Bull Moose Strikes Back

I’m running out the clock until the exam starts in the law library.
It’s kind of hard to believe that in 4 and a half hours I will be 1/3 done with law school.

The next few days before I leave on vacation are going to be rough staying in it mentally, I think.

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I have to take timeout from studying to say something about the shooting in Seattle on Friday, where a “Muslim” man cased the Jewish Federation of Seattle Greater Seattle, waited for someone with access to arrive, and then shot up the place as “revenge” for Israel defending itself. (Story here.)

The only thing I can say is that I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
Here’s a sum of the news since Israel decided it could no longer tolerate a terrorist organization at their gate trying to destroy them:
National mainstream media: Israel disproportionately attacking Lebbanon.
Local mainstream media (local news, Seattle Times, Seattle PI): Israel disproportionately attacking Lebanon. And here is a huge, front-page, full color, above the fold picture of some poor Lebanese kid who got caught in the middle crying.
Local Seattle weekly papers: Zionist aggression: How can we blame Bush and his Jew puppet masters.
Air America: JOOOOOOSSSSS! JOOOOOOS ARE SLAUGHTERING INNOCENTS! (As an aside, the non-Arab Muslim dude – Persian? Turk? I don’t know, but I know he ain’t Arab – I buy my corn dogs from across the street is always listening to Air America.)

So while I lay the blame on the gunman, I think the media needs to look in the mirror and wonder if their unbalanced, sensationalist reporting has consequences. They need to wonder: Did they help set this crazy asshole off?
Of course they’ll look deep in their hearts and chalk this up as another consequence of the JOOOOOOSSS!! (Not the good kind like Al Franken and Jon Stewart, but the Zionist aggressors, you see.)

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This is going to be a long weekend. I’m having trouble studying.
I have a feeling that if I study my ass off all weekend I’ll score a B, and if I don’t pick up my books all weekend I’ll get a B.
Kind of kills the momentum.

I’m not sure why I feel that way. Thinking about it, I think so many people are so lost, I should be able to swipe an A-, but my gut doesn’t agree…

I’m going to torture myself to get this outline done, then move onto answering questions from previous exams. I think that’s the best I can do now as far as preparing. I have a feeling by Sunday night I’ll feel like I’d rather flunk than look at the crap any more.

I’m getting pretty excited about getting to finally do some electives. And Constituional Law seems like it’ll probably be a fun year-long brawl. Just need to get through the next 80 hours.

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Now that my 1L slate is complete (minus the Torts exam), I would like to help the incoming 1Ls, by giving them something to make the gunners less annoying, which will be useful, and an excuse to drink. Becuase they’ll want to drink. A lot.
I present the 1L Drinking Game.

If you don’t go to a Catholic school and can’t bring a bottle of Jack right into the classroom, tally them up after class and go right to a campus bar:

Take one drink:

Each time someone says “slippery slope.”

Each time someone brings up a case from another class and tries to jam its facts into the current area of study.

When you see someone win their game of solitaire.

When a person comes to class and never takes out their laptop because they can’t stop themselves from playing solitaire.

Each time a student speaks in one class period after three times.

Each time the professor has a hard time figuring out the lighting, projector, microphone, or other class room technology.

Each time a student makes a comment wildly off topic.

Each time someone tries to cram the issue of gay marriage into Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, or some other class where it doesn’t belong.

Each time a Latin word of phrase is butchered.

Each time someone kills a simple hypo by assuming further hypothetical details, rather than just keeping it simple.

For each IM conversation someone has going on above one.

Each time you hear a classmate say something about their future as a judge. Drink twice if that person would be a horrible judge. (Hint: Almost anyone who talks about being a judge as a 1L would make a terrible judge.)

Each time racism comes up when the subject being discussed has nothing to do with race.

Each time someone who has worked as a paralegal corrects the professor about something. Two drinks if it was not worth interrupting the professor to correct. (Hint: It rarely is.)

Each time Judges Posner, Learned Hand, Cardozo or Justices Traynor or Holmes is referenced.

Each time a classmate casually drops their LSAT score. (T14 schools only.)

Each time a classmate tells a pointless story about how their personal life relates to the case or problem being discussed.

Each time the professor drops a war story about when s/he practiced law. Take two drinks each time the professor gets defensive about the fact that they have limited practice experience.

Each time the professor calls on someone who was clearly not paying attention.

Each time you hear a classmate talk about going into one of the “noble” fields of law (these are fields like Environmental, Civil Rights, and Elder Law).
Take two drinks when you hear a classmate talk about going into a money field – personal injury, intellectual property, things like that – One drink is for them talking about it, one drink is for their honesty.

Take two drinks each time you notice a student missing from the previous term. One drink is for them, the other is for the person who has to replace them in the lower end of the curve.

Finally, just finish the bottle to help squash the shame you feel for training to become a lawyer.

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Who are these poor guys that have to imagine women being sexually attracted to them when they are not?

Don’t worry guys. Every woman who is not a relative that I have ever known, met once, shared an elevator with, passed in the hall, or made eye contact with at a four-way stop sign has been sexually attracted to me.
It isn’t as great as you’d think. In fact, it can become a real problem with wives of friends and the elderly.

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I’ve come to the end of the 1L road. Tonight is our last Torts lecture. All there is now is to prepare for the exam on Monday, go on vacation, come back and see what my class rank ended up being.

I have a few things to say about the end of 1L, but I think I’ll save them until after the exam.

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I said something today in order to end an annoying verbal barrage on me regarding Bush’s veto of the stem cell bill that I said just as a smarmy way to get the person away from me before they were tossed through a window, but the more I think about it, the more true I think it is:
“I didn’t vote for Bush to be our cheif scientist. I voted for President by looking hard at both of the candidates and voting against the one that was the biggest pussy.”

(Yeah, yeah, Kerry was in ‘Nam. If it was 1970, I might have voted for him. Not that flying an F-102 is for wimps.)

Maybe we should just go to cage matches for the Oval Office.

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It’s been pretty lackluster as far as the big-time Hollywood movies go so far this summer.
M:I:3 and X-Men 3 were pretty run of the mill. Superman Returns was good, but squandered it’s potential to be great.

Over the Hedge and the first 20 minutes of Cars (all that I saw), were fine for families, but nothing I got overly excited about.

But this Friday, there are three – count ‘em three – movies that I have very high hopes for: Clerks II, Lady in the Water, and Monster House.

The first two, my hopes are based soley on the track record of Kevin Smith, and M. Night Shyamalan. With only one bad movie each, and four very good to great movies each, they boast a track record that is worthy of high expectaions.
As for Monster House, I’m going soley by the trailer. It looks like it might be able to pull off the Shrek thing and be fun for all ages, while being offensive to none, assuming the stuff that is supposed to go over the kids head does.

Now to find a babysitter.

UPDATE: Reveiws look really bad for Lady in the Water. That one goes to the bottom of the pile.

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Tuesday, I went to the sub place near campus to grab a samich for dinner. I paid the girl behind the counter with a twenty, and she tried to give me change for a ten.
I pointed out her error and it was corrected.

Yesterday, on my day off from class, Baby Moose told me she wanted to see if the local Harley dealer had the ’07’s in yet, so we headed over there from day care. She was out of juice, though, so we had to stop to buy her a juice at a gas station. I paid the lady behind the counter with a ten, and she tried to give me change for a twenty.
I pointed out her error and it was corrected.

Those two things happeneing back-to-back made me wonder, if I never paid attention to the change that was handed back to me, would I come out pretty close to even in the long run? Over the course of two days I would’ve been even.
I’ll have to start a tally.

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Bush vetos his first bill, and it’s the stem cell bill?
I have little problem with him vetoing this bill, if that’s what he thinks he must do, but how many bloated spending bills have escaped his veto pen?

As someone with some actual knowledge on the subject, I find the whole fetal tissue stem cell thing amusing.
The mainstream media leads us to belive that if only we could research fetal tissue stem cells, Christopher Reeves would have risen from his wheelchair, Reagan would still be giving speeches, etc.

There is no magic bullet in biotechnology. We’ve heard this song and dance before, we’ll hear it again. The best we can hope for are small incremental gains that add up to a big gain in the end – a 10% increase in cancer survival here, another drug that slows HIV reproduction there.
Could fetal tissue stem cells help? Maybe. I might go as far as probably. But researchers aren’t waiting around for fetal tissue stem cells. Many go forth with umbilical cord or other stem cells, some go in totally differnt directions.
This is an issue I just fall on the fence on. The moral issues are just murky for me.
On the up side, maybe Bush will become fond of the veto pen.

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I saw something yesterday that almost made my head implode. My universe almost came crashing in on itself. I felt like driving my bike to the cliffs of West Seattle and doing an Evel Knievel (he rode a Sportster, too.)

As I rode up 12th, towards school, a vintage (I’d estimate 1964.) VW Beetle pulled in front of me. It looked really nice as Bugs go – convertible, fire engine red, well taken care of. The personalized license plate read “HUGBUG.”
I thought, isn’t that nice, some hippie got their dream hippie-mobile.
I spotted a bumper sticker on the shiny bumper which was the same color as the bug. I had to see what the color-matched bumper sticker on the hippie-mobile had to say, so I rolled back on the accelerator to catch up.
It said, “Don’t blame me, I voted Republican.”

Wow. I had to look two more times to be sure that’s what it said, since it couldn’t possibly be.
My mind raced through possible logical interpretations. Irony? Didn’t seem like it? Someone playing a joke? It didn’t look brand new and was perfectly centered, so I doubt it.

Two things kept my Universe together:
1. The phrase “the exception that proves the rule.”
2. Realizing how much money that car must be worth. Here is a similar one on eBAy going for $26,000. Not that there aren’t a lot of trust fund hippies around that could afford that car, but I doubt there are many who would keep it in as pristine a state as HUGBUG’s owner.

I got a good look at the owner. He was an older white guy with well groomed gray hair, dressed normally – not a hint of hemp clothing. Probably just a car enthusiast out for a ride in one of his vintage cars.
Probably making a lot of hippies jealous. And isn’t that a good thing?

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There’s something going on at work that is very interesting to watch. One of my lefty co-workers is in a conundrum. This one happens to be Jewish. And when I say Jewish, he takes the stereotype and runs with it. Do you know Larry David? If I didn’t know better I’d think Larry David was based on this guy, rather than on Larry David.
Anyway, this guy loves his Air America. Loooovvves it. I hear it coming from his office all day. Even when he’s taking a business meeting.
Today it was off.
One of his underlings is a good friend of mine, and one of the more conservative people at work (and around here that means he voted for Kerry, but almost immediately regretted it – he did vote for the Republican governor, though, not that that vote counted). He told me that Mr. Jewish Lefty Guy had to turn off Air America because Israel was being savaged non-stop, and he couldn’t bear to hear it any more. His Jewish heritage is clearly conflicting with his lefty need to appease. I’m going to keep a close eye on this.
I never did understand why so many Jewish people align themselves with anti-Israel forces on the left. Joe Lieberman-style liberal Jews I get, but not those that hitch their wagon to coddlers of the enemy of Israel.

Another question: Mr. Jewish Lefty is an American. He was born and raised in Philadelphia. He claims to be an Eagles fan despite telling me one time that “the Bus” played for the Eagles. He later denied that he was referring to Jerome Bettis but said he meant “another Bus.”
Anyway, why is it that he can’t even bear to hear Israel being trashed by his beloved Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, but was right in front of the line to trash his own country?
Granted I understand there is a connection between Israel and Jews around the world, even ones that probably haven’t stepped into a temple in 30 years like this guy, but one would think he’d have a greater connection to the USA.

I’m really curious as to which side will win this conflict. It is a great opportunity to study how the lefty mind works. I’ll have to poke and prod a little and see what kind of reactions I get.

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Where the hell is the summer going? My final exam is two weeks from tonight and my summer vacation starts in 17 days.
I haven’t been in a tent one night this summer yet. That’s ridiculous. The consolation is around here summer is usually July 5 – September 15. Though we cheated and got an early start this year, so
Come hell or high water, we’re camping somewhere this weekend. I think we’re going to go up to the North Cascades, car camp, then do an easier day hike. Probably this one.
Baby Moose along for the free ride is more limiting the bigger she gets. How long before marching her up a steep trail isn’t child abuse. I’m giving her this summer. Next summer, it’s time to start hoofing it on these trails.

Then I need to get in finals mode and start hitting the material hard. It should be easy to get up for hard work at work and school knowing vacation is so close.

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…to grind!
The timing of this story is a coincidence. My buddies and I had nothing to do with it.

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If there are any Frogs reading: Happy Bastille Day!
It sure was nice when you weren’t all a bunch of pussies.

To be fair, when I was in France the people in Normandy were very nice, and not once did someone in a beret yell at me (or a mime gesture at me) for being a gauche American. Of course, this was when Clinton was president, so we were looked on upon more favorably as fellow appeasers. I still suspect that the people of all of France get judged by the people of Paris. I know how unfair I would find it if I were judged by the behavior of the people of New York, San Fran, or even Seattle. Shudder.

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This story concerns me.
I often hear people talking about hiking with guns for protection against the predators that live in the wild. When I hear this I shake my head. Why carry any more weight up the hill than you need to? Bears will leave you alone if you use just a slight amount of training and common sense – even the The Griz. Just jingle some bells, don’t get between them and their food or cubs. Rarely one might get very unlucky and be victim of an unexpected griz charge, but unless you have your gun holstered at your belt and are Quick Draw McGraw that .44 isn’t going to do much but be ballast for your rescuers. (If I was fishing and/or camping in Alaska a .44 would be called for, but for a dayhike. Nah.)
Cougs – same thing. Hike in pairs or with a big dog and no cougar in it’s right mind will mess with you.
The only reason I would carry a gun would be for protection against the two-legged snake. A bear or a cougar isn’t going to be interrupted carrying their marijuana harvest out of the forest. (I’ll bet dollars to donuts that or something real similar happened if these women didn’t know who killed them.) But, I figured the same things that made me a bad target for bears and cougars would make me a bad target for humans – noisy, big, and hiking with a big dog – would give smugglers plenty of time to hide and lunatics a good reason to pick an easier target. Plus, most crime takes place at the trailhead.
(A friend of mine coming back from a geocaching hike, once interrupted someone robbing his car at the trailhead. He almost got hurt because he jumped on the guy’s car as he sped off. I told him he couldn’t hike with me if he was going to play TJ Hooker. It made him look into a hiking handgun.)

But now we have people getting killed on the shortest of dayhikes. It makes me consider bringing that gun next time, especially if Baby Moose is along for the ride. (In Washington, it is legal to carry a concealed weapon without permit during outdoor recreation such as hiking or backcountry fishing.)
Of course a blast of bear pepper spray in the eyes would probably do the trick too.

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The beer and Twinkie didn’t do me much good, but it didn’t actually harm either.
Down 11 pounds. Somehow, I doubt I’m going to make my goal of 30 in 3 weeks.
So feel free to make fun of me.

I think I will be happy if I can get to -20 by the time I go on vacation August 4.

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The next weigh in for the CFLB(M) comes tomorrow. We’ll see what impact 500 beers and a deep fried Twinkie had.

In other news, maybe I should forget the whole thing.

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A Microsoft employee classmate of mine is, as I type this, struggling with the concept of “market share.”

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I got an e-mail from my cousin who is a Navy Lieutenant currently stationed in Kabul working as a Public Affairs Officer. Don’t think the Navy just sits around relaxing on their ships getting suntans.
I doubt she’d mind me sharing some parts of her e-mail that I think a lot of people would find interesting.

There is a lot of dissatisfaction here over the state of the country – many feel that the Coalition did not move fast enough to help rebuild the provinces and the security forces right after the fall of the Taliban. Many are resentful over areas of the country that appear to receive more reconstruction projects or aid than others. What makes this even more of a challenge is that while there are tremendous reconstruction efforts all around the country; their still fragmented internal information system is still unable to properly convey the overall reconstruction strategy. Many of the government ministries do not have a dedicated spokesman to talk to the press. Other ministries who do have spokesmen do not know how to coordinate messages between them and the President; very often we have ministries contradicting, or even criticizing, each other. One of our goals is to build capacity within the ministries and there are dozens of people in another office dedicated that mission. The illiteracy rate is extremely high, or people have no real access to newspapers or televisions on the local, rural level. Many outlets are still “state-run” or dependent, so those outlets struggle with credibility. The papers who call themselves independent are still heavily “influenced.” In a sense, part of the job here is also to teach the media how to be journalists: how to seek out credible sources (and no, the Taliban are not credible), report the balanced news, and not just re-print our press releases, or the enemy’s. We are trying to do many of the things here in Kabul that we do on the News Desk in Washington – media roundtables with subject matter experts, backgrounders with editors, press conferences and provide lots of visuals of the reconstruction projects and humanitarian assistance going to the provinces.

One of the interesting things about the Afghan system is that when women are in prison, their children often come with them as the women are expected to still care for the family. This has put a huge strain on the capability here and it is an added dimension our prison system doesn’t have to accommodate.

Many of you may have heard about riots in Kabul City on Memorial Day that occurred when a Coalition truck lost its brakes and hit civilian cars near an intersection. I don’t think anyone anticipated either the level of violence or how quickly it spread to the city center. It wasn’t too long afterward that they locked the Coalition bases down as rioters approached, and you could very clearly hear gunfire not too far away. At one point I was sitting at my desk in my full body armor, helmet, weapon loaded, and answering media queries on what was happening. We had a local station on the television and it was truly hard to believe the pictures we were seeing on the screen were the places we lived. While the media reported on the state of security in Kabul for a number of days afterward, the actual events were over fairly quickly, a matter of hours.

One final thought – the troops here continue to do great things and I hope that some of that is reaching you wherever you may be. We are providing medical and veterinarian services to the local villages, building wells and classrooms for the schools, donating thousands of dollars of equipment to the Army and Police. Just one amazing story – a woman with whom I attended CRC is a Navy nurse involved in the village medical visits throughout the country. At one location, as their group arrived and started to unload their equipment, they came under fire from a group of enemy insurgents. The medical group had security with them, who returned fire, and after a very brief skirmish, secured the scene. Luckily no one was hurt. My friend and her team picked up their gear and finished setting up for the hundreds of villagers who came for treatment that day. They were there for a mission and they were determined to get it done. This is just another testimony to the resilience of our troops, and their commitment to the mission here.

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