Bull Moose Strikes Back

Guess what city this picture was taken in:

Additional information: The building is a Whole Foods. The hybrid spot is closer to the door than the handicap spot.

• Seattle? No, but good guess.
• San Francisco? No. Too obvious.
• Madison? Yes. And also pretty obvious.

Half credit for Austin and Boulder, because I’m guessing they’ll quickly steal the idea if they don’t have it already. Why not a special spot for the guy who drives his Corolla from where he lives a mile away on Sheboygan Avenue when they are giving away special spots for someone driving in from Middleton in a hybrid? (I’m assuming this is the Whole Foods on University Avenue.) Oh, because it’s about appearances not carbon? OK.

H/T, theft of picture from: Althouse

UPDATE: Interestingly, Althouse’s commenters’ have indicated that this may be a way to get points for LEED Certification. Pah-thetic.

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I had my first trial today. I’m not sure I was entirely ready to take on an entire trial. I would have liked to maybe have, you known, seen one that wasn’t in the movies first. But in a two-man shop there isn’t a lot of time and money to waste on things like “training” or “figuring out what the hell you are doing.” I don’t think my opening was very good, my examination of witnesses was so-so, and I think my closing tomorrow will be very good. I’m excited for next time already. (Even though it will be against a crazy pro se plaintiff.) But in any case I think I got the idea across. It’s a bench trial, so at least we have someone half-way intelligent deciding the issue. On the downside, he’s a Harvard Law grad, so it might just be a wash.

It’s kind of funny, I got less nervous about this trial than fake trials/hearings in law school. I guess someone else’s money is less important to me than a grade. Or I’m getting very cynical already.  And it probably worked out for the client since I’m sure I’m better when I’m not nervous.

UPDATE: And I’ve got losing my first trial out of the way. Of little conciliation to my client is the fact that I did win the question of law. Couldn’t quite spin or explain away some of those pesky facts…

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Oh, man this is funny:

“Our self-involved narcicism is beginning to feed back upon itself!” It reminds me that I don’t miss going to school by Capitol Hill every night.

This is from a show called Super News. It runs on Current. I would have never seen it, except that the DVR thought it was taping the Rotten Tomatoes movie review show.

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…as Micheal Jackson dies. (I’m linking to TMZ ’cause that’s where Drudge linked.)

Michael Jackson was two different people to me: The weirdo who made Thriller and Bad - great albums - and the completely bizzare monstrosity that dyed himself white and was involved with shenanigans with little boys.  That’s why I’m torn between saying Rest in Peace and Burn in Hell. That’s kind of a puzzling feeling. I think he should have been in jail for at least the last few years, but he probably punished himself more than the penal system ever could, though not intentionally. It’s clear he had some demons over the last decade and a half or so. At a minimum he can’t (directly) hurt any more kids now.

I don’t know if Michael ever had a chance with his childhood and tremendous fame early on, but any time a celebrity wants to surround himself with yes men and sycophants he should be reminded of Wacko Jacko.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to update my list of dead Simpsons guest stars. Ernest Borgnine still not on that list. Perhaps Michael Jackson should have used his longevity method.

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The extended forecast for my neck of the woods:

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Is it me or have the French become very un-French lately?

Nicolas Sarkozy announced his support for a ban on the burka.

And by the way, how obvious does an issue have to be for a communist to be right about it? “Communist MP Andre Gerin is spearheading the drive for a parliamentary panel that would look at ways to restrict the burka, which he describes as a ‘prison’ and ‘degrading’ for women.”

After his announcement, Mr. Sarkozy was informed that not all women are as hot as his wife. He thought about it for a second but still said he still thinks that the burka isn’t a good thing to have in France. Contrast with our president going to Cairo and grotesquely pandering to the worst of the Islamic world.

This must be the first time in the almost 233 year history of the United States where I would support swapping heads of state with France.

Mr. Obama looks like he might even be up for the deal if the First Ladies stay in the same countries.

Mrs. Obama - not so keen.

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With law school done I’m finding a dearth of topics to blog about. I looked at what I blogged about before law school  - politics, war, idiots at work. I don’t have any more crazy co-workers, the war is settled, Bush Derangement Syndrome is slowly fading away, and I find Obama boring.

Now when I say I find Obama boring, I mean I find him boring like I find dying of an inoperable lung cancer after 30 years of smoking boring.  We were asking for it, so it’s hard to complain now.  Obama’s going on a worldwide apology tour prostrating our country before our enemies and quasi-enemies? He told us he was going to do it, we elected him anyway.  He’s running trillion dollar deficits?  He told us he was going to do it, we elected him anyway.  Trying to cripple industry by a stupid cap-and-trade carbon system based on panicking over half-baked science (giving his motivations the benefit of the doubt)? He told us he was going to do it, we elected him anyway. Nationalizing the car companies? He didn’t specifically tell us that one, but it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise based on what he did tell us he was going to do. And so forth… Point being, I’m having a hard time getting too riled up that he’s keeping his promises.

If only I was gay. It seems that at least some gay people are getting irritated with the president. But maybe those people have no one to blame but themselves. If they had paid attention to what Obama was saying during the campaign - which sounded a lot like what Miss California said - and viewed him as a politician rather than rushing to annoint him the savior of all that was holy to the secular progressive left, maybe they wouldn’t be so irritated either.

Which brings me to something to blog about regarding the President: Why does he oppose gay marriage? Most of me thinks it is just a cold political calculation. Gay marriage can’t even win at the polls in California, and many on the left still blame the gay marriage push as a big factor that helped return Bush to the White House in 2004. In short, I don’t think Obama ever had much to gain getting behind gay marriage but a lot to lose.

There is another part of me, however, which is probably naive, which thinks maybe Obama as a black man and a constitutional law professor doesn’t see gay rights, and gay marriage in particular, as a civil rights issue. Every once in a while I’ll hear some gay rights activist say something like “Some day we’ll look at the time when a gay man couldn’t marry another gay man as backwards as the time when a black man couldn’t marry a white woman.” I always think that if I was a black man that statement would irritate me. Gay is not black. A gay man can marry the exact same class of people as a straight man. I know that’s not who the gay man wants to marry, but wants don’t always equal rights.

And then I remember that I don’t really care about gay marriage one way or another and stop thinking about it. But hey, there’s some political  blogging. I feel better.

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Hmm… this Pay Czar appointment by President Obama is very concerning. There’s no congressional oversight and the idea of the government… ZOH MY GAWD DAVID LETTERMAN MADE AN OFF COLOR JOKE ABOUT SARAH PALIN’S DAUGHTER!!!

Really? That’s what you want to talk about? Then why are we talking about it?

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While waiting for “The Goode Family” to start a few weeks ago, I caught some of “Wipeout.” I was putting my son together for sleep - with his spina bifida he needs to be outfitted like a 15th century knight for sleep - and it held his attention. So we watched it from the beginning the next week, and it has become official father/son bonding time now.

For those of you who don’t know the show:

At first I thought he was laughing because I was, so I stopped. He kept laughing. He even said, “funny” a few times to clarify. His favorite part is when someone faceplants or flips off of the giant balls.

Yes, TV and I have taught him a valuable lesson: Pain is funny if it is happening to someone else. And I figure he’s been in enough pain in his first few years that it won’t hurt for him to laugh at someone else’s.

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On Sunday my wife and I ran the North Olympic Discovery Half Marathon. It was a wonderful day for running, and the course is naturally beautiful.

Unlike in my first half marathon, I had more than a finisher’s medal as a goal. I was determined to defend my title of best time per pound.

When I went to pick up our packets in Port Angeles on Saturday, the woman who gave me the packets assumed that I wasn’t one of the runners. Even when I corrected her, she thought I was joking. Sheesh, you’d think the reigning time per pound champion of the Seattle Half Marathon - one of the biggest in the country - would get a little more respect at the much smaller North Olympic Discovery marathon.  (I’d also like to quibble with their definition of XXL in t-shirt sizes.)

We were orignially going to run the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon, but didn’t sign up before it sold out. We had to cut three weeks out of our training and divert to the NODM. (I would have signed up for NODM in the first place had I known about it.)  My question was how would the three weeks of lost training time impact my chances…

We were up at 5, dropped the kids off at 6, and were in Port Angeles to take the shuttle bus back to near Sequim for the start by 7:30. When we signed up for this marathon the Hood Canal Bridge was still scheduled to be closed. Thankfully, it opened early (and under budget!) so we were spared a 4 AM wake-up call.

At the starting area, I spotted my competition. A dude about as big as I was. When the gun sounded we were off. My competition got off to a fast start, but I could tell he was caught up in the excitement of the race start - the mistake I made in Seattle. This time, I kept a close eye on my Forerunner, and didn’t let my pace get out of control for the first few miles. My competition was soon out of sight. I didn’t care, I knew I’d see him later.

I kept an eye on my Forerunner, but pushed a little above my training pace 1) because it was race day and 2) in an attempt to keep up with my wife, which I did intermittently. (She tended to get ahead, then I’d catch up when she stopped at the aid stations to use the facilities.)

I plugged along the course, making the tactical decision to power walk up some of the bigger hills so that I could keep my faster pace on the rest of the course.

Then with about a mile and a third to go, just as the first marathoners were passing me, I spotted my competition, quickly fading. I caught him with about 3/4 of a mile to go.

Here’s where I made the wrong decision. I should have settled in behind him for a bit more than a half mile and then made my move with about a tenth to go. Instead I got along side of him, exchanged pleasantries. Then he found his competitive urge, dug in deep for the last half mile and beat me by 45 seconds. I gave chase, but my legs burned out with about 200 yards to go. I had nothing left other than the ability to maintain a jog over the finish line.

My legs are killing me today, but I’m eager to re-take my title in Seattle in November. (I’m more eager to make total time per pound a harder title for me to win.)

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Never forget.

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Ugh.

A poor lady just walked into my office with a pair of 5-year-old twins. She is upside down on her house, her ex-husband has disappeared, and is pretty much in bad financial trouble. She gave a “loan modification” company access to her checking account and they took $2200.00 and have done nothing in a month.

I gave the number on the stationary a call to see if I could scare anyone by throwing my bar number around, but all I got was an answering machine. I’m sure the lady is SOL. I told her to go talk to her bank and make sure those people’s access to her account is cut off.

If you are in trouble with your mortgage, the IRS, credit card companies, or anyone else, do not pay anyone to “fix” your problems. If you feel like you’re in over your head, go to a local lawyer who has been around for awhile and has an office in your area. Google your state and county bar association for references.

UPDATE: Wow. I have a voice mail on my office phone when I got back from court from the scammers in question saying that they were going to refund her money. Wow. Maybe I said the magic words…

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I’m moving this blog into early 2008: I now have a button on the sidebar that allows you to instantly share any of my wisdom and hilarity on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and so forth.

Fancy.

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I am a member of the Federalist Society. I support any Federal Court opinion that upholds the federalist manner in which the founders set up the Constitution.

Except for when it’s used as a bullshit justification to let states deprive of us of some rights in the Bill of Rights while ignoring federalism when it comes to other rights under the Bill of Rights or just imagined rights under the Constitution.

Judges Eastbrook, Posner, and Bauer did just that yesterday in the 7th Circuit (pdf).

Your rights under the Constitution do not apply against the state you live in until they have been incorporated to the states by the Supreme Court under the 14th Amendment. This half-assed system dates back to a set of cases in 1873.

One function of the second amendment is to prevent the national government from interfering with state militias. It does this by creating individual rights, Heller holds, but those rights may take a different shape when asserted against a state than against the national government.

OK, that may be how James Madison saw it (though note that the Second Amendment does not contain the “Congress shall not…” language of the First Amendment).

What if that statement in the opinion said:

One function of the first amendment is to prevent the national government from interfering with free speech. It does this by creating individual rights, but those rights may take a different shape when asserted against a state than against the national government.

Or:

One function of the penumbras of the Bill or Rights is to prevent the national government from interfering with first trimester abortions. It does this by creating individual rights, Roe holds, but those rights may take a different shape when asserted against a state than against the national government.

This reasoning applied to the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment could have Utah implementing a requirement that the Governor be Mormon.

No doubt there’d be rioting in the streets if that happened.

But why does the Second Amendment get the short shrift under this reasoning? With the exception of the Third - quartering of soldiers doesn’t come up to often - the Grand Jury requirement of the Fifth Amendment, and the jury trial requirement of the 7th which is covered under State Constitutions, the rest of the applicable Bill of Rights have been incorporated.

One reason is that there wasn’t much fun control jurisprudence until recently because there wasn’t a lot of namby-pamby gun control until recently. And now that there is, it’s a PC-tainted issue. I don’t appreciate the excuse of “fedearlism” being used as an excuse to advance an anti-freedom agenda, while demanding the states submit to federal standards in everything from speech to workplace safety requirements. The Second Amendment was important enough to be included in the Bill of Rights; nothing has changed in 220 years which makes it any less important of a right now.

The Supreme Court has this case teed up for them. Bill of Rights incorporation jurisprudence isn’t going anywhere. It’s time for the SCOTUS correctly determined the Second Amendment to be an individual right in Heller, it is now time for it to incorporate the Second Amendment and apply it to the states.

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My one sentence comment on the murder of George Tiller: Kansas ought to dust off their death penalty.

(They technically have one, but no one has been executed since 1976).

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When I hear fellow Federalists / conservatives urging for a fight to the death over Judge Sotomayor, this comes to mind:

Here’s why I don’t want to waste a lot of time and energy fighting her:

1. It’s an even exchange. Obama is just renewing Souter’s term for 30 years. Not great, but the politically charged decisions will still be 5-4 one way or the other.
2. She’s going to be confirmed. If she isn’t confirmed, someone as bad or worse will be confirmed eventually. This was decided in November when we elected Barack Obama and a Democratic Senate. It is one of the main reasons I threw in with McCain despite my reservations. It is the main reason I pleaded with fellow conservatives / Federalists to overlook his flaws. But that’s neither here nor there. Obama is President, the Democrats have the votes in the Senate.
3. Conservatives lose every time they get drawn into a game of race or gender politics with the left. The left is better at it because it’s been their bread and butter for so long. Plus they have control over what gets blown out of proportion or taken out of context on most TV and newspapers. (Where’s the outrage over the Sotomayor “Latinas are better judges then white men” quote? Oh yeah, no where.) The day is coming where the cry of “Racism!” will no longer mean anything, but that day is not here yet.
4. Given 1, 2, and 3, it’s not worth handing Obama and company the (brutally edited) soundbites they need to woo the increasingly important Hispanic votes.

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• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: This movie was of particular interest to me because I’m aging like Benjamin Button, but in reverse. Fincher needed to cut about 25 to 30 minutes out of this meandering story. I realize the slowness of the movie was a way for Fincher to get the lifetime span of the movie across, but I checked my watch.  I went into watching it very cynically, but it won me over at the last second. B.
• The Wolverine Origin X-Men Movie: The problem with this movie was that the first three X-Men movies were pretty much just Wolverine movies with a supporting cast, and Wolverine isn’t interesting enough on his own to support four movies in ten years. The interesting part of the Wolverine story was wrapped up before the opening credits ended. Plus, I don’t really understand what Gambit was doing in the movie. C-.
• Night at the Museum 2: The first Night at the Museum movie wasn’t exactly a classic, but it was cute and clever. The makers of the sequel forgot that and just crammed as many “exhibits coming to life” moments they could think of into the movie, story be damned. Two things keep this movie from a grade of “F”: 1.  Amy Adams running around in tight slacks; and 2. A few good Hank Azaria moments, especially his criticism of Darth Vader. D.
• “The Goode Family”: The first episode was the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV in quite some time. (”It’s not important that you wasted gas, it’s important that you feel guilty about it.”) I don’t know what future a TV show that makes fun of the people who elected Obama has in 2009, but I guess if “American Dad” could survive in 2005, there might be hope. Plus, if you don’t live in the Seattle, Bay, Boulder, Austin, or Madison areas you might not fully get it. In any case, I’m going to enjoy it while I can. A.
• Guns ‘n’ Roses “Chinese Democracy”: When G’n'F’n'R released their last studio album, er, albums, I was 17 years-old, had all of my hair, weighed 70 pounds less and could bench 100 pounds more. I’m afraid that Axl and company aged like me. There’s a few good things left on the platter, but not like there once was. It is kind of hilarious that Axl jammed every musical cliche that came and went in that time on the album somewhere. (Break it down!). C+.
• Bruce Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream”: The awful “Devils and Dust” aside, The Boss had a creative upswing in the Bush years. Unfortunately, that was due to inspiration derived from 9-11 and the darkest days of the Iraq War - (”The Rising” and “Magic”). Throw in the very fun but oddly named “Seeger Sessions” (odd because there were no Seeger songs on the album) and the Bush years were good to the Boss. “Working on a Dream” begins the downslide to what will surely be the lazy Obama years (like the Clinton years were). There are some good songs - “Outlaw Pete” especially - but it is as meandering as “Magic” was tight. The title cut - used at Obama rallies - is tainted by a self-congratulatory feel. Otherwise there is a lot of “meh” on the album. Fortunatly for Springsteen, his “meh” is masterwork for most musicians working in popular music today. B.

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I was really hoping President Obama was going to go with Diane Wood for the SCOTUS vacancy, but not because I would have expected her to be any better than Sonia Sotomayor. I’d expect them both to be terrible Justices in the Souter mold, though Wood probably has less chronic back pain from only carrying the “woman” chip on her shoulder and not the “hispanic” one as well.

No, I was hoping Obama was going to nominate his University of Chicago crony Diane Wood because she went to law school at the University of Texas. The court will remain a Harvard-Yale club with one guy from Northwestern. (Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law but attended Harvard Law.)  Just four years ago there was at least the “diversity” of a couple Stanford grads on the bench. Now they can’t seem to find anyone who went to law school outside of two schools.

Sure, Scalia and Souter both are HLS grads as are Roberts and Breyer - they couldn’t be further apart. On the big visible issues that get reported in the papers like aborion. But what about administrative law, patent law, copyright law, admiralty law, Indian law, and all the other areas of law where the court spends most of its time?

Throw in the fact that President Obama is a Harvard Law graduate, many notable members of Congress - Barney Frank - are Harvard Law grads and I start to get a little concerned about how much power the world view of the faculty of the Harvard Law School has on the way our government functions.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a reason Harvard and Yale are overrepresented on the SCOTUS. Those schools attract the hardest workers, the most ambitious, and those with the ability to score high on the LSAT.  But since Sandra Day O’Connor (Ginsburg aside) they couldn’t find anyone qualified who went to law school at Stanford, Michigan, Chicago, NYU, Duke…

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• I’ve got two long pieces I’ve been peculating for a long time. I just need to get the time and motivation to write them out. Go figure that when I sit around writing bullcrap all day for work I don’t feel like sitting around writing bullcrap in my free time.
• My wife is traveling to DC on business this week. “Baching it” used to be a lot more fun when I didn’t have a 4-year-old and a 20-month-old left with me. The only time my Xbox 360 has been turned on so far is to stream “The Water Horse” through the Netflix function for my daughter.
• The “No dishes dinner plan” tonight was KFC. Tomorrow we’re going to the Chinese buffet. Wednesday will probably be Costco pizza - Canadian bacon and pineapple since we can’t get that when mom is home. Thursday is pending.
• I also told my daughter I would buy her a Topsy Turvy at Walgreens if she didn’t give me much grief this week. She might have gotten her grandpa’s green thumb. However her grandpa is also the one that killed any green thumb I might have had.
• Here’s one from last week: “The budget deficit has been revised up to $1.84 trillion. The Democratic Congress and President are spending…. ZOH MY GAWD WANDA SYKES SAID SHE HOPES RUSH LIMBAUGH DIES IN A COMEDY BIT!!! OUTRAGE!!!” Let’s not be so easily led around by the nose, people.
• I’m finally getting around to watching the last few episodes of “Life on Mars.” After it ended I had no motivation to keep up. It’s nice to see that how much I like a show is still directly proportional to the chance that it will not survive the season. Now where am I going to get my Harvey Keitel fix?
• I was swore into the bar on Friday. Surprisingly I haven’t been forcibly relocated to Bainbridge Island nor has Satan been by to collect my soul.
• 70’s and sunny for Memorial Day weekend in Western Washington? Sounds too good to be true.
• Who the hell are these people that still have questions about the digital TV transition?
• I’m back to the portion of the half-marathon training where 5 miles feels like a short run. The Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon sold out, so we needed to move the training up three weeks to the North Olympic Discovery Marathon, which seems like a nicer run anyway. Plus it will give us to do a 5k circuit run around the bridges right near my house. I do that 5K during training anyway, might as well do it for a good cause.
• I don’t think there’s much chance of the drive-in theater playing Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation as the double feature this weekend.
• If a school my kid went to showed “The Story of Stuff“, they could expect to have a long conversation with me. And my first question would be why they don’t understand things like “prices”. My second would be why they don’t questions statements like “More than 50% of our tax dollars go to the military.” (It does… if you take out Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. However, if you take out military spending, it takes up 0%. Makes as much sense) or “We have less than 4% of our original forests left.” (We have about 80% of the forest land that we had in the lower 48 in 1776 (PDF). I know it is hard for an East Coast Liberal to imagine, but fly out and I’ll show it to you.) And of course: Why the hell are you showing a video which tells kids that it is the government’s job to “take care” of the people? And that’s just a few of the questions in the first few minutes.
• Governor Gregoire just signed the “Everything but marriage” bill into law. It gives gay couples the same rights as married couples without using the word marriage.  Much like California, a group is going to try to overturn the law by referendum. It’s going to get noisy around here.

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