"New" house

I was reading a blog post I did right after moving into our "new house" which was about a year ago now.

http://legaljargon.blogspot.com/2004/11/new-house.html

I thought I would remark on the year and our house at this point. We have been here a year now, and I still love the house. We have done quite a bit now. We painted the cabinets in the kitchen. Oddly that was the day I found out I was pregnant with Violet. I had started getting sick, and couldn't understand why.

We changed out at least five light fixtures. We have recarpeted and laid vinyl tile in the kitchen. Put in new counter tops. My husband painted my kitchen a peach color for me. I had never had nonwhite walls before. We put cat in the hat stickers on the walls and painted diamonds in Lucy's room. In Violet's room we painted it blue and stenciled yellow stars. She has a Sesame Street theme.

We also got three estimates and had the house painted grey this summer. The color was called software. Oh the irony! Now I am getting estimates to tear out the deck and put in a patio with pavers in the back. I am excited still. Eventually, I will redo the bathrooms and kitchen.

Bruce has been working on cleaning out the garage now, for extra storage. It has been a fun year. Also, housing costs have gone up probably 20% since we bought. We wouldn't be able to afford this house now. I am so glad we bought when we did.

Copyright Law a la L. Ray Patterson

My copyright teacher was a wonderful mentor. He taught one of the more interesting classes I took during law school. Did I mention he called on me every day? You might wonder why, if you knew me, and you knew my classmates there would be no question.

In Athens Georgia, I was one of the more liberal students in lawschool. Alright, maybe the most liberal. Professor Patterson had studied the IP clause of the Constitution for many years before I met him. He said it derived from the Brittish statute of Anne. That makes sense. Most US inventions have some roots in our previous traditions.

Unlike the DMCA, he understood the IP clause to be there to benefit the public good. Basically it was his opinion that copyrights existed to enhance public domain, promote learning and secondarily give the author some right. By ensuring a limited monopoly, you would encourage the creation of things that would eventually end up in public domain. In this respect, copyright was never supposed to be like property rights.

It troubles me how far copyright law has gone. I went to Kinkos today and they told me I needed a release from the photographer to print pictures of my own children. Whatever. This isn't the first time Kinko's has given me crap about copyrights. I had gone last year to create an overhead projector page so I could draw a cat in the hat picture on my daughters wall. They told me this was infringment (this would fall into fair use by the way), but because of the litigiousness of all of these people essentially even things you own are off limits for craft projects.

Professor Patterson passed away last year. I miss his thoughts.

http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/jipl/old/vol1/patterson.html

RIAA, RIAA, RIAA

Aren't they worried at all about a backlash from all the civil lawsuits they are filing? Shouldn't they be. Make a better product and people will stop downloading songs for free. I think the IPOD phenomenon and pay music services completely bear out my postulation. Take all this energy and money and throw it into product development. The marketplace will support this!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Downloading_Music.html

That's one way to stop Jehovah's Witnesses from coming to your door.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Doorway_Beating.html

Crazy story!

Wikipedia

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_hi_te/wikipedia_rules

I don't understand this flat out. Why didn't this guy edit his own article? That is the beauty of the Wiki. If he knew that the Wikipedia said he was thought to have assasinated Kennedy why didn't he just change it, and if not who cares? Obviously no one who knows him or about him read the article during that time. Someone would have let him know. Maybe he posted the false information to get an op-ed piece out of the deal.

419 scams fun for the whole family

I think I need a new hobby. Actually baiting 419 scammers might be my new hobby. I can see it now, hundreds of 419 scammers standing around an airport with signs saying: Heywood Yabuggov and Oliver Klosov. http://www.419eater.com/

One of my favorite nonprofits

www.savewright.org

You too can own a Frank Lloyd Wright house for a mere $375k of course its in MI but so what!
I have this thing for Fallingwater. It's one of my goals in life to own a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Doubtful out here in the suburbs of Seattle. Oh Well!

RAMEN

Flying Spaghetti Monster, I love you.
www.venganzia.com

Intelligent Falling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Falling

I've been reading about the scopes trial recently. I read Summer of The Gods, by Ed Larson who also happened to be one of my teachers in law school. What struck me as most interesting is how little the arguments have changed, for and against teaching evolution.

From my husbands blog

I have between one and two billion readers! Wahoo!

http://www.galactic-patrol.blogspot.com/

Great Turkey Recipe

Orange Bourbon Turkey recipe
http://www.wwlp.com/news/segments/recipes/orangeturk.html

Yesterday I brined, today I roasted, it was the most succulent, tender, yummy turkey ever. I have never marinated a turkey before, but I think I will always do it in the future.... yum yum yum.

My new law digs

Alright. It's about time, I am starting my own practice... www.interalialaw.com

A friend of mine and I are now in business, any referals (in the state of Washington) are greatly appreciated.

Cross-Pollination as patent infringement ???

http://consejo.blogspot.com/archives/2003_05_04_consejo_archive.html

Irrespective of how seed ends up in your field it can constitute patent infringement. I.e. if someone pollutes your organic farm and ruins your livelyhood you can nonetheless be held liable.

This has to be the most messed up idea ever.

New Family Member

On August 17th we welcomed the newest addition to our family. Violet Alsdorf Williams, she was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches long. Just the cutest ever. Check her out at our daughters Lucy's Website www.lucille-alsdorf-williams.com

It is for this reason, I haven't posted in awhile.

Prescription Drugs From Canada

People here want it both ways. They oppose any sort of government regulation of drug prices domestically and any sort of social health care, but they want to be able to jump the border and buy drugs at lower prices in Canada where prices are in a sense fixed. If this is really what is going on, why not shorten patent periods here so generics could compete and prices would be lower or at least make it harder to extend the patents - some of the ways in which they are extended are dubvious to say the least. Or if this isn't acceptable regulate prices so senior citizens (who generally have less health insurance) can afford to eat and take their medicine. I don't think it is very fair to Canada to place our burden on them.

Breastfeeding

I just recently heard about Barbara Walters comments on the View about a woman breastfeeding on a plane she was on being discusting - apparently in response some local news person equated breastfeeding in public to public urination.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/230375_robert28.html

I have pretty strong feelings about breastfeeding. Medical Science has proven beyond all doubt that breast is best. I think people should support breastfeeding in all forms. I breastfed my daughter Lucy to 15 months. I started weaning to cows milk at a year. I might have gone a tad bit longer (The American Pediatrics Association reccomends two years if possible) except I found out I was pregnant and was feeling really under the weather breastfeeding so I decided it was a good time to wean. I also had no plans to tandem nurse and I have read that if you continue to nurse to the time the new baby arrives it is very hard to wean a little one. I expect to do the same with our next child.

I personally try to be discreet when I breastfeed in public, by draping or wearing clothing designed with nursing in mind. I have come to appreciate stores like Nordstroms that have breastfeeding lounges. How nice is it for mothers to have a convenient and comfortable place to nurse at the mall. I, however, have no problem with women nursing in public without draping. The main reason is that having nursed a child, I understand a hungry baby is not prone to waiting, also if you don't start nursing when baby is hungry you tend to leak. People who are very upset by this confound me completely. Having lived outside the United States I can say we definitely are the exception to the rule. In other places it is no big deal to nurse in public. Avert your eyes if you have a problem. Is it that hard not to look? If the public at large is so squeamish about this, why not encourage airports and places of public accomodations to have nursing lounges? I wouldn't mind.

Also I think the public should encourage breastfeeding in any form a mother wants to do it. I have a problem with the crazy breastfeeders who insist that everyone should ONLY breastfeed, there should be no bottles in the world, and pacifiers are satan. I had several friends who were so discouraged by well-meaning lactation "experts" that they just decided to bottle feed to avoid feeling bad. The system should support any amount of breastfeeding a woman is comfortable with, not stressing what is best so much as what works best for you... Anyway that is just my two cents on the subject.

Cities can seize private property for development projects

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050623/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_seizing_property_10;_ylt=Ap6RUacp3Ouf3wZu_82eIzVuCM0A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

I don't like this decision one little bit.

Governor's Race Over... Finally

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/227412_rossi07.html

Happy to hear the decision will not be appealed in the Washington's governor's race. I think it's detrimental to have a prolonged court battle rather than concentrate on this issues that really need to be dealt with.

I agree election reform should happen. Both on a state and national level. Hopefully we will not have a close one again!

Education Gap

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elearning/?article=education_gap

Interesting article about the education/money earning and gender. It says that women with more education make more money, but still not as much as men. I can totally see how this happens. I am an attorney, but now a stay at home mom. When I chose my employer I was looking for something that might be compatible with motherhood. I found many of the firm jobs were 60 to 90 hour a week jobs. The pay reflected these hours. In the end, I took a job that was 40 hours a week with flex-time and work at home priviledges. This was also reflected in the salary. I felt my family and the ability to keep up with my home were more important to me than making more money than god. Luckily my husbandis well-employed as well. When our daughter Lucy was born I had the option of staying home full-time. I have been doing this for a little over a year now and we are expecting our second child. I have thought long and hard about this and I will probably not return to full time employment until our children are in school.

I think a lot of women are put in the position of taking a less attractive job (from a monetary perspective) because they are seeking a work life balance that men don't necessarily want or need. In the majority of households I have seen, women are still the primary caretakers of the home and children. So it doesn't suprise me that working women are willing to take less money for better hours or such.

The only thing bad about this so far as I can tell is that so many married people end up spliting up and the female spouse ends up with a raw deal as far as retirement benefits and further may not have progressed as far in their careers because of these decisions. I worked for the Elderlaw Protection Project in Atlanta and met a lot of divorcees living at or near the poverty line while their exes were faring much better. Also I met many seniors who were forced to go back to work.

The point to all this rambling - divorce is bad. I am glad I have a husband who is supportive of my decision to stay home.

Court Watch 2005

The Seattle PI had a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. With speculation flying about Rhenquist's retirement I am sure the vetting has begun.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1154&slug=Bush%20Supreme%20Court%20Glance

Freakonomics

Saw one of the authors of this book on the Daily show this week. Looks interesting and the authors have a blog.
http://www.freakonomics.com/blog.php

Minivan or SUV that is the question

We are expecting a second child in August and now are thinking we need to upgrade to a bigger car. My jetta is packed with one child and a stroller - two children and a double stroller are not going to happen. I have to say I am much more inclined by nature to shop for a minivan. I cannot bring myself to even think about owning an SUV. However, Ford is introducing a hybrid Escape this summer an SUV that gets 40 mpg. That is better than my Jetta, which hasn't been bad at 35. Also apparently Toyota has a hybrid minivan they released in Japan in 2001. If I could guarentee that would be here soon I might hold off on the inevitable purchase of a new care. The Escape holds a certain appeal. The MSRP is around $26,000. That is not much more than most new cars these days and I would be doing my part to end american dependence on foreign oil.... there might even be a tax credit..
I will post again when we have decided what to do.

Bill Frist and the Judiciary

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20050426/ap_on_go_co/filibuster_fight&sid=84439559

Is anyone else worried about the Republican majority leader's plan to change the Senater rules to prevent the minority from filibustering?

Can't we get some moderate politicians in office? A nice fiscal conservative who might lean a little liberal? It seems more and more today the minorities in either party are running the show. I know we moderates outnumber them. So why is it they dominate the political mart? I am forever frustrated with the lack of good moderate-centerist-reasonable candidates.

Supreme Court and Technology a Match Made in Heaven

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/29/technology/scotus_filesharing/index.htm?cnn=yes

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the Grokster case. If you haven't read the Sony Betamax timeshifting case and are interested in the file sharing case currently being heard I'd highly recommend reading it. http://www.virtualrecordings.com/betamax.htm
The court actually came out with a highly controversial decision at the time that SONY could not be held liable for individuals using their Betamax machines to record copyrighted material from the television. Did this decision really hurt Video Sales? I think not... I essentially agree with the Grokster side of the case. They are arguing that the industry should embrace the new technology and work with the P2P networks to market their products and profit from the technology. I think sites like Napster (the new napster) and Apple Music and the popularity of the pay to download services show that people are willing to pay for the priviledge and that where legal dowload services are available people will use them.

That was my argument for using Napster for the longest time. I said if the industry would meet the demand and allow me to download MP3s I would gladly do it. Once they did of course I stopped using the P2P networks and started shopping at itunes, napster and Walmart.com. I even bought some Roxio stock to solidify my commitment.

Let's face it the technology is hear to stay, why not use it to make money instead of fighting it...

Perhaps the industry will have to go back in time to the fifties where everything was driven by singles and not LPs.... Would that be so bad...

Beating Cancer at 102

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1508&ncid=751&e=11&u=/afp/20050319/hl_afp/britainhealthcancer

Diagnosed at 96 in the clear at 102. This is a great story.

Gigli rhymes with really....

Normally, I don't believe good or bad hype about movies... In this instance the critics were dead on. I like all movies, but this movie, was the worst movie I have ever seen by far. It makes Attack of the Killer Tomatos look like a literary masterpiece. I couldn't even watch the entire film.

I don't even know what possesed me to watch it. It was on Encore and my Tivo picked it up. My point don't bother.

Terri Schaivo Case

Tomarrow is the date that was set to remove Terri Schaivo's feeding tube. I am wondering whether this will actually happen or not.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7031915/

I don't think I would want to live on artificial support for fifteen years. The legal battle that has gone on is truly outrageous. I am deeply saddened that this has turned into a political issue for the anti-abortion movement. The Florida State legislature is again trying to intervene.

There had already been a court case and appeals which went to Ms. Schaivo's intent as to whether she would have wanted to be kept alive on artificial support. The finding was that her intent was not to be kept alive by artificial mean. Apparently there was also a financial settlement because she fell into the coma because of complications related to an eating disorder and was under the care of a doctor for some sort of fertility treatment at the time it happened. Whenever money is in play it brings out the worst in people.

Regardless I would never let my child be used as a political pawn. It's degrading and I think probably takes away from the life Ms. Schavo led. Who would want this for their child.

The real moral here is have a living will and name a medical power of attorney who would not benefit from your death at all... who would carry out your wishes regardless of those of your family.

Worldcom Exec Found Guilty

Bravo. Now if only they'd get Kenneth Lay and the Enron boys.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&ncid=749&e=1&u=/ap/20050316/ap_on_bi_ge/ebbers_trial

Michael Jackson Trial

Wahoo! I found my password and am ready to blog once more. I have been watching the coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and regardless of whether he is guilty of molestation, doesn't anyone else find his behavior bizarre and disturbing. Inviting little boys to sleepover his house with him in his bed???

If someone not famous did this, they would be arrested and found guilty. Jackson on the other hand has an Supremo Attorney and of course after three or four days of cross examination Jackson's accuser's credibility has been tarnished. Wow, an experienced big-money trial lawyer made a fifteen year old look inconsistent. How can that be?!?