The biggest problem with the World

I have decided that the biggest problem with the world is a lack of respect. I do not know how it started, though there has been much speculation on what causes it. I see it everywhere I look. Something that is important to one person (like, I don't know, their safety) is carelessly risked and treated with disdain. Not only that, but if someone slights another person, more often than not the slighted person responds with escalation. One sees it on the roads. One sees it in public gathering places. One sees it on the internet. I do not think we should all agree on everything, but if you have a disagreement with another person, understand that there can be reasoned views and positions on either side of an issue/disagreement. there is no need to be mean and nasty. Respectful discussion and patience can lead to understanding even if agreement is impossible.

Warming up to Mitt again

So I have been pretty down on Mitt Romney. I really disagree with him on a number of issues. However, for the strangest reason I am starting to like him again, and here it is. I don't think he is telling the truth about where he stands on a number of issues. I really think that he is more liberal than he is letting on. And with the piss poor republican field this year, that is all it really takes for me. Who else is there? Guiliani- he is the definition of unqualified. McCain- He is the definition of keeping a bad thing going. Huckabee- He is a bigot. Thompson- Is he even still alive?? Romney- good for economy (probably), short sighted on immigration (probably), flip-flopper (definately), did good things in Mass. (definately). So while I freely admit that I am probably biased by that fact that we share the same religion and so I tend to relate to him more, I think he is the republican that I support. Not the (hopefully) forceful endorsement that I give to Obama on the Dem. side, but right now that is where I stand, though open to reasoned argument to change my mind.

Double the fun

Today I got my notice that I have been admitted to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. It would be impressive if it had required more than a two page form and a check for $160.

My favorite line from the times today

Bill Ash, a former assistant to Mr. Tobias, said he had told the police that Mrs. Tobias confessed to him that she had cajoled her husband into the water while he was on a cocaine binge with a promise of sex with a male go-go dancer known as Tiger.

Why Romney will not be president

Very simply, because he is running a bushesque campaign and he is a mormon. Bush was elected twice because he appealed to the uber conservative core of the religious right. He won the general election because those people turned out in record numbers. Romney appears to be running the same type of campaign. He talks of guantanamo as if it were the greatest thing our country had ever done. He talks of immigration reform as if it were a capital offense to come to this country illegally (more on this potentially later). I do not know if he actually believes what he is saying, but it is very appealing to those people who ushered bush in. If those people get excited enough about a candidate, I believe that they have the ability to get almost anyone elected.

Now the problem. There are a number of those people who in the primaries are talking of voting for Romney because he is the lesser of evils. They cannot get over the fact that he is mormon. They seem to think that being mormon is evil. I wish a fundy christian read my blog so they could tell me why being mormon is so evil, but I doubt it. Anyway, the point is that Romney cannot get these people excited enough to come out in enormous numbers to get him elected. And the positions he is taking are so contrary to what most of the country believes that he has no hope of winning the swing vote. (though I still dont believe there is a swing vote in this country) The long and the short of it is, his religion will keep him out of the white house because: 1) the groups he is trying to appeal to are intollerant to others, 2) he is taking positions that are also intollerant of others, and 3) if he wins the nomination, those intollerant people he is appealing to fail to support him enough because of their intollerance of his religion to get him elected.

As an update, I had my staples out and it was good. didnt hurt at all.

Staple follow up

So as I have talked to people about my staples, I have begun to wonder a couple of things. How exactly do they hold my skin together, and if they bend under on the bottom, how exactly are they going to take them out without ripping out my scalp. Wiki was helpful, but for a diagram that just explained it beautifully, I recommend this site. Warning, there is a video of a guy taking out staples with wire cutters and tweezers at the bottom.

Staples in the head

Squishy has suggested that I share this story.

I came home from work last thursday for lunch. As i was parking in our garage I thought that I ran my car into the side of the garage. I reparked and went to check the damage. It turns out that the people that owned our house before us left and L bracket without shelves on it stuck to the wall. I didn't see it and walked into it. It obviously hurt quite a bit and I leaned against my car waiting for the pain to pass. As I was waiting, blood started dripping down my face and onto my car. I cupped my hand to catch it all, but that was futile so I got squishy to get me a paper towel so I could put pressure on it and stop the bleeding.

I got the bleeding under control and went to take a shower to rinse the blood out of my hair and assess the damage to see if I needed stitches. I decided that I did and had a quick lunch while squishy figured out where our emergency medicine provider was located. (believe it or not I hadn't been there yet). I got in quickly and saw the doctor. He took a look at my head and decided that I needed staples in my head instead of stitches due to the depth. I lay on my back as he pulled out a medical stapler and put three staples in my scalp. I am not sure exactly how to describe the sound, but it was earily similar to the straitline I have in my desk. So now that I have drawn out the story I can tell you that pictures are at the bottom of this and so go no further if you are squeemish.

















I dont have pictures of the staples yet, but with enough popular demand I will post them. With this one all you can see is lots of blood and my hair is thinner.

I am voting Democrat (Maybe)

So throughout my life I have voted for very few democrats. This is not necessarily because I am republican, but because since I came of age to vote, this country's politics have revolved basically around abortion and gay marriage. since I am closer in view to the republican side of these issues (though by no means 100% on board with their crap). However, for the last 4-5 years I have been a big fan of Barack Obama. The more I have found out about him, the more I like what I hear.

1- He thinks through problems and then comes up with complex answers to complex problems. I am sick of rhetoric that tells us nothing, let alone how a person will handle the responsibilities of the office.

2- He believes that we can make a better world, not just protect ourselves in a crappy one. He thinks that things can get better and tells us that.

3- He calls it as he sees it, regardless of what the party line is.

I do not see this election as war v. no war or even about the issues at all, I see this election as a question of do we as a nation have the guts to still hope for something better. I want to, and there is only one candidate in any party that gives me that option. So I hope that those who vote in the Democratic Primary to give me a chance to vote for a Democrat and hope.

last ones (even morest)

even morer

even more

My friend sent me this, I cut the commentary though

revise the constitution

So those that know me from my law school days remember that I was really into revising the constitution because it was out of date and we could make it better. So imagine my surprise when I am wandering in Barnes and Noble and find an entire book on the subject, calling for a complete overhaul of the consitution. A lot of the ides were things that we had thought of, but there were some new ones that were interesting. Looks like there are more people out there that think its a good idea than I thought. Now I know there are two of us.

Interesting reading

this guy gave the welcome to the federal bar at our swearing in the day this news came out.

story

Key to the Elgin Marbles

So I was reading a deposition this week, and during a discussion on an objection, one attorney said to the other, it is basically the key to the elgin marbles. I did not understand the reference and so looked it up.

It turns out that the elgin marbles are artwork taken from the parthenon by an english man named elgin. He had the permission of the turkish government which at that time was in possession of greece. There is a lot of conflict over whether the english should return the artwork to greece or not.

Here is the wiki article on the elgin marbles. However, this does not solve the problem. There is no reference to the key of the elgin marbles. I googled the phrase key to the elgin marbles. I have theories on what it could mean, but if anyone knows what that phrase actually means, I would appreciate a comment telling me.

Bar Results

University of Colorado passed 95%
University of Denver passed 72%

Yet a lot of people think that DU is for intellectuals

I got a tatoo

Today, I got a tatoo. I got it on my hip. It was of a popular animated figure. Ok, it was a dora the explorer tatoo. Luckily for me it was washable, but for the hour that it lasted I felt like a total fruitcake.

I hate paying taxes

The only thing that makes me happy is that I should get all of them back this year again, and then I enter the wonderful world of deductions for mortgage interest. That should be good, so maybe I shouldnt look at it as paying taxes but as getting my money back in April without any interest, and subject to the whims of congress and the IRS. Yeah.

Cool experience

So I know that some of you are less than thrilled about organized religion (OK religion in general) but I had a really cool experience this week. I found out that one of the people I taught when I was in Mexico is now on a mission herself. I am not going to go into the details of when I was teaching her or anything, but it was amazing to me the change in her life that I got to be a part of.

New House

SO buying a new house is incredibly stressful. Even when you find one you like you stop and wonder what they are hiding behind the coat of paint. Just an example, CO has a law that if you cook meth in your house and then sell it, you dont have to tell the buyers if you have had it cleaned by professionals. I dont know how much you know about meth, but you cant clean all that crap out.

Idahoan Senator Recipes

I figured that after he made the news I should post his recipes. He contributed two, this and this. Incidentally, I dont think I have mentioned this, but I do not believe that any of these people are capable of making their recipes. And it seems disengenuous that each of them just happens to have a favorite recipe that their district happens to be famous for. Coincidence, I think not.

On a kick

This recipe got me not for the yumminess of the recipe but because of the intro. It made me wonder about the congressman's background. Here is his Wikipedia article. But to find out how many kids he has, you have to look here at the bottom. The most interesting thing that I learned about this congressman is that he is quite famous for not joining the Congressional Black Caucus and saying of the members of that caucus, "and I think they're race-hustling poverty pimps." Yet it turns out that he has his own line of businesses and on the home page he makes sure that you know his businesses are "certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by the National Minority Supplier Development Council." See here for the homepage.

Congress Cooks

So I have had a good time since the last post looking at other congressional recipes. Here is the recipe from Congressman Chris Cannon. Some of you may know that I worked for this congressman for one day on a reelection campaign. But since he is a republican running in Provo Utah, not much of a challenge.

For another piece of Cannon trivia, here is his blog. It appears that he has realized that his district contains BYU campus and so he needs to get on the YouTube bandwagon.

And just for fun, this page for people who really dont like him. I dont know where I stand on this issue, but I know I am antifanatical, so dont like these guys much.

Sweetbreads

This all started as my brother and I debated whether sweetbreads are brains, as he said, or the pancreas, as I said. We decided to wikipedia the thing as that is the authoritative source for all human knowledge. It turns out that I was right, but in our searching we came across this picture . Check it out it will turn your stomach.

If that is not enough, you should check this out.

In case you want to read more about the congressman who gave us that delightful recipe, I am including a statement he placed in the congressional record. Yes, the congressional record. Are you ready for it. Its going to be good. OK, since you've been good, here it is.

Below is the full statement by Congressman Coble which appeared in the May 25 edition of the Congressional Record:
“Mr. Speaker, in the biggest electoral debate since the Bush-Gore presidential election in Florida in 2000, people are still talking about the selection of this year’s American Idol from the television program with the same name. With no disrespect intended toward this year’s winner, Taylor Hicks, most people think this year’s American Idol should have been Chris Daughtry of McLeansville, North Carolina.
I will admit, Mr. Speaker, that I am extremely biased in this debate because Chris Daughtry is a resident of the Sixth District of North Carolina. And it would have been the second time that a town in the Sixth District produced the winning Idol, since previous winner, Fantasia, hailed from High Point, North Carolina. That being said, most online polls, fan blogs, numerous web sites, and general talk about town all hailed Chris Daughtry as the next American Idol.
Most people know that my musical tastes run more towards traditional bluegrass music, so I am not a good judge of what is hot in the rock and pop music scenes. But I do know politics, and from everything I could learn, Chris Daughtry appeared to be the fan favorite. While I will not call for Congress to investigate this Idol election process, those of us who reside in the Sixth District of North Carolina will always be convinced that our guy really won – sort of like fans of Al Gore in 2000.
Oh well, we are proud to say that we are the home of the real American Idol, Chris Daughtry of McLeansville, North Carolina.”

Next

So today I read Michael Crichton's book Next. It is an interesting read about genetics and the need for a different kind of control. I recommend it. He always researches his books thoroughly, and blends the line between fact and fiction.

Changing the theory of Human Evolution

I found this to be an interesting article. It illustrates my point that a theory is the best guess that we can do with the information that we have. That should in no way be interpretted as me saying that evolution is incorrect. It just shows that when confronted with new information, previously accepted theories must change in order to remain the best guess within the information available.

Fun Interview

So this morning I went to an interview for a job. The entire interview consisted of the interviewer asking me a series of hypotheticals to see how I would handle different situations. A jailhouse lawyer... What do you do? An expert witness... What do you do? It was quite an enjoyable interview. Easily beating the usual, you clerk for judge so and so, tell me about that. Those ones suck.

All Alone

So many of you know that I kicked Squishy and the kids out during finals pretty much every semester during law school. For the bar they have left again, and I am all alone. If squishy is reading this, i am really sad and miss them terribly. If she is not, then it is awesome. I shower when i want, sleep when i want, eat when i want. Its the closest to hedonism i get. Sadly i also study a great deal, so that kind of ruins it.

These guys claim to do science

So for my breaks from studying I have gotten into the habit of watching Youtube videos. These guys have a bunch but these are some of my favorite.










Just so you know, wee means pee. But you will figure that out.

Tort, Crim Law, and Contracts Day

When I was a State senator in Florida, I accomplished some tort reform in the area of nursing homes because we had nursing homes leaving the State. Ginny B. Waite

Guilt or innocence becomes irrelevant in the criminal trials as we flounder in a morass of artificial rules poorly conceived and often impossible to apply. Warren E. Burger

I wish to be cremated. One tenth of my ashes shall be given to my agent, as written in our contract. Groucho Marx

A good lawyer is a bad Christian. John L. Motley

Final Bar Prep

So today was the first time that I started doing the most difficult multiple choice problems for the MBE. It seems like a complete waste of time. There was one question in which the answer that I chose said that a person took reasonable precautions. That is the law. The correct answer was something else. The reason that my answer was not the credited answer, the precautions may not have been reasonable enough. If they are not reasonable enough then dont call them reasonable. A part of me wonders if they are not making these intentionally so ridiculous so that the real questions wont seem so hard.

Potter Ending

So the Times got a bunch of writers to put together their end of Harry Potter. Most of them are OK. But I thought this one was particularly funny. If you want to read the others you have to find them. I would include them but sometimes the links want a password, and I dont have one. I should also say that even if you arent into this Potter craze, at least the first one is worth reading.

OK so after I posted and checked the link to make sure it worked, it also asks for a password, so keep trying. Sometimes its required and sometimes not.

100th Post

So that is kind of deceiving because the original arfanser had 150 or so, but on this iteration this is number 100 so I was waiting for something big.

I got my admission ticket to the bar today finally. They mailed them yesterday so its not like i was waiting a long time. I dont remember the last time that i read 6 pages of instructions where every other line contained some form of the sentence, "FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RULE WILL RESULT IN YOUR NOT BEING PERMITTED TO TAKE THE EXAM. THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS." OK, so that is two sentences but you get the idea. It makes me wonder if I really forget to take the pillow case off of my pillow that I bring with me I wont be able to take the test. Even if I take it off right then?

The other part I really liked was the beginning where it explained that the test would happen at this location and time regardless of inclement weather or disaster. This being Colorado it is not unheard of to have a blizzard in the middle of July. It wont be cold, but we could have three feet of snow. I am just imagining some terrorist deciding to nuke NORAD on that day and having a blizzard as well, but the bar examiners will be starting the test at exactly 8:20.

While I have one barbri class left, I think it is safe for me to give you all my favorite quote from all of the barbri lectures. Charlie Whitebread, crim law prof from USC, "Can you really think that there will be a beastiality question on the bar? I like to lay in bed at night and think about what that question would say. Some poor animal running around squeaking with some guy chasing it around with his pants around his ankles." This was followed by him acting this out. Both parts. Luckily his pants did stay on though.

Finally, I got my practice MBE today. It was much more helpful than I originally thought. I missed about the same number on all six subjects so I figured that to improve I was just going to have to study everything again. Luckily it turns out there are areas in each of the subjects that I can study and others I did fine.

All in all I am getting pretty excited that this thing is so close to being done.

Movie Night

So the other night I watched highschool musical with squishy. I knew I was in for a long night when the first choice I had to make was whether or not we should watch the sing along version.

Gulliver's Travels

So I finished the book Gulliver's Travels. For those of you who haven't read it, there is a 5 or 6 page rant about lawyers toward the end that is incredibly funny. It talks about how if people sue each other the law suit will not end until the two parties dont have any more money, and then the judge will dismiss the case without deciding it. The whole purpose of lawyers is to get rich off of other peoples misfortunes. They are the leaches of human society. I was actually amused because of the depth of the authors aparent loathing.

Oh and I am studying reallllllllllly hard for the bar.

Gossip

I heard a rumor today that a person with whom I didnt ever really interact, but bugged me whenever we had classes together failed his clinic and didnt graduate yet. Maybe you all already knew it, but it surprised me quite a bit.

Denver and TB

Look more bad diseases. link Sorry it is a few days late, but we have so many diseases here I am having trouble keeping up.

Denver and the Plague

In keeping with the tradition of posting nytimes articles about the city I am living in at the time (OK I did it one other time) here it is. Denver and the plague

Also in honor of a new friend and her blog, the person who hooded me at hooded me well, here is a link.

Fishy's character reference

I got fishy's character reference for the bar in the mail today. I was momentarily tempted to write all sorts of crazy things, but then realized that he is probably going to get one for me too. The truth is so boring.

The End

Today is my last final. I am a bit melancholy, but I dont know how much of that is having to deal with 4 hours of tax questions. I think it is normal to look back at times like this. I did not think I would ever be at this point. I used to think I would be dead before I reached 20. And lets face it, these last three years have had the fewest trips to the emergency room of any three year period in my life to this point so it wasnt a crazy thought.

I never thought I would be a grownup. But here I am married with 2 kids, and on the cusp of a doctoral level degree.

I never thought that I would go to a school as well regarded as the one I am at, but I am about to graduate and am fairly happy with the way I performed here.

This all sounds like bragging, and maybe it is, but while I am sad that this time is ending, it is ending better than I ever expected. I am looking forward to what the next 28 years bring.

Interesting Times article about St. Louis

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17stlouis.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=02cbcd98747fc843&ex=1176955200

Trial Tactics

So for the end of my clinic this morning I went to watch a trial in federal court. I sat through an hour and a half of direct examination of the plaintiff who was a former cop who was suing for wrongful termination. He sounded like he had a decent claim, then came the cross examination.

First, he failed a urinalysis.

Second, he had been written up twice for failure to take care of evidence as the evidence officer.

Third, he started telling other cops that a cop on the drug task force was selling, two weeks after that cop had busted the plaintiff's cousin for dealing meth.

All of a sudden it didnt sound like he had such a good case anymore.

Friends

So last night in my trial class the professor asked us how it was going getting jurors. The other five people in the class had come up with a total of four. I said that I could get as many as needed. At a break I got on my phone and called up some of my friends to ask them to be jurors. Everyone I talked to was willing to help me out. When I reported back that I had all of the jurors my side needed the other people in my group were fluxomed that I had been able to find people that quickly, and that I could find people at all. Since then I have realized that I have been very blessed here at school with good friends. Since most of you read this blog I thought I would just say thanks for being good friends.

Tax Class 2

So today I started studying for my tax final. Imagine my pleasant suprise when I realized I already understood old colony trust, benaglia, turner, kowalski, sibla, imputed income, clark, and raytheon. While this is the easiest portion of the class, still I am further along than I had expected.

Tax Class

So, thinking that I was missing too much tax class, I decided to bring my computer today and surf while listening to the crazy rants of the professor. Turns out I was wrong. I spend less time listening then those days that I dont bring a computer and sleep for about 15 minutes instead. This leads to a depressing conclusion that if I want to learn tax it is better to be asleep than to be on the internet.

Here is a game

A prize for anyone who can find four five or more letter words in this post:

xcfhtianbvfkjaskjthriasyasgjkdnfasjkduytiqerkngkadfhiowethjbosia
ngiaegjksdfn dfioabvasdkgtiosdakjgtnakhwihtrjjkbvnauiosdfghaerjkj
gtiowerqutepuviruwtiebvptierwnbugipmvituyrijkgaueintbviaevneuit
nuiaetuienvituietnbvimirunyjhbugmdfhusvmilugntsbdtvafdmkcas
ndtihjgnrihjzsdgiavnfkadltuasdfkgnasdgjkfbjskjdtykfhjubgisjkts
fdamknjyadfibjadfkjtgkmdfnmbvkdfsjgjksdfhjghaduithjaehuwinvjha
uewugfavwebugfvasbauawerlkgweruibvawervaerghuvhusdflghajvnas
djklxcamsdfnaenuefaktfhuasfnvaeunsdcvasdfeakidghaeiucn
fheauifnveuiasvglekahgiesklnfvgdjsalhfevjkasencvsekalfnvaseulghseaivf
nhseiajkdvfnhsdjkaf

Good luck.

What I learned on jury duty

First, thanks to those of you who have commented on the previous post. I do appreciate the suggestions.

Second, I have been busy the last two days with jury duty. After 5 hours of sitting and waiting I finally got called to a jury panel. I thought for sure I would sit on the jury cause I think I am pretty openminded, and mine was one of the first numbers called so I was in the first twelve and so unless I disqualified myself I would be on unless a party struck me.

So we go through voir dire, and I stay quiet for the most part. Then they ask if any of us have ever been accused of a crime etc. So I raise my hand and tell them that I was accused of disturbing the peace, but the charges were dropped.

Then they ask if any of us have visited someone in jail or written to someone in jail. I told them that I visited a client in a 1983 action in jail, and that I wrote to two women who I was helping petition for clemency for murdering their abusers. The prosecutor then asked if I had ever considered working for the other side, and I told them that I spent a summer in the US attorneys office. They asked what and I told them that I basically just prosecuted meth cases. That was all I talked about.

When we went out in the hall I was sure that I would get put on the jury. Nope. I get a thank you, go home.

So who cut me? I can't be sure. If it was the prosecutor, I am a little offended because there were some real nut jobs on that jury panel. If it was the defense attorney, it was because I was too much of a wild card. Either way I am a bit saddened because I think I would have been a good juror, and I would have actually gotten to see jury deliberations which would have been nice. Oh well. It will never happen again.

Arf's Life

So I am in a unique position right now. Since starting school my goal was to get a job. I didnt really care what job as long as I made enough money to pay for my family. But since I have failed in the blindly searching for a job, I have decided to take some time and decide what kind of law I want to do. I have always loved appellate work, but it just doesnt hold the same appeal (ha ha) to me anymore. Here is where you come in. What area of law do you think I should pursue? And no matter how much you love it fishy, the answer is not tax.

Nemesis

So the person that I hate most at school has joined one of my classes. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, but it is a class that only has six people and requires a lot of interaction with the other students. He keeps talking to me. It is a little bit sad, because I know he is trying to be friendly and I also know he has no idea of the level of loathing I have for him. Now I feel kind of bad for him. He has poor social cue recognition skills, and he really needs to have a friend in the class. Its just too bad for him he chose me.

Something I wrote long ago, but just found again

I'm the one who shuns the light
The one who lives under your bed
And you will feel me in the night

I'm the one just out of reach
In the closet or in your head
I'm the one who shuns the light

You know the feeling and the fright
You sense it when to bed you're led
That you will feel me in the night

You've never seen me, but I'm known on sight
You've heard me. In your head I've said,
"I'm the one who shuns the light."

I can make your chest get tight
Your breath gets short and you see red
Now you will feel me in the night

I'm the one you'll have to fight
Or you will quickly end up dead
I'm the one who shuns the light
And you will feel me in the night

Free Will

For those of you who have had a discussion with me about free will, you will probably imagine how upsetting this article was to me. Life is easier when we are not responsible for the choices we make, but its not worth living.