Happy to announce that BorgHealth has confirmed I am still a cancer survivor (Two years, six months, three weeks, two days and change), and there is no imminent change to that status.

Just having one of those days with the business. Still love the practice of law, having some issues with the business of law. Other than that, life is very, very good.

Probably just down because its winter. Wearing shoes and long pants ruins the whole day. Toes need to be free. And I write better poolside.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Spring will be coming soon, and with spring comes Micky. Fun will be had.

Just keep reloading the page to catch all the banner graphics.  Sure read the site too, because its great, but don’t miss the graphics.

Just in case Google allows this through to China, and to the fun owners of that wonderful chinese restaurant (Hong Kong refugees emigrants) back in Lome, time to wish everyone a warm welcome to the Year of the Dog Pongo. I promise to be merciful during my leadership provided treats and nonthreatening meows are regularly delivered for my amusement

A nice swim and some hot banana pancakes helped Saturday start out right, but a pledge drive at KCRW when they should have been reading the news to me nice and slow blew what could have been a perfect morning. Busy weekend is planned, with some photography and law appointments both on the calendar, and some new Battlestar to watch this evening.

Laughing at an article on Law.com this morning discussing a group of Texas paranoids, Texans for Texas, complaining that “trial lawyers have infiltrated the Republican Party to thwart tort reforms.”

Two of the better quotes in response:

“It’s mean-spirited, inappropriate and stupid,” Marc Stanley, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, says of the report.

[State Rep. Toby] Goodman says. “I think it’s trash talking. They need to get a life.”

There used to be a time, even with the ‘publicans, where internal debate was considered a good thing. They used to even like small business owners and self-employed professionals among their numbers, unless they weren’t white, or weren’t christian, or were openly gay. For a small bit of reality check, regardless of practice type and clients, most lawyers and law firms are small businesses. Lower taxes and *ahem* “simpler” employment laws are big issues and areas where the ‘publicans have traditionally separated themselves from the other monolithic party.

Now though, anyone who disagrees with the corporal embodiment of Compassionate Conservativism on any issue is a disloyal infiltrator who must be publicly exposed and removed from the flock. Sometimes I wonder how much of the current villification really comes from a desire for tort reform and how much is His Shrubness’ being upset at people for still asking about that whole Bill of Rights thing whenever he does something for the good of the country as he sees it. Don’t those pesky lawyers realize He has a mandate?

As much as the attitude pisses me off though, I’m at least as disgusted that there isn’t an opposition party in this country capable of capitalizing on these policies of hate and exclusion and making gains, so don’t take this too far for one party over the other. Just don’t see how throwing attorneys out of the party is seems like a good idea to anyone but the most knee-jerk Texan.

The beloved local courts, for whom I have nothing but the utmost respect, have in their infinite wisdom dropped a very good online (readable and searchable) version of their local rules leaving only the options of a 290-page unindexed PDF or a downloadable Word document if one does not wish to purchase a book that will be outdated within the month.  Glad to see the commitment to easy access to the courts.  Wonder if I should I e-mail my complaint as a PDF attachment or leave it in the original WordPerfect.

The first swim in nearly two weeks just felt really good.

Of course, it was outdoors and the horrible winter here has dropped the air temperature into the 60s, but the pool was heated.

Someone just got peanut butter on the touchscreen of my Palm recording that swim into MySportTraining.

Is it wrong to feel a bit of glee when a client gets served on a new matter because I need the work?

Good riddance to a long and miserable week. First swim in over a week today now that the stomach thing seems to have passed. Short but nice at one of the outdoor pools. Nice walk on the beach at lunch, reminding myself that winter is just a myth. Thought I’d seen it a few times in DC and Idaho, but now that I’ve been back in California six years, I’ve convinced myself those were just dreams or fairy tales. Like snipes and compassionate conservatives.

Been getting a little distressed about the Bush administration’s subpoena of the Google records. Does anyone else remember when the conservatives believed in personal privacy? Regardless, I don’t know what data Google actually retains, but to help put it in context for the visitors who don’t regularly scan referral logs, we’re going to share data on a recent Bush administration visitor to the Howling Point. At 1:44 p.m. today, someone at an I.P. address of the Bureau of Land Management in Denver, Colorado, on a PC running Windows XP and with their monitor set to 1024 x 768, used Internet Explorer 6.0 to access Google and search for images corresponding to the phrase “middle of no.” We don’t know whether that unique phrase was a typo or not, but somehow I think that defense will become pointless in the administration’s quest to root out child pornography. His or her search results eventually brought him here.

I don’t know what other images or sites were viewed: Google might, his own system admin or ISP might, the NSA probably does. I have to assume Google has at least as much data on its referrals as I receive when they get here, and looking at an entire month’s worth of searches in their entirety is going to give someone an incredible invasive view into the internet habits of the American people. With a bit of simple cross-referencing, the Justice Department wants to make a public record (they are seeking evidence for use in a trial – does anyone really expect it to remain private) of what else the BLM escapist looks for, and how much government time he spends doing it? Glad Google seems to have both the will and the bankroll to do what’s right and fight this nonsense. I know very little I do online is truly private. SBC has access to every unencrypted character, but if ever I hear of them exploiting that knowledge, I have the right to take my business elsewhere (in addition to some possible breach of contract considerations). I just don’t see where the federal government has any business monitoring the internet at this level.

Oh, how I miss Zork and all those Activision classics. Some of you young’uns won’t remember the pre-graphics classics, but they rock. As does this. [via Must See HTTP]