Bits and Funny.

Big congratulations to my sister. She knows why.

I'm a bit disappointed that Obama disagrees with the Supreme Court's ruling on the death penalty for child rapists. Obviously I am against rape, but from a legal perspective, the Court is right: it's complete hogwash to elevate a non-murder crime to that level. If somebody raped my child, I'd just kill him. No need to make it a sentencing possibility.

I am "building a house" tomorrow for Habitat. Except, word is we're just putting in the flooring and painting. So really, I'm not doing all that much. Last year, one of the houses we helped build burned down, so I'm hoping some of our attorneys won't be allowed near the wiring jobs this time around.

I don't have much to say on this whole gun-control ruling. It is legally unsound because it completely misinterprets the controlling case--Miller--on this issue. But that's what happens when you let politics override your better judgment.

Half of 2008 is nearly over! How did that happen? July should prove to be exciting and fun.

I saw Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story finally, and it was better than I was expecting. Note to those idiots who make utter crap like "Disaster Movie" and "Date Movie" -- that is how you do satire and parody. I also saw Shoot 'em Up which was entertaining but pretty pointless. Clive Owen would probably make a high school production of "Waiting for Godot" entertaining, though.

For some reason (possibly the above movie-watching) I dreamt that Jenna Fischer worked in my office, and that we were secretly dating. It was awesome, and for like 5 minutes after waking up this morning I was trying to figure out how to move to L.A. and make it happen. Then I got a restraining order against myself.

Finally, this is funny:

From Hey Okay

You... Camped?

I have returned from the wildy wilderness of Northern California unscathed.

As some of you might know, because you are nosy bastards, I went camping last weekend. We went out yonder, to a place I will have to look up on GoogleMaps... here

It was pretty damn (dam? it's a reservoir! ha!) spectacular.



We camped at around 6500 feet next to picturesque Utica (or Uriah, I forget which) reservoir. Right on the water, light years from anything remotely resembling civilization. Good times.

We then got drunk and decided to raft around--five not-so-tiny guys on a poorly inflated watercraft made for 2--in the dark. It was hilarious, though we are all now well aware that such a story could have also ended with "and they were never heard from again..."

And hey, what's the deal with you people (you know who you are) questioning my rustic outdoorsiness? It's a word. I mention I'm going camping and it's as if I announced I was headlining a drag show in the Castro. "You? Really? Wow, okay..." was the most common response.

So nuts to y'all, because I camped the hell out of that place. They now have signs that say "Beware of Sam" because the black bears have nothing* on me.

*maybe claws and very sharp teeth.

Silver Lining

I will say this about the Bush Administration: it will give constitutional scholars decades of analysis and review to contend with.

Case in point: the recent ruling on the detainees at Gitmo. Since my job doesn't pay me to read Supreme Court opinions (a fact I am both grateful for and a little disappointed about), I've only read the press coverage.

What's interesting is in reading everything about this case--and all the past cases the Supremes have had to deal with in the last 5 years or so--is how much each case touches upon tenets of law that, until Bush came into power, most people really didn't argue about anymore.

Wait, did I say "interesting"? I meant sad. Sad because things like habeus corpus and the right to due process are bedrocks of our entire legal system, and weren't being argued about very often for good reason. Of course, a good rehashing of old Constitutional stalwarts isn't harmful, but when the justices come down with the slimmest of majorities available, it's frightening.

It's really as if someone managed to get a run-of-the-mill 1st Amendment issue all the way to the Supreme Court (run-of-the-mill meaning no obvious exceptions, no child pornography, just a guy making a newsletter or something) and then the judges only barely upheld the Amendment.

"Do people detained by American personnel on American soil deserve due process?" is such a stupid question it wouldn't have appeared on any law school exams until now. Now, thanks to Bush, maybe people don't actually deserve their day in court! Maybe they don't have a right to an attorney, and hey, what's the deal with "innocent until proven guilty"? That's always in the way, man!

Scalia is a hack. I respected him (even while vehemently disagreeing) up until this ruling. That's over.

Cool Off Already

I'm resisting the urge to just take a verbal flamethrower to some of the Democrats out there who insist that McCain is now the "best" choice for President.

Not only is this one of the most nonsensical and irrational ideas you can hold in your head, but it's motivated purely by anger and resentment.

It's the equivalent of swearing off all members of the opposite sex (if you're straight, anyway) for the rest of your life after a bad break-up. Or, perhaps more accurately, swearing to switch teams.

I'm sorry Hillary didn't win. Well, I'm sorry because it's gotten so many people so pissy, but I'm not sorry she's not the candidate. She's simply not as good as Obama, so there's no apology there. And you Hillary supporters are just reacting to the loss in a personal way, which is somewhat understandable. You shouldn't take it personally (it's politics), but it's not completely crazy that you have.

But as with any relationship that has ended too soon, pragmatism soon re-enters the scene. You're not really swearing off men/women for life; you just need a break to reevaluate the situation.

I know that had Obama lost, I would've been pissed. And I would have debated who to support, for a minute or two. But I would've done the right thing in the end and voted for the more progressive candidate. Because I'm a goddamn progressive, not someone who would throw his country to the wolves because he'd rather sulk like a petulant child.

So I'm going to back off for awhile (figuratively) and let you Clinton supporters chill. You'll no doubt see some very illuminating Obama v. McCain action in the coming months, and you'll realize how asinine it is to consider voting for anyone but Obama.

That's my hope, anyway. If not, "petulant child" is going to seem like a Hallmark card compared to what I have to say in a few months.