A Short Disclosure

(c) Dr. James J. Dines, esquire - November, 2024

Dr. Dines has no formal PhD., and is not a lawyer. He has, however, been nicknamed Dr. Dines by his colleagues on multiple occasions, and is now a professor emeritus of life, having graduated Summa Cum Laude from the school of hard knocks. He detests the legal system as a result of direct experience with the US system of injustice, and has been told he should be a lawyer by multiple attorneys; his history of overriding the recommendations of legal counsel to plead guilty or not to testify on his own behalf, when he has been charged with crimes of which he was innocent and everyone knew it, has kept him out of jail on more than one occasion.

He briefly considered the idea of becoming a lawyer, but eschewed the idea when he came to understand that one can't be a lawyer and employ basic logic skills consistently at the same time.  One is considered innocent until proven guilty, but if one is acquitted that doesn't mean one is considered innocent even though you haven't been proven guilty. mmm ... okay.  The law isn't about justice.  It isn't about being fair.  It is about control, and those who seek to control others will employ any manner of twisted reasoning to justify their injustices.

Dr. Dines, or "Jim" as he prefers to be called in casual conversation, is not pretentious and almost never refers to himself in the third person. He is however the living manifestation of a wealth of seeming contradictions, who subscribes to the maxim that rules are for people who need them.  He often wonders if he might be the world’s first and only philanthropic sociopath.  He likes most of the people he meets well enough, but detests humanity as a whole. During introductions he often says, tongue in cheek, that he is not the famous James Dines (Financial Expert), but rather the infamous one. While he used to run in it, these days he prefers to be an outside observer and commentator on the human race.

Though Jim has never met the man, and clearly never will, he possesses a deep admiration for Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and openly admits that his writing style is fueled at times in large part by his love for Thompson and his works.

As a teenager he had a plan to first be a successful software engineer, then a college professor, and finally a freelance writer. As the rock musician Meatloaf, singer of the theme song he shared with his first love, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, also sang  … “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

... of course, his story is not over yet. Much to his surprise, there is still time ...