Pay Tribute to Our Veterans

I know this post is a bit late in the day, but there is still time to pay tribute to our veterans.  I did not have the privilege of serving, but know several who have, including an uncle who served during the Viet Nam conflict, and several great-uncles who served in Korea and WWII.  My great-uncle Frank watched the surrender of the Japanese from the USS Missouri.

I am humbled and honored by all those who have and currently serve in our Armed Forces.  Their dedication and sacrifice protect and guarantee our liberty and freedom.  Thank you.

Also, a belated Happy 233rd Birthday to the United States Marine Corps – which, if you do the math, makes the Corps older than the United States…

President-Elect Barack Obama

An historic event occurred tonight. While I try to remain politically neutral on this blog (and have taken others to task for straying too far into partisan politics), I feel it would be wrong not to acknowledge it.

Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama.

President-Elect Obama ran a near-perfect campaign for 18 months. He stayed true to a message to which the American electorate responded in droves. While I am not an Obama supporter on ideological grounds, I hope that President-Elect Obama will honor his campaign promises of change, fiscal responsibility and discipline, and tax breaks for the true “middle class,” and that he will work with all Americans – left, right and that muddled center to which most of us belong – to forge a better future.

He would do well to heed to words of two of his predecessors – Thomas Jefferson:

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

and John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.

E Pluribus Unum

Vote!

And make sure you vote across the board- not just the Big One.

Remember.

On this 7th Anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th, I offer only a short post.

Remember.

-Thomas E. Franklin / The Record – (Bergen County NJ)

Fr. Mychal Judge, O.F.M. – we miss you.

The Story of A Sign

The Story of a Sign

This short film won an award at Cannes this year.  Take a moment to watch and then reflect on the simple power of language.

With a stroke of the pen, a stranger transforms the afternoon for another man in this emotionally stirring short film by Alonso Alvarez.

George Carlin – Funniest Footnote in Supreme Court History.

One of the smartest, wittiest, funniest, and most insightful (inciteful?) comedians and, yes, philosophers of our time passed yesterday at age 71.   I guess that now that I am approaching 40, 71 seems far too young to die, especially in this day and age when they can cure such horrible, terrible, life threatening diseases such as restless legs syndrome and overactive bladders.

Carlin was a bastion of free speech, constantly pushing the envelope of what society thought “decent.”   Of course, his “Seven Dirty Words” routine resulted in a Supreme Court decision that gave the Federal Communication Commission the power to protect “the children” from “indecent” material.  It probably wasn’t the decision he would have preferred, but Carlin did say that he was “perversely kind of proud of” being a “footnote in American legal history.”

The world is a little less funny today.

Vote!

I don’t like to talk politics on here. Frankly, I’m afraid a potential client might disagree with my position and at this stage in my career, I can’t afford that. But I think I can safely make a non-partisan plea to my readers to get out and vote if their state is holding a “Super Tuesday” election.

If you are undecided about whom to support, please visit one of the following sites :

Candidate Websites (in alphabetical order):

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Mike Huckabee
John McCain
Barack Obama
Mitt Romney

Candidate Quizzes:

GlassBooth.org
Project Vote Smart
VoteChooser.com
SelectSmart
(some of these may have ads)

Vote!

Congratulations to the World Champion New York Giants!!!

Hell Yeah! Super Bowl XLII Champs!

A hearty “Better Luck Next Year” to all the Boston/New England area fans out there. Congratulations on their amazing, but IMperfect season. 18-1 is nothing to sneeze at.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, the weather outside is frightful…

Yes, it is snowing in the Deep South. Its too dark for me to post pictures, but believe me, there is snow on the ground. Its wet and heavy; perfect for snowballs and snowmen. The children on my street have all been outside shrieking and giggling.

Knowing my fellow Atlantans like I do, the evening news will be dominated by stories of multi-car pileups and there won’t be a slice of bread, drop of milk or egg to be found in any market as they will all forget how to drive and the fact that we don’t live in Colorado.

Random Thought Friday

I’ve had a weird week and frankly, am not in a mood to post a Friday funny. But I thought I’d drop some randomness on you.

First, tomorrow I am judging the ABA Law Student Division Negotiation Competition. I’ve never participated in an event like this before (as a competitor or judge), so this will be an interesting experience. I’ll blog about it Monday-ish.

Second, I came home yesterday evening to find this guy sitting on my back deck:

Yes, its a bad picture. The wife took the digital camera, so all I had was the lousy cell phone.

He was friendly, playful and absolutely sad and pathetic. He tore through the dog food I gave him like he hadn’t eaten in days. Unfortunately, I am in no position to keep him, so I had to take him to the local animal control shelter. He’ll have his picture put on the internet and his owners (if any) will have 10 days to claim him. After that, he’s up for adoption. Thankfully, the County outsourced the opertaion of the shelter to a private rescue group, so I think he’ll have a good chance to find a good home.

Tertiarally, what is happening to this society when people feel the need to ask permission to perform a practical joke? Has the politics of fear made us all that jumpy? Mr. Kirk Kolenbrander, vice president of the Stick in the Mud Department at MIT says of a famous MIT hoax where the elevators in one building were reprogrammed to stop on random floors:

“That’s clever, but at the same time our society today would say that there are real safety issues if that elevator is needed in an emergency,” says Mr. Kolenbrander. “Our world has a different patience for those issues than it once did.”

I guess if that happened now, people would think it was the work of Al Qaeda. I have one thing to say to Mr. Kolenbrander – Didn’t you listen when you were a kid? You don’t use an elevator in a real emergency. Sheesh. Lighten up, pal.