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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