I remember a time when Pluto was still a planet. And now, because I reside in the great state of Illinois, I can re-live those memories, but only at night. Pluto has regained its former status, but only when it passes overhead in the night sky.
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
STATE OF ILLINOIS, that as Pluto passes overhead through Illinois’
night skies, that it be reestablished with full planetary status, and
that March 13, 2009 be declared “Pluto Day” in the State of Illinois in
honor of the date its discovery was announced in 1930.
According to Yahoo! Sports, a Bears fan racked up a $27,000 phone bill after using his wireless card on his laptop. And I thought I was paying a lot to see the Bears with Sunday Ticket.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested and charged by the Feds for numerous (alleged) pay-to-play schemes.
I have tried to inform my colleagues and associates in the greater Washington, DC that Illinois is the most corrupt state in the Union. Mostly people would not believe me and would offer some minor incident that occurred in their home states.
With the news from Tuesday, I rest my case. But what Rod did (allegedly) shocked even me. And I am certain it shocked most Illinoisans. There has always been a quid pro quo mentality in Illinois. Just ask any Chicago resident what they were told when they called up their alderman to have a tree trimmed or some other similar neighborhood task performed by the City. No one in Illinois gets anything for free.
But Rod went beyond what even Illinois residents would tolerate. Rod was elected on a reform platform. He vowed to clean up the mess that was left by George Ryan. Instead, Blago put everything up for sale (allegedly), including Illinois' seat in the U.S. Senate. What the hell was he thinking? This is not some state contract where a contractor throws in a "campaign contribution" after receiving a lucrative deal that arguably has at least some benefit to the citizenry. This is auctioning off a seat for personal gain in an important governing body without regard to the ability of the appointee. Plus, the Rodster had the audacity to try to extort the President-Elect for a cushy position as a Cabinet Secretary, ambassador or private organization director.
What they hell was he thinking? This is a seat in the U.S. Senate! And you know the Feds were investigating you! If there is any time for a governor to do what is in the best interests of the residents of his or her state, this would be it. Try to line your own pockets somewhere else. Do the right thing and appoint the best person for the position.
Rowdy Roddy Blagojevich will get what is coming to him, and I am proud to say that I never voted for him and thought from day one that he was crooked. My advice to him is to resign. He will not be Governor too much longer. Save some face and resign.
Today marked the end of one of the best televisions shows ever created. The last episode of Boston Legal ended about 30 minutes ago. And it will be missed. Very few shows currently on television combine comedy, drama and social causes so adeptly as the program that followed the attorneys of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Intelligent writing about current events and topics made this show a pleasure to watch week in and week out. And the Emmy nominations and wins are a nod to the great performances by the cast.
Granted, the audience probably consisted primarily of attorneys and law students (which would explain why BL had the most educated and affluent audience of any show on television), but the show was never bogged down by legalese and realism. Many times, I watched the show and yelled, "Objection!" and adamantly maintained that motions and injunctions on the show would never be granted in reality.
But more than anything, BL gave us characters we could love and dream of emulating (I do not think there is any doubt who JD Crane wants to be). Shirley Schmidt, Denny Crane, Jerry Espenson, Katie Lloyd, Carl Sack and (for me personally) Alan Shore were people who deep down truly cared about what they did and genuinely wanted to help those they represented.
To the writers, producers, actors, directors and all the staff from the show, I want to say, "Thank you for 5 great seasons."
Looks like I will have to start reading books again.
WATERBURY, Vt. -- People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and
Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging
them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with
human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA
spokeswoman.
"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports
that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from
nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the
cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.
PETA
officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of
dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.
"The
fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made
from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says
PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the
breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big
favor by making the switch to breast milk."
"We applaud PETA's
novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a
mother's milk is best used for her child," said a spokesperson for Ben
and Jerry's.
Read PETA's letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
September 23, 2008
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,
On
behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd
like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland
that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's.
Storchen
restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and
sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human
donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's
replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your
customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.
Using cow's milk for
your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products
have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation,
obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock,
America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding
cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies,
and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for
obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death.
Animals
will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Like all mammals,
cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to
constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine
months. After several years of living in filthy conditions and being
forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their
exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup.
And
of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy
industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take
them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal
farms, where they endure 14 to17 weeks of torment chained inside a
crate so small that they can't even turn around.
The breast is
best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a
boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's
ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.
In a surprise move, John McCain chose C. Montgomery Burns as his pick for Vice-President. McCain was quoted saying, "Monte is just the young buck we need to balance out the ticket." Burns replied, "Excellent."
Apparently, Pentagon officials need to take some accounting courses. It seems that no one there understands the concept that you need to account for every dollar that you give out to contractors and others (well connected businessmen, campaign contributors, etc.).
Not being able to account for $15 billion is wholly unacceptable. Not only is this a poor business practice that screams, "Hey! We're corrupt!," it shows that the Pentagon is not able to run a shuffleboard tournament, let alone a war. (Which is somewhat scary considering the Pentagon is in the war business.) Avoiding the appearance of fraud and corruption is even more important for the government. The money you spend is not profits from lead tainted toys; it is from taxes taken from hard working citizens who deserve better. You have to account for every single penny.
In my mind, the worse part of the article is the end, which indicated we have spent about $492 billion on the Iraq war. For that kind of money, gasoline should be free, not an average of $3.87 a gallon. (We invaded for the oil, right?) To put that number in perspective, for that kind of money we could have given every homeless person in the United States (estimated at around 750,000) $656,000 to help them get back on their feet. Or we could give every single American $1,631.
I leave you with the question that has been on my mind for quite some time now. WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING???!!!!!
Laches -- 1. Unreasonable delay or negligence in pursuing a right or claim -- almost always an equitable one -- in a way that prejudices the party against whom relief is sought. 2. The equitable doctrine by which a court denies relief to a claimant who has unreasonably delayed or been negligent in asserting the claim, when that delay or negligence has prejudiced the party against whom relief is sought.
(This week's term is courtesy of Black's Law Dictionary.)
A major service outage afflicted users of the popular, addictive
BlackBerry smart phones across the United States and Canada on Monday,
wireless carriers said.
Officials with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless said BlackBerry
maker Research in Motion Ltd. told them customers of all wireless
carriers were affected.
It was not immediately clear how many BlackBerry subscribers had
problems, as some users reported being able to access their service
normally Monday afternoon.
The BlackBerry service, which lets users check e-mail and access
other data services on their handheld devices, has become a lifeline
for many business executives and is increasingly popular among
consumers with models like the BlackBerry Pearl.
There was no word what caused the outage or when service would be restored.
RIM officials did not return phone calls.
Major disruptions have been rare but often provoke an angry backlash
against the Canadian company because of its typically lengthy silences
about the cause and because it eventually gives only cryptic,
jargon-laden explanations.
When the BlackBerry service suffered a major outage last April, the company remained silent about the cause for two days.
In a statement, AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said the company
first learned about the problem from RIM at about 3:30 p.m. EST.
"This is not an issue with AT&T's wireless network," Cook said.
"Customers could experience difficulties using their BlackBerry
devices. RIM has not given us an estimated time of when this problem
would be fixed."
RIM is based on Waterloo, Ontario, and has deals with scores of
wireless carriers to offer the BlackBerry service around the world.
I received this email from another associate, who received it and will remain nameless:
At first glance, all of
the “instead of” language has to go. It’s pejorative, overbearing, meant to cast
defendants in a bad light, and obviously unacceptable. Please don’t waste our
time by proposing language of that tenor to us again in any future document.
This seems fitting given that lack of posting recently.
Abandonment -- 1. The relinquishing of a right or interest with the intention of never again claiming it. 2. Family law. The act of leaving a spouse or child willfully and without an intent to return.
(This week's term is courtesy of Black's Law Dictionary.)
Disclaimer:
These posts are not legal advice. This is a personal site. As such, views expressed should not be attributed to any law firm. The views of one author do not necessarily represent the views of the others. Copyright 2005-2008.
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