Short Quiz

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Short Quiz

Post by johnkarls »

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Advance Apology

Usually the Short Quiz is prepared with a good idea of what the answers will be.

However, this Short Quiz may appear in retrospect to have been incoherent because many of the answers at this point are SWAG’s.

[Just like younger generations have morphed the definition of “Red Neck” which, when Yours Truly was young, meant “racist” and now seems to mean “hillbilly” -- younger generations have morphed the definition of SWAG which, when Yours Truly was a U.S. Naval Officer during the Vietnam War, was a pervasive derisive acronym meaning Silly Wild-Ass Guess.]

No, the dog did NOT eat my homework.

He died last Sunday evening.

After 10 years 8 months (85 human years) of walking me 1.5 miles/day during which many of our neighbors along the route (virtually all of them many times over the years) came out to shoot the breeze with Yours Truly as a pretext for petting Dandy Lion, my Golden Retriever.

The Best Dog Ever!!! May he Rest In Peace!!!

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This Month’s Questions

1. Who was Agatha Christie?

2. Does Dame Agatha Christie, aka Lady Mallowan (1890-1976) hold the Guinness World Record as the best-selling novelist of all time?

3. Is she best known for her whodunits, featuring super-sleuths Hercule Poirot (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.) and Miss Marple?

4. Is the British title “Dame” the female equivalent of Sir? Does the British title “Lady” mean the spouse of a “Sir”?

5. So in addition to being a female “Sir” in her own right for her literary achievements, was Dame Agatha Christie aka Lady Mallowan married to a “Sir” who had been knighted for his own achievements?

6. Was Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan a prominent archeologist (e.g., Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq 1947-1961, Oxford Professor 1962-1978) specializing in ancient Middle Eastern history?

7. Did Agatha meet Max in Iraq during one of his excavations in 1930?

8. After marrying Max that same year, did Agatha frequently accompany Max during his excavations?

9. Is that why so many of her Hercule Poirot novels and short stories (e.g., Appointment With Death, Murder in Mesopotamia, The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb) took place during archaeological excavations?

10. And do those stories feature the “finders, keepers - losers, weepers” principle, the first half of which is featured in the title of our focus book?

11. Indeed, is The British Museum (whose 8 million works make it one of the world’s largest) often accused of having the world’s largest collection of stolen and plundered archeological treasures?

12. So is it any wonder that, for example, Agatha Christie’s The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb involves an expedition comprising representatives of two competing museums, The British Museum and NYC’s Metropolitan Museum, though you would probably have to read the book to discover that -- since most synopses are oblivious to that dimension of the story?

13. Was The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb published in September 1923?

14. Had Egypt effectively been taken from the Ottoman Empire by Britain in 1867 so that it could build the Suez Canal which was completed in 1869? Was Egypt formally a British colony 1914-1953?

15. So when Agatha Christie published The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb in 1923, was Egypt as a British colony governed by English Common Law or by Sharia (aka Islamic Law)?

16. Would the answer to Q-15 depend on whether a British Court or an Islamic Court had jurisdiction?

17. Under English Common Law, is abandoned property available to be claimed by anyone who comes along?

18. On the other hand, does lost property become owned by any finder who comes along?

19. Is the answer to Q-17 affected by whether the lost property remains on real estate owned by the owner of the lost property? [For example, a rancher has lost some of the herd which are found, still on the ranch, by cattle rustlers.]

20. Under English Common Law, would archeological treasures be considered abandoned property or would they be considered lost property?

21. When Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 7/24/1847 (which is still recognized as “Pioneer Day” in Utah), was Utah still part of Mexico?

22. Did the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the Mexican-American War on 2/2/1848 bring Utah (together with most, if not all, of California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico) under U.S. ownership?

23. As a Spanish colony, had Mexico been officially governed by the Napoleonic Code (which, post Napoleon, has been the basis of the legal systems of most continental European nations)? Had the Napoleonic Code remained in effect after Mexican Independence 1821-1860 and during its second colonial period 1860-1867, this time as a French colony?

24. Is Utah officially governed by English-American Common Law? Is English-American Common Law based on Roman Catholic Law since England once had only Ecclesiastical Courts that were gradually replaced by temporal courts?

25. Does our focus book “Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archeological Plunder and Obsession” deal with artifacts found in the “four corners” area where the borders of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico intersect?

26. What law should govern the ownership of any archeological artifacts found in that area? English-American common law in the wake of the Mexican-American War? Or the pre-existing Napoleonic Code? Or the law of the Native-Americans who created the artifacts and whose land was taken by the European “pioneers”?

27. Does the foregoing help to inform the action we should take in the wake of the failure of the Mormon Church to respond to our letters of 10/31/2016 to each of its top 15 officers who together govern its affairs?

28. BTW, is there any doubt that if the Mormon Church had decided that the Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake, as a violation of the Mormon Church’s theology, should be halted with a “legislative initiative” pursuant to Utah Constitution Art. VI Sec. 1 and Utah Code Title 20A Chapter 7 -- as requested by our 10/31/2016 letters -- the Wanton Destruction would have stopped immediately?

29. Who owns the water that flows into Great Salt Lake from its three tributaries, the Bear River, the Weber River and the Provo River?

30. Is it necessary in answering Q-29 to consider all of the English-American Common Law “Estates In Land” and “Riparian Rights” that Yours Truly can recall so vividly from his Harvard Law School days 1964-67 with his photographic memory for anything he considers either important or interesting? [Hint: even though most law schools 1964-67 no longer required such studies, Yours Truly unfortunately considered such a “nightmare” as interesting, no matter how unimportant!!!]

31. In other words, doesn’t the English-American Common Law contain the concept of the “law of capture” which holds that any wild game you capture/kill on your real property is yours? And BTW isn’t the “law of capture” the bedrock of oil & gas law that holds that any oil & gas that you are able to produce from a well on your property belongs to you even though it comes from a geological structure that extends below the property of your neighbor(s)?

32. So if the watersheds of Bear Lake from which exits the Bear River that flows into Great Salt Lake comprise National Forests (if anyone has time to research this, please “chase this rabbit” because I am over-loaded with legal research), then under the “law of capture” doesn’t the Federal Government have initial ownership of the water?

33. And doesn’t the Federal Government have a legal duty to conserve national assets?

34. Does a lawsuit for a Writ of Mandamus seek to compel governmental officials to “do their duty”?

35. With respect to any “riparian rights” of private owners of property adjacent to the Bear River, haven’t their “riparian rights” been acquired by virtue of adverse possession? Is “adverse possession” with respect to real property commonly known as “squatter’s rights”?

36. Does English-American common law hold that “adverse possession” can NOT be used against the Government?

37. Even if “riparian rights” can be used to deprive the Federal Government of the ownership of water that it has failed under “the law of capture” to preserve for the nation, isn’t it true that the Bear River Pipeline is seeking to take water FOR WHICH THERE EXISTS CURRENTLY NO RIPARIAN RIGHTS hindering its flow into Great Salt Lake?

38. Does Title 28 U.S. Code Sec. 1361 confer on federal district courts “jurisdiction of any action in the nature of mandamus to compel” a federal officer, employee, or agency “to perform a duty owed to the plaintiff”?

39. Since a lawsuit is available, wouldn’t a lawsuit be preferable to one of our traditional “Six Degrees of Separation” e-mail campaigns imploring a decision maker to take action? In other words, since we are seeking “performance of a duty owed to us” rather than seeking discretionary action, doesn’t a lawsuit comprise a vehicle that can attract much more attention and over a much longer period of time?

40. Since we are suing the Federal Government, wouldn’t it make more sense to sue in Washington DC rather than Utah where our trial judge is likely to be Mormon (since the Mormon Church appears to be condoning, if not tacitly supporting, the Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake)?

41. Can an individual sue Pro Se (Latin meaning “For Himself”) or, in other words, without legal counsel?

42. However, doesn’t that mean that each of us who becomes a plaintiff would have to show up at every legal proceeding in Washington DC? And that we would NOT be able to invite organizations to join our lawsuit because legal entities are required to be represented by counsel?

43. Do any of us have friends who are attorneys admitted to practice in Washington and who might be willing to serve as “attorney of record” in our lawsuit?

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