow
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The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.
quote by Walt Whitman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When we went to school we were told that we were governed by laws, not men. As a result of that, many people think there is no need to pay any attention to judicial candidates because judges merely apply the law by some mathematical formula and a good judge and a bad judge all apply the same kind of law. The fact is that the most important part of a judge's work is the exercise of judgment and that the law in a court is never better than the common sense judgment of the judge that is presiding.
quote by Robert H. Jackson
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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It Takes A Worried Man
Oh it takes a worried man, sing a worried song
Takes a worried man, come sing a little worried song
Well it takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Im worried now, wont be worried long
I went down to the riverside and I laid me down to sleep
Went down to the riverside, laid me down to sleep, lord
A-well I went down to the riverside, laid me down to sleep
When I woke up there were shackles on both-a my feet
Hit it!
(chorus)
It takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man (come) to sing a worried song
Yeah, it takes a worried man, yeah, to sing a worried song
Im worried now but I wont be worried long
Worry for me!
(instrumental)
I said, judge (judge) judge, whats a-gonna be my fine?
I said, judge (judge) judge (judge) tell me whats gonna be my fine?
I said, judge (judge) judge (judge) tell me whats gonna be my fine?
He said, twenty-one years (oh) on that old rock island line
Oh well it takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
Yeah, it takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
Im worried now, but I wont be worried long
Sing it one more time!
It takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man, to sing a worried song, my lord
It takes a worried man, to sing a worried song
Im worried now, but I wont be worried long
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Judge
Judge is not here to decide
Who is winner and who is loser.
Judge is here to decide
Who is in right point.
No judge is empower to
Pronounced death sentences
No judge has got power
To give life to the lifeless.
Judge can not decide
The synonyms and antonyms
Judge can not say
The right source for right word.
Judge is not judge
So long as the judge is mortal
Judge is judge
If judge is eternal.
poem by Gajanan Mishra
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong!
Long Arm Of The Law
In cumberland kentucky
On a cool hot evening
Billy lay in love with marrianne
She was a rich judges daughter
He was a son of a miner
But that night their love was more than they could stand
The judge said to his daughter
That son of that coal miner
Is someone youll go hell to leave alone
She knew his dad so well
She knew she couldnt tell
But the truth was bound in show before too long
Their love had started growing on its own
You cant out run the long arm of the law
No, you cant out run the long arm of the law
Billy placed his hand on mary
And he felt the babys moving
Kissed her and said Ill see you when I can
The judge had made a promise
When he caught up with billy
Hed sent him far away from marianne
The whole town knew hed do it
Too many times hed proved it
To at least a hundred men behind the wall
Hed smiled behind that frown
And when he brought that gavel down
He called himself the long arm of the law
And hed set his mind on seeing billy fall
In a hot humid mine shack
A mid-white pulled the sheet back
And placed cool damp towel on marianne
Billys eyes were wide with wonder
From the spell he was under
When she placed the new born baby in his hands
He didnt hear the siren
Just a babys crying
That miracle of love was all he saw
When the door came crashing down
And billy turned around
He felt the heart and soul inside him fall
He stood face to face
With the long arm of the law
You cant out run the long arm of the law
No, you cant out run the long arm of the law
You can hide out for a while
He says with a smile
But you cant out run the long arm of the law
Seemed like everybody down in cumberland kentucky
Came out that day to see poor billys trial
The court was called to order
There sat the judges daughter
She looked so proud
Holding billys child
When they brought billy to him
The judge just look right thru him
As he held that holy Bible in his hand
And he smiled at his grandson
Then his eyes cut back to billy
And said I think this time
The law will understand
Son, I sentence you to live with marianne
You cant out run the long arm of the law
No, you cant out run the long arm of the law
He said to billy with a smile
I know you hide out for a while
Ah but you cant out run the long arm of the law
No you cant out run the long arm of the law
song performed by by Kenny Rogers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bible in Poetry: James 4
Submit Yourselves to God:
1 What causes fights, quarrels ’mongst you?
Do not they come from within you,
From battles of your desires?
2You want something but don't get it.
You kill, covet, but you can’t have all.
You quarrel, fight without limits.
You don’t get for, you don’t ask God.
3 When you ask God, you don’t receive,
Because you ask with wrong motives.
You spend a lot on your pleasures.
4 You people ones, adulterous,
Do not you know that world’s friendship,
Is hatred you bear towards God?
He who is a friend of the world
Becomes an enemy of God.
5 Do you then think that Scripture says
Without reason that our spirit
He caused to live in us envies?
6 But He gives us more grace, it says:
'God opposes the proud earthlings,
But gives grace to the humble ones.'
7 Submit yourselves to almighty;
Resist devils, and they flee you.
8 Go near to God and He comes near.
Wash well your hands, you sinners all,
And purify your hearts and minds.
9 Grieve, mourn and wail, if needed then.
Change laughter to mourning at times.
And change your joy to gloom sometimes.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord,
And He will surely lift you up.
11 Don’t practice slander of brethren.
He who speaks against his brother
Or judges him speaks against law.
And when you judge the law, you aren’t
Keeping it, but judging on it.
12 There is just one Lawgiver, Judge,
The one who can save and destroy.
But who are you to judge others?
Boasting About Tomorrow:
13 You who say, 'Today or tomorrow
We’ll go to this or that city,
Spend there a year, and do business
And make a lot of money then.'
14 You don’t know what the morrow brings.
What is your life? You are a mist
That stays a while and vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say then man,
'If it is will of Lord, we’ll live;
Do this or that as God goads you.'
16 Then as it is, you boast and brag.
Such boasting comes from evil minds.
17 Yet, one who knows what good to do,
But does not do, then sins instead.
poem by John Celes
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You Cant Judge A Book
You cant judge a book by looking at the cover
No, you cant judge a man by looking at the cover
And you cant judge a book by looking at the cover
When I was young and went to school
My mama taught me the magic rule
And what she said I tried my best to follow
She said
You cant judge a book by looking at the cover
No, you cant judge a man by looking at the cover
And you cant judge a book by looking at the cover
Then I left school and moved around
And what I saw and what I found
Made me remember what she said to follow
She said
You cant judge a book by looking at the cover
No, you cant judge a man by looking at the cover
And you cant judge a book by looking at the cover
And now I think, by now Id know, that what appears is not always so
And I remember what she said to follow
She said
You cant judge a book by looking at the cover
No, you cant judge a man by looking at the cover
And you cant judge a book by looking at the cover
song performed by by Rick Springfield
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In England the judges should have independence to protect the people against the crown. Here the judges should not be independent of the people, but be appointed for not more than seven years. The people would always re-elect the good judges.
quote by Andrew Jackson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Obvious
[Shane:]
Yeah, ooooh...
We started as friends
But something happened inside me
Now I'm reading into everything
But there's no sign you hear the lightning, baby
You don't ever notice me turning on my charm
Or wonder why I'm always where you are
[Shane (Westlife):]
I've made it obvious
Done everything but say it
(I've crushed on you so long, but on and on you get me wrong)
I'm not so good with words
And since you never notice
The way that we belong
I'll say it in a love song
[Bryan (Westlife):]
I've heard you talk about
(Heard you talk about)
How you want someone just like me (Bryan echo: just like me)
But everytime I ask you out
(Time I ask you out)
We never move pass friendly, no no
And you don't ever notice how I stare when we're alone
Or wonder why I keep you on the phone
[Shane (Westlife):]
I've made it obvious
Done everything but say it
(I've crushed on you so long but on and on you get me wrong)
I'm not so good with words
And since you never notice
The way that we belong
I'll say it in a love song
Yeah...
[Mark:]
You are my very first thought in the morning
[Shane:]
And my last at nightfall
[Mark:]
You are the love that came without warning
[Mark & Shane:]
I need you, I want you to know
[Shane (Westlife):]
I've made it obvious
So finally I'll say it
(I've crushed on you so long)
I'm not so good with words
And since you never notice
The way that we belong
I'll say it in a love song
[Westlife:]
And sing it until the day you're holding me
I've wanted you so long but on and on you get me wrong
I more than adore you but since you never seem to see
[Shane:]
But you never seem to see
I'll say it in this love song
song performed by by Westlife
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Judex Judicatus
Judge Armstrong, when the poor have sought your aid,
To be released from vows that they have made
In haste, and leisurely repented, you,
As stern as Rhadamanthus (Minos too,
And AEeacus) have drawn your fierce brows down
And petrified them with a moral frown!
With iron-faced rigor you have made them run
The gauntlet of publicity-each Hun
Or Vandal of the public press allowed
To throw their households open to the crowd
And bawl their secret bickerings aloud.
When Wealth before you suppliant appears,
Bang! go the doors and open fly your ears!
The blinds are drawn, the lights diminished burn,
Lest eyes too curious should look and learn
That gold refines not, sweetens not a life
Of conjugal brutality and strife-
That vice is vulgar, though it gilded shine
Upon the curve of a judicial spine.
The veiled complainant's whispered evidence,
The plain collusion and the no defense,
The sealed exhibits and the secret plea,
The unrecorded and unseen decree,
The midnight signature and-_chink! chink! chink!
Nay, pardon, upright Judge, I did but think
I heard that sound abhorred of honest men;
No doubt it was the scratching of your pen.
O California! long-enduring land,
Where Judges fawn upon the Golden Hand,
Proud of such service to that rascal thing
As slaves would blush to render to a king
Judges, of judgment destitute and heart,
Of conscience conscious only by the smart
From the recoil (so insight is enlarged)
Of duty accidentally discharged;
Invoking still a 'song o' sixpence' from
The Scottish fiddle of each lusty palm,
Thy Judges, California, skilled to play
This silent music, through the livelong-day
Perform obsequious before the rich,
And still the more they scratch the more they itch!
poem by Ambrose Bierce
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The world at large does not judge us by who we are and what we know; it judges us by what we have.
quote by Joyce Brothers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The world at large does not judge us by who we are and what we know it judges us by what we have.
quote by Joyce Brothers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet XXIII: The Curious Wits
The curious wits seeing dull pensiveness
Bewray itself in my long settled eyes,
Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise,
With idle pains, and missing aim, do guess.
Some that know how my spring I did address,
Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies:
Others, because the Prince my service tries,
Think that I think state errors to redress.
But harder judges judge ambition's rage,
Scourge of itself, still climbing slipp'ry place,
Holds my young brain cativ'd in golden cage.
Oh Fools, or over-wise, alas the race
Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start,
But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart.
poem by Philip Sidney
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Astrophel and Stella: XXIII
The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness
Bewray itself in my long-settl'd eyes,
Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise,
With idle pains and missing aim do guess.
Some, that know how my spring I did address,
Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies;
Others, because the prince my service tries,
Think that I think state errors to redress;
But harder judges judge ambition's rage--
Scourge of itself, still climbing slipp'ry place--
Holds my young brain captiv'd in golden cage.
O fool or over-wise! alas, the race
Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start
But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart.
poem by Philip Sidney
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The Juvenile Offenders Act
The Juvenile Offenders Act gives soft-on-crime judges an out,
While the names of young criminals don’t get published throughout,
The statisticians do surveys that say everything is fine,
And it doesn’t matter who got off with a whole bunch of crime.
The people don’t have referendums nor required to vote,
And young criminals know they can get away with it and gloat,
The height of political correctness with lawyers by the score,
Nodding and waving as the criminals walk out the courtroom door.
Are we the only people in the world with these stupid laws?
As the judges, the lawyers and the pink socialists applause,
Where can we find a politician that really means what he says?
How do we go about getting binding referendums these days?
poem by James Bredin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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How Would We Know?
How would we know skinny,
if we don’t know fat?
How would we know white,
if we didn’t know black?
How would we know feed,
if we didn’t know starved?
How would we know small
if we didn’t know large?
Living in a duality/relative world,
we know the difference between boy and girl.
Why judge what Source has made?
Life has different colors and different shades.
Anyways, do you think a cat or dog judges?
we now see Bulldogs that are mixed with little Pug’s.
Written By Christina Sunrise on November 13,2011
poem by Christina Sunrise
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No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time.
quote by James Madison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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