He served four terms as Governor of Alabama.  He ran for president four times, three as a Democrat. In 1972, he was shot and paralyzed, living out the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  He was best known as a southern populist, standing firmly against desegregation.  But he never did a blawg review. Loser.

The other George Wallace writes about insurance law at Declarations and Exclusions.  If you’re fascinated by insurance law (and who’s not), it’s the place to go.  The other George Wallace has a personal blog, A Fool in the Forest, which will only be of interest to readers who think.  The former hosts  Blawg Review #304 this week.  The latter will host next week’s blawg review.  I’m taking a leap here, but I predict it will be called Blawg Review #305.

In anticipation, the other George Wallace posts a bleg.

Who am I kidding?  I am next week’s Blawg Review host, at my personal/cultural blog,  a fool in the forest.  For reasons that will become clear in good time, I am particularly interested for the next edition in blog posts that examine, or that exemplify, Things That the Law, or Lawyers, Could Do Without.  Your submissions and suggestions, early and often but mostly early  [hint hint, nudge nudge], will be welcome and appreciated.

Only because I think the other George Wallace is one of the smartest, most erudite lawyers on the internet, I want to start the ball rolling.

Lawyers could do without BMWs.  Porsches too, but they’re mainly for middle-aged doctors (not the Boxter, but the 911).

What’s the problem with BMWs?  Aside from the dumbing down when they started putting in cupholders to compete with the Japanese and minivans, they cause envy.  The lawyer driving around in his K-car is forced to park next to the BMW in the lawyer’s parking lot at the courthouse and feels diminished.  His self-esteem is shot.  He walks toward the magnetometer with shoulders slumped, already defeated. He feels . . . inadequate.

Despite his best efforts, a scheme begins to form in his endorphin deprived mind.  If only he could generate fear.  Fear and loathing.  It works so well for the government. It got George Wallace elected four times.  Fear and loathing are powerful, an aphrodisiac.  And he could be the solution, the messiah of fear and loathing.

It wouldn’t take much.  A tweak here and there.  A carefully crafted campaign to entice those who fear and loathe to come to him, begging him to be their savior.  Not too greedy.  If he gets too greedy, they will struggle and may well let thoughts and ideas overcome their fear and loathing.  No, never too greedy.  Just greedy enough.

It wouldn’t be entirely a lie.  Of course, taking small amounts from the many who fear and loathe adds up, enough to not only cover the lease, but gas and insurance as well.  And they would never know of his nefarious plan to persuade them that they’ve tried their best, that it’s a grand conspiracy against them propelling them to accede to the power and might of the evil government.  It will be easy, as they fear and loathe, inclined to believe from the outset.  They will sigh.  Some will cry.  But they will pay and never know that it was all part of his own grand scheme.

And when he pulls into that parking lot with his shiny BMW, tinted windows concealing the cupholders, his pride will blind him to the scared look of those led out of the courtroom in cuffs to serve their time, their legal bill having been paid in full.

No, lawyers can do without BMWs.

Does that pretty much cover it?