Bull Moose Strikes Back

The Freedom from Religion attention whores atheist group wants to put up a placcard in the state capitol in Olympia next to the Christmas tree and Menorah. Which is fine, it’s everyone’s capitol, and if we are going to cram it full of all our winter solstice holidays, theirs should be allowed.

I just question their choice of wording on their desired placcard: “Religion is a myth.”

They want to misuse the word “myth” as meaning “fairy tale,” but that is incorrect. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word myth simply means “a traditional story”, whether true or false. It is possible to adhere to a religion while accepting that the religion has mythological elements to it.

I can’t remember what the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s placcard said in the Wisconsin state capitol when I lived a couple blocks from it, but I think it made more sense than what they want to put in Olympia.

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The long awaited Seattle Marathon was today. The fifteen weeks of training for the half-marathon came to fruition. I left Bremerton at 5 AM to be ready for the 7:30 start under the Space Needle.
I achieved my first goal: A finisher’s medal. I finished in about two hours and forty-five minutes. That’s about 12.5 minute miles. I’ll take that over a 13 mile course. I also finished before any of the marathoners – who had to go twice as far and left 45 minutes after the half-marathoners.

There were a lot of people – a lot – on the course. I finished at something aroud 6400th place and there were another 1000 half-marathoners (not including the walkers) behind me.  Combined there were around 15,000 people on the course.

It was nice to finally get on the course after all the laps of Bremerton I have been taking in the last 4 months. It is a beautiful course, even in the foggy, moist morning. It was fun running down the express lanes of I-90, and the monster hill in the arboretum wasn’t too bad.

I did have an issue with a stomach cramp around half-way that took me about a mile to power through. That was miserable, and the last mile or so was kind of miserable, since it seemed like the Space Needle wasn’t getting any closer, but otherwise it was a fairly good run. I probably should have done a last short wind-down run after eating 12 pounds of turkey on Thursday, but I don’t think it did too much harm.

So did all of this training worth it? Well, it started out as a way to attack my weight, but I haven’t really dropped an ounce. Some has shifted around beneficially, but the scale has only ticked down a few lines. My resting pulse has plummeted, however, so there is something I guess.

Will I keep up the running and try another one? I’m too sore to decide that right now. The long training runs ate up a lot of time, and I totally neglected the rest of my body during the training, so I’d have to find a better way to manage the training. I think it would be fun to say I ran a full marathon before I die. We’ll see…

On a side note, the one thing that surprised me was how many people were lined up to use the Honey Buckets on the course, especially during the first half of the run. I counted 12 people waiting at the 3 mile mark. Weird.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Following is the first proclamation of a national Day of Thanksgiving written by George Washington. Because he was so accomplished in other areas of his life, and because his contemporaries are Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and Madison, we often overlook the fact that Washington was a very good writer. This proclamation occasionally comes up in debates involving how to interpret the religion clauses of the First Amendment, and if Scalia and Thomas ever drag Kennedy over into the “direct coercion” camp, this proclamation will be much quoted in the majority opinion.

 George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

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Look what was waiting for me today. The Winter Solstice Holiday Tree!

This post is hereby incorporated by reference. And I was right, it was a nice couple of seconds. Although I’m worried more about my loans than I am about the bar.

Two more class nights to go…

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Here’s a portion of the e-mail that came from my Adoption Law professor tonight.

Subject:  Adoption Law FYI – more good news from Florida

The following press release came across my desk today. A second Florida trial court (Miami-Dade County) has ruled the state’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians unconstitutional. Several months ago a judge in Key West did the same (and there has been no appeal from that decision).

Note that the trial court decided only on state constitutional grounds. The 11th Circuit’s decision in Lofton would appear to remain good law. [Really? A state trial court can't overrule Federal Appeals courts on Constitutional issues? Thanks law prof!] The state seems certain to challenge the Miami-Dade court’s decision.

She then pasted in this story.

The subject indicated that this was “good news,” not just news. Once again, the student body of the law school is presumed to have one socially liberal, secular-humanist point of view.

I for one don’t care about this ruling. I suppose most kids are better off being raised by a gay couple than they are being kicked around a crappy foster care system, and I know nothing about Florida’s state constitution or the law in question.

But is it unreasonable to think that there might be a couple students that might not think this is such a great thing? The professor might want to check with the Catholics who run the university about whether gay adoption of children is such good news, as there seems to be at least some disagreement to gays adopting children within the church.

I’m not saying the professor did anything wrong, just presumptuous. I’m all for academic freedom, but that has more to do with her freedom to write a law review article advocating for the rights of gay people to adopt. We’re all adults and I can handle the professors not liking my politics, and their politics sneaking into their lectures. What I won’t miss, however, is the assumption that we’re all just waiting for the next victory in the secular-left’s agenda and in the meantime we can sit around and snicker at Scalia.

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I participated in RWN’s “Right-of-Center Bloggers Select Their Least Favorite People on the Left” poll. Again we were asked to pick 1-12 people and place them on an unranked list. My selections were:

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• David Souter
• John Paul Stevens
• Stephen Breyer - The first four are the inverse of the first four of my favorite people on the right selections.
• Al Gore – a hypocrite who does more harm than good to sensible conservation efforts.
• Barney Frank – not only had a hand in the current financial crisis, but won’t own up to it and is incredibly obnoxious.
• Keith Olbermann -  I’ve disliked Olberman since SportsCenter (I dislike most SportsCenter anchors) and his stupid haircut doesn’t help.
• Al Franken – A man fighting to become the biggest joke ever elected in a state known for their novelty elected officials.
• Nancy Pelosi – Prime Minister San Fran Nan’s vision for America is more than a bit scary.
• Harry Reid – Pinky Reid is the Prime Minister’s senate ally. He got beat up in school a lot, so now he’s going to take it out on us.
• Ted Rall – Hardly a human.
• George Soros – America made him an extremely wealthy man. Now he wants to destroy it.

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Is it disloyal to think that maybe that it would have been better in the long run for the Badgers to have lost their game on Saturday? It took three missed extra points, including one in OT, for the Badgers to beat Cal Poly, a I-AA team (or whatever the hell they’re calling that division these days). Granted, they are a good I-AA team

The Badgers really did not seem prepared for the game, and preparation is exactly what they needed to play a team running the triple option. It seems like they were more worried about the execution of getting the parents on the field for Senior Day than they were to play Cal Poly. If they aren’t going to take games like this serioulsy, why put them on the schedule?

For all the lip service Coach Bielema gives the “1-0 every week” motto, I wonder if he always takes it seriously. Maybe a loss against Cal Poly would have shook him and the team up. I’ll take the win, but I hope the close call has taught Bielema a lesson.

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I think I’ll see if I can get my money back for the bar review and just buy this game instead:

Man, I really miss that character. And Troy McClure.

BTW, that is a parody of this game.

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I’m running behind today, so here’s a picture of the classy Amy Adams to keep you occupied for a few minutes. Two months from today is Emasculation Day; enjoy this while you can.

Why, yes, Helen, daddy would love to watch Enchanted with you again!

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If change is coming from the Obama administration, it doesn’t look like it’ll be coming from his cabinet. Let’s review:

• Chief of Staff – Clinton administration attack dog Rahm Emanual
• Secretary of State – Former Co-president Hillary Clinton
• Attorney General  – Clinton and Bush administration retread Eric Holder
• Secretary of Human Services – Rejected Senator-for-Life applicant Tom Daschle

I’m not necessarily criticizing President-elect Obama for getting some experienced people around him, since experience is the one thing he doesn’t have. Yeah, their experience is not the kind of experience I want, but Obama won. However, it’s interesting to see reality setting in in Obamaworld.  “Change” was a great buzzword and it got people who had no idea what was going on excited, but it doesn’t have much to do with the realities of running a superpower.

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Want to know something about our next U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder?

In January 2008, Holder joined a brief in District of Columbia v. Heller along with Janet Reno and a handful of other former Justice Department officials from both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations in support of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 sometimes referred to as “the D.C. handgun ban”.  Holder said that overturning the 1976 law “opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets.”

That last sentence is a little troublesome. He didn’t say overturning the gun ban would result in more criminals having access to guns (which is a ridiculous argument anyway), he said more people. As in “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

So he’s not too excited about seeing the rights set out in the Second Amendment exercised. I wonder if we’ll find out that there are other rights in other portions of the Bill of Rights that Mr. Holder isn’t too excited to see exercised.

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Visit Bremerton. Home of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a fine naval museum, and a crucified squirrel.

No word on whether the squirrel crucifier is the same person who called in a bomb threat on the Bremerton ferry today, but whoever called in the threat should thank whatever god or gods they pray to that I decided to take the Bainbridge ferry straight from work today instead of going back to Bremerton like I sometimes do. (I was slightly confused as to why the Bremerton ferry was unloading in Bainbridge until the text alert came through on my phone.

Wait a minute… someone intersted in bombing ferries… Bremerton police, be on the lookout for this guy:

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I’d say my roommates in college and I could have had the exact discussion that starts at about 1:02 into this clip from last night’s “The Big Bang Theory,” but I don’t think any of us would have defended Star Trek V, even compared to Star Trek I.

I agree that Star Trek V is the standard against which all badness is measured. (What does God need with a starship?)

I’m an unapologetic fan of both “The Big Bang Theory” and “Worst Week.” Those shows make me laugh and ease the sting of Monday.

Speaking of Star Trek movies, they showed a new commercial for the Star Trek movie reboot coming out next summer during “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, and it looks extremely promising.

Why yes, I do watch a lot of TV on Monday.

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With it being about six months until bar exam results, I have to start thinking about how to market myself to the public. Fortunately, I received some inspiration yesterday:

I’d comment on P’Ta Mon’s ad, but to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, I think the best commentary is to say nothing at all, but just to stand back and let it all be.

I will say that I’m not sure that P’Ta Mon and I are aiming at the same demographic.

H/T Gigglesugar via cb.

UPDATE: Another of of P’Ta Mon’s ads (found at Above the Law):

I love the advice at the bottom of the ad. I wonder if the MBA comes in handy as “the thug’s lawyer.”
The man has certainly found a niche. Good for him.

The Above the Law link includes an interview and a link to P’Ta Mon’s website (free download!). He’s a former Marine and a reggae musician.

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I’m trying to coast through the last 33 days before graduation, relaxing and in general doing as little as possible as far as academics go, and everyone is trying to kill my buzz.

First I had to pay for the bar review course. There’s nothing like going through $100,000 worth of law school and then having to pony up another $2,000 to be able to pass the bar. (Exclusive of the $450 for actually taking the bar exam, the $250 fee for using my own laptop to write the bar, and $345 for a hotel for three nights – the cheapest hotel I could find in Bellevue that I didn’t think would be infested with rats and/or hookers.)

Then I took a look at all the stuff I have to cram in my head in six weeks. Dear lord. We should just be able to agree never to represent criminals and be excused from the criminal procedure parts of the exam. Well, it might be for the best that I can’t do that. If I need a grand to pay for my son’s special spina bifida shoes I can always hand out my car at bars and then call the cops when a drunk guy drives off. (That’s a toss up between unethical and entrepreneurial.)

I’ve crammed before, but never for six weeks straight. My brains might start running out of my nose by the time the bar starts.

Then the WSBA sends me a list of prohibited items in the exam room:

Applicants are not permitted to bring these items into the examination room:

• Headsets, headphones of any kind…
• Table top time-keeping devices, clocks, alarm clocks
• Electronic devices, programmable items – e.g. cell phones, pagers, PDA/PED’s, calculators, cameras,
• handheld computers, -even if turned off
• Weapons of any kind

What? I can’t jam to my ipod, set my alarm clock to wake me up from a nap, text message my friends, and then celebrate at the end of the exam with a 12 gauge shotgun blast into the ceiling? Damn nazis.

Finally, I get a lovely e-mail from school reminding me I need to pay off my student loans.

The loan debt average (including federal and alternative loans) for December 2008 graduates is $95,952.

Mein Gott in Himmel. At least I didn’t run up that big of a tab. And that’s average (I’m guessing median). That means some people borrowed more than that. Sheesh…  My loans are going to suck enough as it is, I can’t imagine being in six-figure student loan debt.

UPDATE: And the hits just keep on coming. An e-mail was just sent out regarding a runoff vote for the faculty speaker at the graduation ceremony. One of the finalists is rightfully-fired former U.S. Attorney John McKay and all of his accompanying sour grapes. It’d be a damn shame to have to decide to skip the graduation ceremony now. Fortunately, my choice also made the cut – our crazily energetic income tax law professor. I’m hoping that now that Obama has been elected my classmates will elect to skip a pointless, divisive Bush-bashing speech for our ceremony in favor of a more entertaining charge.

UPDATE 2: Bad timing department: Shortly after the e-mail reminding us that we all have to pay back our average of $96 grand in loans, we got an e-mail from another office of the school asking us why we haven’t ponied up some dough for the class gift.

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Friday at Costco (same price today):

WOO-HOO! Gas is cheap again. If it is $1.99 on the upper-left coast, it must be next to nothing in Real America.

Take the “For Sale” sign off the Hummer, gas will never be $4 a gallon again!

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Right Wing News followed up their poll of right-of-center blogger’s least favorite people on the right with of right-of-center blogger’s favorite people on the right.

Once again, John Hawkins asked for an unranked list of 1-12 people. My choices were:

• Antonin Scalia
• Clarence Thomas
• John Roberts
• Samuel Alito
• Bobby Jindal
• Paul Ryan
• Tom Coburn
• Mary Katherine Ham
• Mark Steyn
• Jonah Goldberg

The four SCOTUS Justices who are struggling to hold our constitution together, and occasionally succeeding when they can drag Justice Kennedy away from the other four, were the first who came to mind. It also is kind of a sad commentary on what has happened to the federal government over the last 75 or so years that constructionists/federalists have to be considered “right of center” these days.

Then we have what I think is the future of the conservative movement, if any, in America: Paul Ryan and Bobby Jindal. I was happy to see they both made the top 25. Bobby Jindal is my (extremely) early favorite for the 2012 Presidential race, and I’ve talked about Paul Ryan before.

Tom Coburn is the only Senator that doesn’t make me sick that comes to mind. I’ve since thought of John Thune, Jim DeMint, and Jim Inhofe, but one Senator is plenty.

Jonah Goldberg and Mark Steyn are on there for the same reason – they make their points with history, statistics, and biting sarcasm in the same way I try to. Only they’re good at it.

And Mary Katherine Ham… well, I just plain ol’ like Mary Katherine Ham.

Some people that made the final list that I didn’t vote for were some politicians like Newt and Fred Thompson. I guess after the last election I’m ready to look to the future and don’t want to hear about those people anymore. At least for now. We’ll see if conservatives have to go running back to them because people like Jindal and Ryan don’t pick up the torch.

Also conspiculously absent from my list was the #1 choice in the poll Sarah Palin. I still have high hopes for her, but she needs to learn how to defend herself. I’m not saying she needed to spend all of her time defending herself against the slime jobs that the media was only too happy to perpetuate, but whatever happened in the Katie Couric interview was a disaster, especially compared with the fine job she did in the VP debate. I think another reason I didn’t include her is that after the last few months of listening to all of the people in my corner of the left coast losing their mind, I could stand a few months without hearing her name. (I have one classmate who is still trying to convince me that Trig is actually Palin’s grandson, as if it matters anymore or that I want to hear a theory involving biology from a drama major.)

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• There’s nothing like beating Minnesota, especially when it involves coming back from a 14-point deficit and two safeties. Despite some huge disappointments this season, the season has officially been salvaged.
• I didn’t post a McCarthy/Thompson head watch for the week. I think a loss to the hated Vikings speaks for itself. Of all the qualities I wanted Rodgers to inherit from Favre, losing in the Metrodome was not one of them.
• This just in: People in (and from) Wisconsin like to drink. That’s some hard-hitting reporting there, Journal-Sentinel.
• Speaking of drinking and Wisconsin, my bowling skilz have seriously degraded since I moved to Washington. I got beat by my three-year-old daughter today, the first time I’ve picked up a bowling ball in this state. In my defense, she was using the bumpers.

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You know, compared to the parade of freaks that are probably vying for the secretary of state slot, Hilllary might be a pretty good choice.

The biggest reason I favored Hillary over Obama in the Democratic primaries is that I thought she had a much better grasp of the fact that America has enemies that we won’t be able to appease away. She’s also a class-A megabitch (and I mean that in an complimentary way.) If she can inject a bit of her cojones into an Obama administration, I for one would be happy to see it.

It’s also obvious that Hillary is playing for 2016 at this point, and the Clintons know how to triangulate. She’ll try to run the state department in a way that helps her politically, and I still have to think that doesn’t mean giving away everything we can find to our “allies” in EUtopia or tinpot dictators so that we can be “respected” in the world. Of course, President Obama would still be her boss, but I think she’d be a better check than, say, Richard Beers or John Kerry.

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It has been a long time since I laughed so hard at something so patently tasteless:

It’s been almost 15 years since Cobain offed himself or Courtney Love murdered him depending on whether you are a conspiracy nut or not. (Almost 15 years? Really?) I think the statute of limitation on tastelessness has passed. You can laugh.

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