Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Review of the Shapiro Review

I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi when it first opened. While there is a lot to digest, I enjoyed the movie overall. I've been meaning to watch it again, but in the meantime, I have been taking in the odd phenomenon of self-proclaimed Star Wars enthusiasts who often happen to be political conservatives attacking the film. With every negative review I read, the more I like The Last Jedi.

Which is why after all of the presents were unwrapped on Christmas morning, this tweet from Randy Barnett was a nice bonus gift:

@benshapiro expertly enumerates all the flaws of @starwars #TheLastJedi as only a @Harvard_Law nerd. And there are soooo many. https://t.co/vnedm8fiZQ

— Randy Barnett (@RandyEBarnett) December 25, 2017

I don't pay attention to Ben Shapiro because why should anyone? But Randy Barnett is a law professor and noted conservative voice who blogs at the excellent Volokh Conspiracy -- making me all the more sad to see him promoting what turns out to be repetitive, ill-conceived complaining about The Last Jedi.

For those of you who enjoy reading negative reviews of the movie like I do, I recommend reading Shapiro's review first, which you can find here. And because it is Christmas day, the presents have all been opened, and I still have a lot of leftover rage from some family ping pong games, my response to Shapiro's review is below the break. There are many spoilers, so don't read ahead if you want to avoid those.

It should be noted that Randy Barnett is a law professor and Ben Shapiro apparently went to Harvard Law, so that should be enough of a legal hook to let me post it on this law blog.

Gavel News from Iowa

I'm in Iowa for the next several days visiting family for Christmas. This morning, this article in a local paper about an Iowa City gavel maker caught my eye:

It all started in the early 1990s when Iowa City letter carrier Chester Schulte attended one of his union meetings here.

“They can be kind of noisy at times,” he said with a grin, “and the president was trying to get their attention, but he didn’t have a gavel.” 

So Schulte, a lifelong woodworker hobbyist, headed to his shop, turned a proper gavel and gave it to his union leader. “It helped at future meetings,” he told me. 

Word of the gift spread, mostly through union associations in Iowa and beyond. Today, he figures he has made nearly 700 distinctive gavels over the years for groups and individuals nationwide who wanted a finely crafted tool for calling a meeting to order. 

. . .

Now at 70, Schulte has been retired for several years but is still making his exquisite gavels from native Iowa hardwoods. 

He recently stopped by Congressman Dave Loebsack’s office in Iowa City and dropped off a specially crafted oversized gavel with the idea it might be used in Washington, D.C., at some point to call the U.S. House of Representatives to order. 

“It was huge,” Gloria Stutts, the woodworker’s wife, reported. “Formidable.” 

Chester declared his ultimate dream would be to provide a nice gavel for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Just about every courtroom I have appeared in has a gavel, but I have rarely seen any judge use them. I am not aware if any of them are Schulte's creations, and the fact that Schulte chooses not to sign or initial his gavels means I may never know.