Antone's Nightclub
'Wild, Rabid Letter' From Mike Levy
RECEIVED Wed., June 8, 2011
Dear Editor,
On a friend’s tip, I checked my mailbox on Sunday and discovered a wild, rabid letter from Michael Levy of the Committee for Even Minimally Sane and Rational Government in Austin, attacking one of our two remaining Place 3 City Council candidates. It was not clear to me that he reached the "minimally sane" threshold of his own organization. The letter was chock-full of what in defense-rebuttal lawsuit pleadings are sometimes termed "conclusory allegations," absent merit, truth, and/or substantiation of the allegations via a bill of particulars. A bill of particulars would be like what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence about the specific, odious acts of the king and the British – as opposed to imaginary inequities.
Levy claimed to have arrived in Austin in the 1970s and never to have seen a scarier politician. He would be, like, talking about Austin, where we have, like … the Legislature. I would venture that Austinites have seen an average of (here you may insert your favorite number – don't be shy!!) scarier politicians every two years for the last umpteen years. Tops might be the freshman from Longview who staged the fake assassination attempt on himself, took buckshot in his behind, blamed Satanic cults, wasn't thought credible by the DPS, and was found at his parent's house hiding in his childhood puppet box. That was really scary, and that's before we even get around to the current crop of politicians in Washington, where the fright goes exponential. We have locally a magazine called Texas Monthly, which every biennium lists Texas' worst legislative politicians, who often double as scary. Levy might want to become familiar with that publication.
On a friend’s tip, I checked my mailbox on Sunday and discovered a wild, rabid letter from Michael Levy of the Committee for Even Minimally Sane and Rational Government in Austin, attacking one of our two remaining Place 3 City Council candidates. It was not clear to me that he reached the "minimally sane" threshold of his own organization. The letter was chock-full of what in defense-rebuttal lawsuit pleadings are sometimes termed "conclusory allegations," absent merit, truth, and/or substantiation of the allegations via a bill of particulars. A bill of particulars would be like what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence about the specific, odious acts of the king and the British – as opposed to imaginary inequities.
Levy claimed to have arrived in Austin in the 1970s and never to have seen a scarier politician. He would be, like, talking about Austin, where we have, like … the Legislature. I would venture that Austinites have seen an average of (here you may insert your favorite number – don't be shy!!) scarier politicians every two years for the last umpteen years. Tops might be the freshman from Longview who staged the fake assassination attempt on himself, took buckshot in his behind, blamed Satanic cults, wasn't thought credible by the DPS, and was found at his parent's house hiding in his childhood puppet box. That was really scary, and that's before we even get around to the current crop of politicians in Washington, where the fright goes exponential. We have locally a magazine called Texas Monthly, which every biennium lists Texas' worst legislative politicians, who often double as scary. Levy might want to become familiar with that publication.
Chris Kuykendall