Ok, so that picture on the About page is not actually your humble blogger, but one C.C. Highsmith, an attorney practicing in Texas around the turn of the century.

Reading legal history from his time period is endlessly entertaining to me, mostly because I love that mix of old-world erudition and ostentatious sophistication with which they debated topics that seem, now, flat-out ridiculous.

Mr. Highsmith himself was relatively forward thinking, it turns out.  As a legislator, he first made sure that druggists pay a fine for dispensing cocaine without a prescription.  He then campaigned, apparently for many years, to criminalize the stealing of dogs–a reasonable Continue reading →