Immigrant children more likely to drowned

This is really interesting. I never thought much about swimming as a cultural phenomenon. My mother was a nonswimmer so she made sure we could all swim by the time we were 4...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/282382_drown24.html

Carolene Products Footnote no. 4

Who would have known a footnote could be so important? http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=304&page=144

Inlaws are now on there way

They left yesterday after 10 days here. We had a fortieth anniversary picnic on Saturday. It all went really well. We retook their wedding photo with the attendants in the same places (at least those present). WOW do people change in 40 years!

Inspirational Words.to the Entrepreneur

“ Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ” Thomas Edison

random

but none the less cool. Do people ever come like this?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060714/ap_on_sc/rare_lobster

Photo Line-up at PD

So my photo line-up was today. I went to the police station, got my visitor's pass to wear around my neck. Note that the Seattle U.S. Attorney's Office has very similar visitors passes to the local PD. I sat in the waiting room for awhile while officer S was in his afternoon briefing.

He took me into what is normally an interrogation room I think. He told me so as not to taint my opinion that the suspect may or may not be the person I saw and that he may or may not be in the pictures I was to be shown. He then showed me 6 pictures. I was pretty sure when he put number 3 down that it was number 3 but he said to look at the rest. I said it was number 3 or he wasn't in the photos I was given.

Then he writes out what I am saying then I signed it and then he revealed that after one month or more I was able to pick the perp! He was number 3! Sweet.

This actually concluded their investigation.

I do believe I have gained some kharma for this because I was pulled over today for expired tabs and could not produce proof of my insurance, and the officer gave me a warning and let me leave. I avoided a $600 ticket!

A Paperclip for a HOUSE!

He did it. He traded a paperclip for a house. I am so impressed.

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Deceptive Advertising

We went to see Click, the new Adam Sandler movie last night. In the trailers it looks to be a light-hearted Adam Sandler typed movie. It was really sad and mostly depressing. I feel ripped off by the advertising. I am out 19.50 on movie tickets and will likely need therapy for the clinical depression I am now suffering as a result of the film. Is there someone out there who would take my case? *grin*

Called for a photo line up

Well it happened I was called to come in for a photo line up for the hit and run I witnessed. I am going in Thursday, I will post more when its done!

Holidays

Why is it that holidays and holiday vacations are less fun and more stress than your average weekend?

Good Debt v. Bad Debt

I have recently been dealing with creditors and the fair debt collection act. I am amazed at how little most people understand everyday economics and live way beyond their means. I can't get over it. I was brought up in a household where if you didn't have cash you didn't buy it.

Don't get me wrong, I understand there is good debt and bad debt. Mortgages are good debt. Owning a home is the major investment for most people, besides which you get a hefty deduction for interest paid on a mortgage. Student loans are usually good debt. Education can increase lifetime earning in addition to making you more marketable to employers. The real problem I have seen is credit cards.

I have no problem with credit cards per se. More with how people use them and the enormous balances they have. Two of my close friends have balances roughly equal to half a years salary for them. How does that happen? I hate to be paternalistic, but how do these companies justify giving people such great amounts of credit.

How do people expect to ever retire? I don't get it.

My kind of law.

Now here is the kind of law that the government should be passing. One that really gets to the heart of problems that exist today. Does it tackle the homeless problem? Does it help law enforcement? Does it provide better public education? Of course not, it does however prevent physicians from writing prescriptions in cursive. I mean come on.....

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/274707_cursive21.html

I am sure thousands of taxpayer dollars went into this. Couldn't doctors figure this one out for themselves?

Cops

Did you ever have a week where your life felt like you were watching the TV show cops. Whatcha going to do when the come for you?

In the lastweek, in addition to a friend of a friend going to jail, another friend of said friend, got charged with felony theft. This friend, of my friend, happens to be an attorney who is a self-professed "lousy business woman." In otherwords she is unable to keep her trust account correctly to the tune of $50k. This allegedly goes beyond simple malpractice. I shudder to think what the real story is. I am doubtful that $50k for a solo practitioner is a simple case of mistake and I know they wouldn't charge her if this was the only incident.

Then today I witnessed a hit and run. This is a first for me. I watched a white four door sedan hit a grey SUV. A young blond man got out of the car and surveyed the damages. He looked not quite twenty. He then got into his car pulled up alongside a friend and left. This wasn't a little scratch but rather a REALLY big dent in the hind quarter of the car. I saw this and so did another woman. The other woman got the license plate number. I wrote it down and she ran to the police office.

The officer looked up the license plate we had taken down and it turns out the offending car was stolen! The officer took my statement and told me that since I got a good look at him, if they compile a list of suspects that I might need to look at a photo montage or do a line-up.

First time in Jail

I did not get arrested but rather a friend of a friend got arrested. Of course it happened on a Friday night and they could not get arraigned or bonded until Monday morning. As a super-friend it was my responsibility to visit said friend of a friend in lock-up, because of course non-attornies were not allowed to visit.

If you didn't know, I am not a criminal attorney. I have never, ever, even once wanted to be involved in a criminal case. That being said, my first experience visiting a jail went well well. I was buzzed in, produced my id and bar card (who would have known I would have ever used my bar card for something), and then I was buzzed into the room with the glass where you can sit across from someone and talk on the phone. I only interacted with someone briefly, besides the person I was meeting. Mostly I talked through little speakers in the wall to the jailers. (Are they called jailers anymore) Overall, quite an interesting experience.

The most interesting part is that in the local jail, the inmates are actually dressed in scrub typed outfits with GIANT BLACK STRIPES, just like in the old movies! Although they do wear long sleeved orange shirts underneath. In any case the most interesting part of my weekend by far was going to jail. For the record, I did not pass go or collect $200.

Joyce Copyright case

It will be interesting to see how this one comes out. I personally think that scholarly works are completely beyond the pale of the copyright clause, but in reality the legality of it is somewhat in the air.

It bothers me completely that the same people who believe in limited government want it to expand in the direction of protecting copyrights to the detriment of the public good.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060613/ap_on_en_ot/james_joyce_lawsuit

Smoke-Easies

Notice no one has introduced a Constitutional ban on Smoking. I wonder if that is coming. Maybe people realise now after the 18th and the 21st amendment that might have been the wrong way to curtail bad habits.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/272211_smokeeasy31.html

Lasik

My husband Bruce got lasik this week. I am so jelaous. He has 20/15 vision now. I on the otherhand am breastfeeding still which prevents me from being able to be assessed to see if it is even possible for me to get lasik.

I watched the whole procedure through a window, it was all projected and magnified on a screen above where the procedure was happening. They used a laser to cut the flap. This is apparently the most modern procedure, many places still use a knife for this portion of the surgery. Little bubbles of air bubbled under the flap, which they peeled back. Next they took us to an area where we waited until the air went out from under the flaps. It took all of 11 seconds per eye for the actual laser surgery. How cool is that!?! I can't wait to get my eyes done now. If you are wondering, they gave Bruce adavan and some eye drops that numbed his eyes two or three times before the surgery. He didn't feel a thing and was fine after a few hours.

Online Gambling a class C felony in WA

I don't gamble online. I rarely gamble at all. We used to occassionally play poker with some people we knew, since having kids this has all but stopped, but I think this is an overstep by the legislature. It is not illegal to gamble in the state of Washington - There are numerous poker rooms on the I-5 corridor and also on the reservations to the north and south here. Why make it a class C felony to gamble online? Is there a lobby that has courted this legislation? I am just awe struck by this.



http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/271844_internetgambling27.html

Right v. Wrong

Alright even if you are the most morally depraved person in the world how could you do something like this?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/23/homeless.scam.ap/index.html

I had one criminal case while I did the whole government job thing, where a 70 year old woman had stolen 500k from a union benefit plan and then used the money to buy cruises, facelifts, chatchkees, etc. I couldn't believe then and can't believe now that someone of that age would do something like that. By the way she got 58 months in prison which was 36 with good behavior. I hope they throw the book at these grannies!

SC Ban on Confederate Clothes

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060522/ap_on_re_us/confederate_clothing

It is always interesting to ask what people think about bans on dress or political activities associated with schools and workplace environments. What do you think? Should schools be able to ban wearing emblems like the confederate flag or swastikas? Where is the line?

Personally, I think a school is a unique government environment in that its primary function is to educate and once items of clothing get in the way of that mission it is fine to ban them.