Bull Moose Strikes Back

Well, maybe some of you thought I died after that last post and long absence.
Nope, just went on Christmas vacation to my parent’s and in-law’s houses, neither of whom have an internet connection that is not extremely painful. So I didn’t really have the motivation to blog.
We made it back, after spreading that flu we had into the midwest. My daughter must be carrying despite not showing any symptoms.
I’ll get back with something as soon as I’m done watching football.

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The stomach flu is ravashing my household right now. I haven’t vomited in years, but this bug got me.
Anyway, I hope to be back up to speed by tonight when the Pack plays. Better to get this over with before Christmas.

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One of the resident radicals at work was complaining about the story that Bush allegedly authorized the NSA to do some limited ’spying’ on US citizens.

After she got done complaining about her rights being violated, she went back to her usual meme that she hopes the President will be assassinated, the US will be driven from Iraq by ‘insurgents’, and that we are again “humbled” by terrorist attacks. (I long ago stopped taking her seriously. She’s a frustrated old hippie. I figure some day she’ll say the wrong thing in front of the wrong person and get her come-uppance.)

I don’t like the idea of the government reading my e-mail anymore than the next guy, but if they happen to come across a conversation between my wife and I about which place we should order pizza from tonight while making sure wanna-be rads like my co-workers stay wanna-be, I’m not going to worry too much about it. Though I seriously doubt the government has the man-power to do anything but extremely focused searches of these types. If the NSA is reading your e-mails, you are probably making threats against the US and her citizens. Even if you’re not being serious – or are incapable of being a threat – they don’t know that. They can’t assume that.

UPDATE: I should clarify that there is no excuse for any violation of the law if that did indeed occur. It sounds like they may have entered a gray, but strictly speaking legal, area, which I have no problem with. Congress can legislate to clarify the law if they wish.

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Now that I have some spare time and we have a babysitter, we can go see a movie this weekend. Now, we saw the one I most wanted to see, Walk the Line, when my father-in-law was out (I thought it was better than Ray, but that may be because I’m racist). So what’s next on the list?

Chronicles of Narnia ? Too many Christian themes being shoved down my throat for this secular humanist.

Harry Potter ? Too pagan for this fundamentalist Christian.

King Kong ? Too racist.

Memoirs of a Geisha ? Too sexist and too racist.

Pride and Prejudice ? Too Eurocentric and too boring.

The Gay Cowboy Movie ? I already have the Heath Ledger – Donnie Darko amateur gay porn video, so I don’t think I’d miss much. Besides, I might be forced to accept my suspicions that this movie is being treated with kid gloves by critics because of its subject matter. And I refuse to accept that!

Syriana ? I’ll watch movies trashing the USA… but only on DVD.

Rent ? I’m inferior because I don’t have AIDS and live in a Village slum where I work on my art and/or dance. I got that from the play. Does the movie have anything else to offer? Didn’t think so.

The Family Stone ? If I want to see a white, self-involved, liberal family, I’ll walk over to Queen Anne Hill and knock on a few doors. Pass.

Aeon Flux ? While the idea of Charlize Theron in tight vinyl outfits sounds like fun, she’s clearly being exploited for her body. Therefore, I am offended and will not see it. Plus, I’m pretty sure it sucks.

Chicken Little ? I’ll hold out seeing crap like this as long as possible. I’m sure when Baby Moose is four she’ll be dragging my ass to Chicken Little 3.

Fun With Dick and Jane ? I don’t know what that “fun with dick” refers to, but I’m not taking any chances.

Looks like I’m out of luck. Why doesn’t anyone make a bland, non-offensive movie that I can kill two hours seeing? Or, failing that, why isn’t The Ice Harvest playing around here?

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Whoooo-hooooo!!!
One half of 1L in the books. I have no idea how I did, as usual, and I’m not even going to check until after I’m back from vacation.

Now. Where did I put my fiction books?

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I call this photo “Fifteen Minutes, One Second:”

Please, after I die, especially in the unlikely event that I die a a heroic death like Casey Sheehan, if anyone sees any garbage on my grave, would you please pick it up?

To think I felt sorry for this woman at one point.

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At 9:31 Pac-10 time tonight I will be done with my last final of the semester.

I have some stuff I want to write about that’s been kicking around in my head waiting for some spare time. So aren’t you just incredibly lucky!

That also means there may finally be a Randy Committee meaning to clear up the hideous backlog that has developed.

See you on the other side!

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I’m going to say up front, I am not optimistic about Spielberg’s Munich.
This is just from the trailer and TV ads. Spielberg has seemed to have lost the touch. I wonder if he expended the remainder of his talent making Saving Private Ryan, and will from here forward only give us crap like War of the Worlds . I hope not if there is truly a new Indy movie on the horizon.

But back to Munich. The trailer starts out well enough: A clip of Jim McKay saying “They’re all gone.”Then the Israeli government recruiting the men to hunt down the terrorists. And then… it seems to go soft. All of a sudden the Israelis are whining about having to be assassins. Teams are talking about what is happening to their soul.
What the fuck?
I think the human element of what happens to these men is fine to include, but it seems like Spielberg, who is a supporter of Israel, is trying to rationalize and apologize for something that doesn’t need to be justified.
If I was a Jewish person making a movie about Munich the tone would be much more like: You killed unarmed Olympic athletes. You’re goddammed right we sent some guys after you. No excuses.
It just came off to me like Tom Hanks stopping to apologize to the Germans before shooting them in Saving Private Ryan.

Of course, I haven’t seen the movie, so I could be wrong about it. I hope I’m wrong about it, because a quality movie about what happened needs to be made.

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The world can be so cruel sometimes.
Imagine being a six year-old boy. Riding in a car with your mom or dad. Probably thinking about Christmas coming up, and whether Santa is going to bring you some Pokemon or whatever the hell six year-olds want these days.

And then a damn 737 crashes through a fence, into your car, and kills you.

That is really cruel.

I used to fly into Midway all the time when ATA had their cheap Seattle to Chicago route. I always kind of wondered about the thin strip of real estate between where the planes do their business and where cars and houses do theirs. But what could happen, right?

Cruel.

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Still infamous after all of these years.
Ah, the good ol’ days, when we could respond to a vicious attack by counter-attacking the aggressors and their allies without a good chunk of the population wanting to sit around and blame ourselves for being so evil anyone would want to attack us.

I wonder if the Pearl Harbor Survivor in my neighborhood is still kickin’. I haven’t almost been run over by him lately. I remember the first time he almost ran me over. I was just about to give him the bird when I saw the “Pearl Harbor Survivor” on his license plate. So I quickly converted it into a neighborly wave. I think he’s earned the right to almost run me over with his giant car any time he wants.

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I declare studying for the Civil Procedure exam tomorrow night to be over!
Well, I’m sure I’ll page through material on the ferry in the morning and at lunch…. but that’s it!

The whole semester boils down to about 14 rules about 4 or 5 issues. There’s only so many ways to go over joinder, pleadings, cross-claims & counterclaims, discovery, Rule 11 sanctions, and summary judgment before I reach the tipping point of my sanity. Next semester is jurisdiction! That’s when the excitement starts.

I wish CivPro was ending rather than Contracts. Then again, I don’t know if I could’ve taken 5 hours of CivPro a week, so maybe it is best spread out over the whole year, while dumping the comparatively exciting Contracts and hopefully comparatively exciting Property on us in one summer. Plus, I think Crim Law and Torts are good ones to do everyday during the summer – those are more action packed with assault, thievery, and such, so CivPro really could go no where else.

Well, Thursday it’s back at it for to close out the semester with the Contracts exam. Then mercifully three weeks off before it starts all over again. That’ll give me 8 working days to get my lab bench back in order before school starts again. (The lab bench is the first thing to suffer when the time squeeze starts. No time to rinse out bottles! I’m busy!)

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I think the only thing that could screw up the BCS system more is Congress getting involved with it.
This guy picked a bad year to make this an issue anyway. USC-Texas is clearly the championship matchup. Why not wait until there are three highly regarded, undefeated teams? It seems to happen every other year.
First TO, now this. If Congress really has nothing else to worry about, why don’t they call it an early year and stop stealing from us for a few weeks?

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I’m sick of people looking at me holding my motorcycle helmet and declaring “You’re going to be cold!”
I’m 30 years old. I grew up in Wisconsin. I’m fully capable of evaluating when I’m going to be cold. Riding a motorcycle around Seattle does not make me cold as long as I have a jacket on and rain gear when needed. Being outside for 6 hours for the NFC Championship game and pre-game in Green Bay when the high was -3 before windchill – that was cold. Climbing Mt. St. Helens at 25 degrees with 40 mph winds – that was cold. If I think I’m going to be cold, I’ll put more clothes on, I don’t need someone who has never been in temperatures less than 10 degrees telling me I’m going to be cold.

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