13 months

Back when we signed the lease for our old apartment in Cambridge, we thought that we would want to stay in Boston for the convention and want to volunteer, so we signed a 13-month lease.

That was a dumb move, because we never used the apartment in July either time. We were also happy to leave Boston for Salt Lake because of the idiosyncrasies of the place. The inability of construction workers to finish a project, the constant traffic, the unfriendliness of the natives, the difficulty in navigating the city, etc.

While it might have been fun to fill up balloons, I seem to be enjoying the fruits of other people's labor by watching it on C-SPAN. A friend or two from the Clark campaign will be there a first-ever blog-correspondent and I will be curious to see how it all turns out.

Meanwhile, I keep trying to stay busy here. Maybe I should volunteer or something. I just have trouble staying motivated these days. The looming pile of unknown work is really frightening. Hopefully, 13 months from now, I will married, much more knowledgeable, and happy.

Oh Pioneers!

Today is the day, in 1847, Brigham Young and his troop of Mormons came into the Salt Lake Valley via Emigration Canyon (the same route that the Donner party lost so much time on) and famously said, "This is the Place."

Every year since, Mormons have made this day (Pioneer Day) a state holiday, complete with a pathetic parade through downtown with everyone and their mother's float made out of foam and crepe paper.

In that spirit, my fiancee, her old high school friend, and my cousin from NYC (who strangely also is friends with her) set off fireworks in our high school faculty parking lot Thursday night. The grand finale was a row of whistlers as we sophomorically peeled away. My fiancee, who grew up in suburban Chicago, and the New Yorker had never set off fireworks for some reason, so us Utahns had to show them how it was done.

Speaking of being Utahn, I am a sixth-generation Utahn and I finally found out more about our family legend about how we left the LDS church. My grandfather's grandmother's father was Mr. Long (can't remember his first name but it was long and biblical sounding like Jebediah) was Brigham Young's personal secretary. As such, he got to see how Young ruled his colony of Mormons with a ruthless, iron fist. He saw how Young had dissidents asssasinated by his goon squad, led by Porter Rockwell, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and other stuff we don't even know about.

Family legand has it that he was going to spill the beans on all this stuff, finding it to be out of keeping with the principles of the religion. So Rockwell's squad murdered him. His picture still hangs in our house. Of course, there are also family stories that we had the rights to Bingham Canyon (which is now the world's biggest man-made hole in the ground and copper mine) but my grandfather's grandmother had to pay for college for the children. So maybe both tales are a bit exaggerated for two key effects: distrust of the Mormon heirarchy and feeling guilty over your great education.

3rd Ave version 3.1

Well here we go again...another long gap in coverage and sinking hits. I am just about finished moving into the apartment and finally my back and upper body can rest.

Meanwhile, I hope you noticed the photo on the top right so you can see where I get the title of the blog and my mug. The layout and style of the blog has also been revamped to look a bit nicer, I trust. Please comment to tell me what you think if you feel up to it.

Reading the newspaper today (I have been doing that a lot lately, but sadly only the two local papers my parents subscribe to), I was really annoyed with the Deseret News' front page, top-of-the-fold article: "Edwards 'rarely present'" This article is clearly nothing but a RNC press release that the incompetent Lee Davidson plagiarized. Who in Utah cares that North Carolina Senator John Edwards wasn't there at Judiciary Committee meetings? Maybe North Carolinians might, or would-be federal judges, but it is pretty small potatoes. I have been to my share of committee meetings and most members/senators aren't there for them even if they aren't running for (Vice) President.

Below the fold was the obvious above the fold article (the Salt Lake Tribune had it in the right place anyway) : Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun's mysterious abstains and return (whose family happens to live in South Jordan, Utah). This is the kind of thing big newspapers like the Globe, Times or Post will get the scoop on but it is a big story.

The Muslim Marine will have some big questions he needs to satisfactorily answer: Did he go AWOL? How did he get 500 miles to Beirut? How was he abducted from such a secure location? Did he escape from the captors? In sum: what the h-e-double hockey sticks happened to him?

In fairness, let's include his complete statement:

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun's statement:
Good afternoon. In the name of God, I am glad to be home and thank you all for your prayers and support.
I understand that there are many questions . . . and respectfully ask that the media respect my need to spend some private time with my family.
I did not desert my post. I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days.
This was a very difficult and challenging time for me. Since my release, I have been fully participating in the repatriation process.
I thank everyone who was looking for me and give thanks to God for everything.
I would like to tell all the Marines as well as all those others serving in Iraq to keep their heads up and spirits high.
Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper fi.
Thank you.

I don't know about you, but I still got questions.

On a personal note, I am going to dinner at my grandmother's house to see my cousin from NYC who went to college with me for two years (I was older) and the rest of the family. Have a nice day everyone.

Another long inexcusable gap

Boy the blog is really getting as out of shape as I am. In the past week, I have really been busy though, honest.

Moving stuff into our new apartment, buying a new TV (we sold our old one in Boston) and office chair. My back, arms, and shoulders have been taking a beating from lifting all these heavy boxes and furniture, but we are mostly done and it is starting to look like someone lives there.

This weekend, my mom is already in Jackson Hole with her friends the Cummings, whose Lucadia Corporation has made a bid to buy half of the ailing MCI (nee MCIWorldcom). The Cummings, incidently are also major donors to the democratic party, especially the Utah state branch. And the real reason she is up there is it is Ian's birthday.

My father meanwhile is being shipped off to Boston again for a labor arbitration case (he visited Christina and I last fall for part one of this case) Early in the morn on Saturday. I , of course have to deliver him to the airport at the crack o'dawn. My reward though for this is to have the house to myself...ourselves for the weekend.

This afternoon, the cable guy will come and we will have a million channels and a 3MBS internet connection in the apartment. To copy a cheesy movie title, I can't hardly wait.

Absense makes the heart grow...

Appologies for not posting in many moons. My blogging seems to have turned extremely personal as I tend to read the news less and less. Kerry-Edwards seems to be off to a good start and Bush-Cheney seems to be spinning their wheels (despite throwing all the mud they can scrape up) until the GOP convention in late August.

We seemed to have settled on an apartment and are looking forward to moving in soon. It is one of the more expensive ones in SLC but very nice and three blocks from the law school. You can't beat that. Maybe next year, we can get a condo and all that, but for now, we will live it up in this luxury apartment.

Just went golfing with the folks at the Country Club. I didn't play the "sport" but I love driving the cart around, it is so much fun. Dinner was standard WASP fare. The wife-to-be is off seeing "Anchorman"...barf. I hate how they promo these movies now.

Off to watch Tivo-ed Washington Week. This is my family.

How sad for you

Bush and his hatchet men are at it again. Only this time, everyone is starting to notice how inept they are. Ruy Teixeira compares what Bush claims on the economy vs. reality and then what the public believes via polls. The result? People know that the economy still sucks, and the White House can't spin its way out of that one.

Meanwhile, Mark Schmidt takes apart Bush's latest ineffectual (and, of course, negative) Ads. Here's the meat:

"These ads all aggressively fail the most basic test of any political ad: What do you hear when you're watching it out of the corner of an eye, doing dishes, talking on the phone, trying to stop one kid from taking the other one's Power Rangers, etc. I look at the "Yakuza" ad that way and all I hear is 'Kerry had a plan to fight terrorism [blah, blah, some Japanese thing I never heard of, blah blah], 'plan to fight crime [blah, blah]'. OK, sounds good, Kerry's against terrorism and crime. I watch the ad called "Patriot Act" like that, and the only thing I notice is the middle frames: 'Wire Taps' [Clang!] 'Subpoena powers' [Clang!] 'Surveillance' [Clang!] Bad things, scary mean government. But the point of the ad is supposed to be that those are good things, and Kerry is against them, except he sort of isn't ... Getting the point of this ad requires a logic even more nuanced than Kerry's own position, which begins to seem quite reasonable."

National Review's Jim Geraghty tries to task.

"Hope those New Hampshire dairy farmers were paying attention. The senator's explanation:

'I plead guilty. I did vote for it, because I represented Massachusetts,' Kerry said. 'I was a United States senator, and I was working in a context that we were living in a number of years ago, and that's the way we saw the world.

'We don't see the world that way now,' he told the crowd at the Dejno farm. 'I guarantee you that as president, I'm not going to be president of New England, or president of Massachusetts; I'm running to be president of the United States of America. And I'm going to stand up for farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa and other parts of the country just as hard as I did before.'

But Senator, the point is that you weren't standing up for farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa before, you were sticking it to them to benefit farmers in your home state." I dunno, sounds to me like those are two different things, what you did in congress as a representative of Massachusetts and what you would do as President of the USA.

On some issues, that line of reasoning is sound. For example, how one voted on the war, or No Child Left Behind, the PATRIOT Act (alas, Kerry voted for all of them), or the $87 billion (Kerry voted no). But others are purely local issues. The Northeast Dairy Compact is one that pits New England (and upstate NY/Rural PA) against the Midwest.

After a while, they just start to get pathetic.

crossed off my list

Sorry for not writing in a couple days. Since I last blogged, I have joined CostCo, opened a absolutely free joint checking/saving account with the University of Utah Credit Union, taken my fiance to two job interviews, gotten a gift for my now ex-boss, and purchased an automobile. (see below for pictures and details)

I haddn't needed a car for the 6 years I was out on the East Coast (DC to Boston region) but out here in the Salt Lake Valley it is must that between the two of us, we have at least a car of our own.

Oh, by the way, happy birthday America. True patriots question authority and work to make the USA live up to the founder's ideals (or our ideals of them, since they were also slave-holding elitists).

It is an automatic, which is a must for the wife-to-be. I actually prefer manual, but this car still has nice power. 

Not a bad booty either. This car's trunk (or if I were to use the British terminology, the boot) is very large. The rear seats fold down easily for skis and what not. Overall, very practical and sturdy car for the next 5 years or so. 

Here is the car we bought, I think it fits our combined personality. 

It has a cloth interior. My future father-in-law says we should get seat covers to prevent stains which will hurt resale value. I wonder how long a "no food or drink in the car" order will last. 

First day of the rest of my life

Last night I got into Salt Lake at 1 AM MST, (which is 3 AM EST) yet somehow I woke up at 7 am MST, so I am still really tired but now I really can't fall asleep since their are workers re-stucco-ing my family's house.

Christina is off with an old friend from High School, who I've known since pre-Kindergarten. Meanwhile, I will sit and contemplate what to do with myself in my new surroundings.

All my big purchases (car, apartment/condo) are coming up soon and setting up steps (opening a bank account) will begin tomorrow. But for now, I am taking trips down memory lane via my old desk in my old room, which is not a museum but a storage bin. My bed has been disassembled and new furniture and boxes abound.

Looking at old pictures and letters and notes reminded me of all those thoughts I had at one point in my life. About what I was going to do with myself, what I thought was profound at the time. Makes me smile and wince, and often times agree.

I still am an idealistic person who wants to change the world, now I just know better what has a chance of working and how to do it. Or maybe I haven't changed as much as I thought I have, but merely have gotten older and more cynical.

Last Post for a couple days

Despite wanting to talk about the Sumpreme Court ruling on "illegal combatants" (go Supremes!) I thought my last post on EST should explain why I am leaving. My essay for Utah Law School really sums it up nicely.

I have spent most of my life trying to get away from Utah and law school. Maybe this seems like a strange way to start an essay for admission to the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, but to me it all makes sense. Let me explain.

My journeys outside Utah began my junior year of high school, when I spent a year abroad in Germany to avoid the state. I had lived my entire life in Utah and wanted to experience someplace, anyplace, else. In my considerations for college, I sought out schools where I could be as distant as possible from Utah. I have spent the last two years working in Washington, D.C. and Boston. For the last seven years, I have been home only for Christmas and a few weeks in the summer.

Furthermore, I told everyone that I would never go to law school. I did this because I thought I couldn’t be my own person if I followed in my family’s footsteps and became an attorney in Utah, so I tried everything else. One summer during college, I worked in Germany as an auditor for a Salt Lake-based company, American Linen. I savored catching the “bad guys” who were trying to cheat the company and other customers. Having had my anti-law school blinders on, I didn’t realize until this summer that this thirst for justice could be applied towards a career in law.

Yet something changed this summer, and I started dreaming and longing for Utah. I realized that I had incessantly talked about it to everyone I had met in the last seven years who wasn’t from the state. I constantly sounded like a travel agent or a tourism official, bragging about the climate, the ethos, the community, the skiing, the environment, and yes, even the easy-to-navigate grid system, especially to my friends from Boston (home of the cow-paths).

For the last seven years I groped in the dark, searching for a place and occupation that made me happy. After awhile, I realized I wasn’t missing just the mountains or the snow, but a part of myself. For all my trying to be different, I was denying who I was: someone is fascinated and excited by philosophical and practical sides of the law. That’s when things started to change. I found myself reading Supreme Court Briefs and Rulings, and loving every minute of it. In my job at the Massachusetts State House I had to pore through the law code for my constituents, I began to appreciate the importance of defining what the meaning of ‘is’ is. It quickly became apparent that the law is simultaneously an art and a science.

I now come before you a changed man: one who is no longer afraid of going back home and becoming a lawyer. In fact, I am looking forward to it, personally, academically, and professionally. I am reminded of the monument I pass by every time I drive home: This Is The Place. And now, I finally believe it.

Reflections and ruminnations

Bill Clinton's week in the limelight is winding down and it made me remember that while I think he was the best president I have lived through, his presidency is still be tinged with disappointment and sadness.

I read Joe Klein's "The Natural" and it hit the nail on the head. And Jon Stewart said about the same thing on Larry King last night. What a wasted opportunity is the best summary. So much charisma, so much intelligence, so much political wisdom, and yet a series of half-efforts when one thinks of what could have been.

We could have had universal health care 10 years ago, a Democrat House of Representatives, and a president Al Gore (well maybe not that either, the tragic figure.) Don't get me wrong, Clinton accomplished a whole lot economically and everything else.

All these woulda coulda shoulda thoughts got me thinking about how it was my last day on the job yesterday, my last days in Boston and the whole East Coast that matter. There is a whole 1-way ticket feel about all this. I am not just turning a leaf, but switching trees back. OK sorry about all those metaphors but I get all sappy these days.

My hope is that the next three years change me in a good way, and that I can preserve the good things about me and not let the irritating features of Utah and law school get to me. I will work hard on my schoolwork and myself. Hopefully, you all will enjoy the result.

I will attempt to keep on posting as often as I can. To me it is therapeutic and a necessary technology. Please stay in touch via email, phone, IM, comments, or even coming in person. From my Third Avenue to yours.

Quote of the LAST DAY

last day of work that is....

• CNN's Begala: "Look at it this way, though. Maybe Cheney was just telling Leahy the Republican version of safe sex" ("Crossfire," 6/24). On the Vice President telling the Ranking Member of Senate Judicary Committee Pat Lehy to go F%&@* himself on the Senate Floor.


Best Newspaper allusion to what Cheney said:


• According to the New York Times, Cheney "turned and stalked away, using an obscene phrase to describe what he thought Mr. Leahy should do" (Stolberg, 6/25).


How proper!


• Bush was questioned in the Oval Office for 70 minutes 6/24 by atty Patrick Fitzgerald and his team who are investigating whether Bush admin. officials "illegally leaked the name of" undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame.

And finally AP's Fournier recounts the "disastrous year" for Bush so far:

1. An "unremarkable" SOTU where his "opposition to performance-enhancing drugs in sports" stood out "against a bleak roster of new policies."
   
2. Ex-Treas. Sec. Paul O'Neill's book "claiming Bush was determined from the get-go to overthrow" Saddam Hussein.
   
3. Bush's "shaky performance on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'"
   
4. Ex-counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke "undercuts the president's tough-on-terrorism claims" before Congress.
   
5. NSA Condoleezza Rice "at first refuses to testify" before the 9/11 commis., "then bows to pressure."
   
6. Econ. adviser Gregory Mankiw says outsourcing "is sometimes a good thing."
   Bush "scuttles plans to name" businessman Anthony Raimondo manufacturing czar after Dems note he "laid of 75 workers" in '02 while building a plant in China.
   
7. "The death toll in Iraq mounts through the spring." GOP govs. "warn" the WH that "voters are getting antsy."
   
8. "Four U.S. contractors are killed and mutilated near Baghdad."
   
9. "Train bombers strike Madrid. Voters throw the Bush-backing" govt. "out of power" and Spain later "withdraws its troops from Iraq."
   
10. VP Cheney "comes under fire" for business dealings with Halliburton, "secretive deliberations on energy policy and unsubstantiated suggestions that his office might be behind the leak of a CIA operative's name."
    
11. Weapons inspector David Kay "concludes that Iraq did not have stockpiles" of WMD, "undercutting Bush's main justification for the war."
    
12. Dems "untie behind [John] Kerry after a short nomination fight."
    
13. Dem lawmakers "call for an investigation into whether" Bush's Medicare chief "pressured a subordinate to withhold estimates" of the full cost of the '03 Medicare bill.
    
14. Clarke "follows his testimony with a book claiming Bush ... failed to effectively confront" al Qaeda.
    
15. "Gas prices top $2 per gallon."
    
16. "Revelations that U.S. soldiers abused" Iraqi prisoners "fuel anti-American sentiment" abroad and "raise questions at home about U.S. moral authority in Iraq."
    
17. Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq behead American Nicholas Berg.
    
18. "The leader of Iraq's governing council is assassinated."
    
19. "A Memo reveals plans" for the Bush admin. to "slash domestic programs" should they win a second term.
    
20. Al Qaeda terrorists in Saudi Arabia behead American Paul Johnson.
    
21. Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq behead South Korean Kim Sun-il.
    
22. On 6/24, terrorists in Iraq "launched coordinated attacks that kill more than 100 people, including three U.S. soldiers."

Who needs enemies when you can shoot yourself in the foot on your own?

buried deep in a DKos thread

[x]Democratic Party that stands up for progressive principles, and win those voters back.

[y]I don't even think that's true anymore. These guys have jumped the shark into LaRouche territory.

Anybody who hangs around to watch Ralph masturbate his way through the most crucial election in decades isn't going to be "won back," and frankly I'd rather not have them around anyway. They keep crying that they don't have a seat at the table, but I haven't seen anything lately to convince me that they can keep their pants on through the entire meal, anyway.

Fun quotes

• A group seeking to legalize marijuana "announced that they had submitted sufficient signatures to qualify" for the NV ballot. But the group's pres. "subsequently discovered a box of about 6,000 signatures that no one remembered to turn in"



• "People ask me if I'm L, G, B or T. ... I tell them that I am 'S&M' -- straight and mayor" -- NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg (R), at a party celebrating gay pride last night



• "If someone wants to talk politics, I will certainly do that. If they want to talk about sex, I'll do that, too" -- ex-CA GOV candidate Mary Carey, who's appearing at Aurora's Star Bar and Grill for a "Halfway to New Year's Party"



• "You're an idiot" -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), after Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) said during a heated gun debate "that perhaps investigators should check into Chappaquiddick" Remember that was his Dad (Teddy) not him. Patty just slaped a security guard in 2000 and hit his yacht against stuff.



• "Honestly, unless your name is in it, or he banged you, there is no reason to wait in line" -- Jon Stewart, on Clinton's book ("Daily Show," Comedy Central, 6/22/04).

PS when I get done with moving, I will get some pictures up to show the world the origins of the name of the blog...Ohh lobster day at the state house, gotta live it up while I still can.

Un-shockingly

Super-low turn out in GOP-pledged primaries (voters must sign a loyalty oath to the Republican party) in UT and SC produced predictable results.

In Utah, John "My dad plastered his name on every third building in the state" Huntsman, Jr. won the gubinatorial primary against former board of regents head (and former UT house majority leader) Nolan Harris, who had sold his soul to the devil by teaming up with Enid Greene Waldholz. Scott Matheson, Jr has his work cut out for him.

The Congressional primaries were similarly unsurprising. In the 2nd district, ex-state rep. John Swallow won again narrowly over the same oponnet Jim Bridgewater 53-47/6,000 votes, who had a super scary voice. Rep. Jim Matheson (yes, they are related) will have to get over his deja-vu and beat Swallow by more than the 1,600 he did last time. Look for lots of outside money this time. In the 3rd, the incumbent and resident moron Chris "Geneva Steel" Cannon won easily against anti-immigrant Throckmorton (can't remember his first name).


In South Carolina, Rep. Jim DeMint, a darling of the hard right-wing, bested washed up ex-Gov. Beasley. DeMint will get lots more money from the Club for Growth and other super-conservative groups. SC Education Superintendent Inez Tannenbaum, the Democratic nominee, while hammer DeMint on trade (DeMint is a free trader, which doesn't sit well with all those hundreds of thousands of unemployed factory workers who blame China and Walmart for their troubles) so DeMint will in turn change the subject to abortion.

After all, Utah and South Carolina are fighting for the right to be the most conservative state in the union, yet moderate Dems have a good shot in all three of the races I mentioned (the UT 03 race is not even worth talking about).

With any luck, this fall I will be signing "Oh Tannenbaum" with Governor-elect Matheson and still-Rep. Matheson.

Scandal sheet

Most people like reading about politicans, not for the visions, policies, or bills they espouse but for the trouble they get themselves in. To accomidate those with rubber necks, I point to the two biggest ones that happens to Pols yesterday:

1. IL SEN GOP nominee Jack Ryan lost his bid to seal papers of his custody battle between his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, and it doesn't look good. According to the Chicago Tribune, Jeri "accused him of taking her to sex clubs in New York and Paris, where he tried to coerce her into having sex with him in front of strangers."


The Sun-Times says she specifically cited "a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling." Ryan "said he has no plans to step down" despite the fact that US House Speaker Denny Hastert and other IL GOP have been openly shopping for ways to dump Ryan.

This man is not the guy from the Tom Clancy novels, he has been a rather inept campaigner, yet he still won the nomination in a landslide. But if he is still on the ticket, Obama will cruise.


2. CT Gov. John Rowland, also a Republican, (no party comment here) finally gave up last night trying to fend off a bipartisan investigation on whether to impeach the Governor for all the kickbacks, and other ethics violations that have found him under investigation also by the FBI. According to the Hartford Courrant, Rowland "offered no explanation for his resignation or its timing in a five-minute, 45-second speech." The only nod to the personal and political crisis came when John said, "I acknowledge that my poor judgment has brought us here"



3. And finally not to be outdone, Slick Willie is back, this time selling his book and legacy all over the country and dial. In "My Life," the former President tells how Hillary and him had counciling for years afterwards and how he wrote the book so that Chelsea wouldn't be so ashamed of him.


Yeah, can you imagine going through HS and college with EVERYONE knowing your Dad had oral sex with his intern? Poor kid.

Speaking of the intern, the NY Post reports that Monica Lewinsky "was invited to tour the Clinton Presidential Library," but "she declined"

I hope you all had fun with that, now wash your eyeballs out with soap.

weak-end

Well another weekend done and my second-to-last one here in Boston. Sunday was a whirlwind tour: from the JFK museum in Southie to the Cheesecake Factory in Prudential Center/Copley Place Mall to the Blue Man Group in the Theatre District and back home to Cambridge for some pork chops.

One thing I won't miss about the Bay State and all the other states in the East Coast his all their old, decaying crap. Like all these subway stops that look like they are about to rust off the bridge, stairs etc. Another thing is the old stuff designed before people had proper nutrition (AKA low ceilings and clearance).

Like when we were finding our seats at Blue Man. I was wearing my Red Sox hat forward on my head, which was the style at the time, whereupon I smacked right into the balcony made out of wrought iron with my forehead. Maybe I couldn't see it because it was a dark theatre and the balcony was pained black, or maybe it was the curse of the Bambino, or the fact that my fiancee and were row H, but it sure hurt. I tried to sit down and keep the world from spinning but the usher lady made me come out and sign a form saying I had injured my head and was fine, thank you very much. Of the options for injury, they had "shot" and "cardiac arrest" first of all, who is going to be able to fill that out. And secondly, why is shot even an option? "You never know in Boston," she said. Like Boston is Silver City, Nevada circa 1870. It has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. And who would bring a gang fight or a gun fight into the Blue Man group?

Anyway, other than my ongoing headache and slight nausea at the time, I enjoyed the show and my Dunkin' Donuts coffee afterwards, which I will miss. While I sat in the food court of a place across from the theatre I listened to a homeless lady have an angry conversation with herself, which I will not miss.

On Thursday, I was involved in the contact lens scam. I went in for an eye exam and came out with a $90 bill (the exam was supposed to be covered 100% by insurance) and a pair of overly soft contacts that took me 30 minutes to insert into my eyes. My South African doctor, it seems deals only in Accuvue contacts, which allows him to go to a Enrique Iglesias concert and get his picture taken (guess who sponsored the concert series?). So my Johnson & Johnson Whore Doctor gave me these "blink them out" contacts which came out while at lunch at Cheesecake (and yes I did have cheesecake this time) and seem to be trying to escape this morning, making my vision horrible. The $90 is for fitting which includes these crappy lenses, a plastic case and small rise bottle and another trip there to the Doctor so he can con me into buying a years supply of lasts 2 weeks lenses. I feel compelled because if I don't switch brands, I will have to fork over another $90 to another Dr. in SLC to fit those. What racket these guys have. Can't wait until I learn about RICO and bust their sorry Suave butts.

Sorry all this blinking and dull pain in my forehead seems to make for angry postings.

On a lighter note, Bush's DC fed appeals court (which is one below the Supreme Court in many cases) nominee Thomas Griffith "has been practicing law" in UT "without a state law license for the past four years" according to the Washington Post. As long as they agree with you, they don't actually need to follow the law themselves or be qualified, right?