Calblog

Lawyers Needed for Fire Assistance

From the LA County Bar:

Each of us has been touched in some way by the devastating wildfires of the past week. With the fires still raging, the number of families, including many lawyers and judges, whose lives have been disrupted will, tragically, increase. One of the questions asked most often is "what can I do to help?"

Are you willing to help? This is an opportunity for lawyers to make a difference in this time of great need. To volunteer, please reply ASAP by completing the attached form and returning it immediately to Matt Nelson, Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP, 1620 26th Street, Fourth Floor, North Tower, Santa Monica, CA 90404-4060 or FAX to (310) 907-2139.

I did not get the attached form. Here's the phone # -- (213) 833-6703

UPDATE: I now have the form. Contact me if you want it.

Blacklisted

So Cal Law Blog has a blacklist, but it's full of spammers, which makes it practical but not nearly as fun as gossip fodder.

Gender Genie

The Gender Genie is making the rounds. Andrew Sullivan and BoiFromTroy are more manly than the Instapundit. My own theory? Instapundit is spending waaaay too much time playing Barbies with his young daughter. Now my girls have grown up to all of 12. Let's see how the gender genie does. Longer posts work better so I input my Terri Schindler-Schiavo post from Dean's World:

Female Score: 651
Male Score: 1332

Well, I was kind of grumpy that day. So I tried my description of our fire experience. Fear. Concern for the children. Mention of cats. I even mentioned suburbs and Reader's Digest. Really girlie.

Female Score: 236
Male Score: 1090

Wow. That's even more male/female that future BFLer Window Manager.

You guys have to toughen up to keep up with the mother hen.

Bear Flag League Review

BoifromTroy tackles the ever growing review and suggests yet another League, for which I suspect I do not qualify. You'd think the work of the BFL review would discourage him. I have only one quibble. Although I get the mother hen appellation in a variety of my social gatherings, I have never self-described that way!

WSJ on Justice Brown

From the no subscription required OpinionJournal:

As Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Justice Thomas and others can attest, liberals reserve their harshest and most personal attacks for minorities with the audacity to wander off the ideological plantation. Judge Brown, the first black woman to sit on the California Supreme Court, is precisely the type of judge President Bush vowed to appoint, "a person who clearly understands the role of a judge is to interpret the law, not legislate from the bench." Her judicial record reflects this principle, no matter the topic at hand or her personal views. Hardly an "extremist," Judge Brown won 76% of the vote in her last election and wrote the majority opinion for the court more times that any other Justice in the 2001-02 term.

But the truth is that the merits are irrelevant to the willful liberal Senate minority that has already filibustered four nominees and is headed for seven. This is about political power, and overturning the results of the 2000 and 2002 elections. The White House and GOP Senators should be embarrassed to let Judge Brown get pounded the way she did last week while barely fighting back

What's the Left Going to Say Now?

Top story on CNN: Economy Soars 7.2 percent. Yes, soars. Must be those fine Democratic debates, right?

Terri

Kaus has a good piece on Schiavo. I have one criticism (You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now but here I go being less than nice). There's a difference between pulling the plug -- which refers to unplugging life support such as respirators -- and terminating food and water.

Random Thoughts

Will this fire be the disaster that Arnold said would justify tax increases?

More reaction to the CNN piece on BWG. The whole episode has led me to a whole new group of blogs, including this one from Taiwan. Snarky excerpt:

It took me a long while to type that s*** in Chinese, and Blogger just f***ed up the formatting. I will now kill someone

From the NY Post, via Drudge:

ELIZABETH Smart wanted to play herself in the CBS movie about her nine-month ordeal of kidnapping and sexual assault when she was 15. Mark Lasswell reports in next week's TV Guide that when she was rejected for the title role in "The Elizabeth Smart Story," Smart asked her parents, "Why don't they want me?"

Thank heaven for the resiliance of adolescence.

Swastikas in Glendale

When we had the whole Arnold/Nazi series of discussions, I was reminded of the discussion of the design of the lampposts in Glendale. It pops up every now and then. The lampposts were installed in the 1920s well before the Hitler era. In 1995, a full report was done on the history of both the swastika and the lampposts. Money quote:

Our research, along with assistance from the Public Service Division, reveals that the lampposts in question were acquired from a United States company (the Union Metal Company of Canton, Ohio). The lampposts were purchased for approximately $215.00 each and were installed at various times between 1924 and 1926, within the City. The lampposts themselves are made of cast iron. All of the design features of the lampposts appear to have been approved by the City in the early 1920s, including the Greek cross which includes ends of the arms bent at right angles at a counter clockwise direction which is, by definition, a swastika. From our information, it appears that this counter clockwise swastika design was patterned after the design commonly found on Greek garments as a fret or border, and also is found as a design on navajo Indian rugs.

Yet some still get worked up over them.

Here's a picture of the offending lampposts.

Snark report

I love snarky. Which means that Amish Tech Support has found a place in my blogosphere run. And my blogroll when I get to that updating thing. I'll even forgive him for thinking I'm a him.

Hey, where did the word snark come from?

No heroes here

The Mulatto Advocate, at his new site, reports one of those stories about stupid school tricks that gives me the creeps.

Our lucky day

This fire would have threatened us. (hat tip Citizen Smash)

Campaign funds

Aaron at Aaron's Rantblog lists the money raised by various presidential candidates and asks an interesting question.

Recommended Reading

Patterico has got some great stuff. First, a response to another "let's reform the recall article". Many of us worked hard on the recall and now that we're taking a break before inauguration, the opposition is trying to slip in there. Good for Patterico for keeping an eye on them.

Next, he's got a link to an interview with a woman who was like Terri and has recovered. Remember, the difference between vegetative state and persistent vegetative state is a doctor's opinion that there's no recovery.

Another Snarky question

A new study found that 43 percent of children under two watch television every day.

What portion of the other 57 percent do you think are lying?

Bearflagger reported safe

Byron is back online after suffering a power outage and some excitement.

UPDATE: Ben at Infinite Monkeys also survived an ORDEAL.

Molly is also checked in and safe.

Dennis Miller for President

More than just a Calblog husband pipe dream? Maybe not, according to the Daily Standard, via Prestopundit.

Well, that was fun

There was an instalanche to the post below. I wrote it to comment on CNN's odd approach to blogs, which seemed to me to be less, um, sophisticated than other media outlets. I did not intend any asperions on BWG. Nor was I feeling envious. I've had posts before in which I admitted to envy of other bloggers' press or traffic or whatever. No reason to hide it now.

Instapundit apparently read it the way I wrote it but several commenters did not. Xrlq coined the term instariffraff and then the fun began. Sigh. Back to my usual quiet readership.

UPDATE: Hey, Amish Tech Support said much the same thing about traffic and no one hassled him.

CNN on the blog

CNN profiles a blogger:

But van der Woning is standing out in more ways than one. He says two million visitors have hit his web log, www.bigwhiteguy.com, since he started it five years ago.

An average of 1000 a day. Nice traffic but not stand out numbers. Assuming that traffic was slower in the beginning, what do you think he's getting now? Calpundit's near 2 million and he's at it a year and a quarter. Perhaps Calpundit ought to be named Bigger White Guy. Name submissions for the Instapundit are welcome.

Then there's this insight:

But he insists his site is not just another blog. He scours the city each day for content and even has his own merchandise such as T-shirts and coffee mugs.

Hmm, I thought I was unique because I don't have my own merchandise. Although it may be time for Bear Flag League mugs. (I said it first. I get to do it.)

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on big white guy. After all, CNN reports:

But the big white guy says he is not in it for the money.

Unlike the rest of us.

Sorry I asked

I read Atrios for the first time tonight. There was a fire picture I wanted to see. Then there was the next post:

As an atheist-leaning agnostic I get a president telling me that he doesn't consider me a citizen. I'm not going into victim mode over it, while Easterbrook is channeling David Limbaugh here.

Easterbrook believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the existence of God, and the existence of some fuzzy concept of "spirit." He's welcome to all of these beliefs, but his ridiculous attempts to link science and religion are adolescent blather. And, as a truly oppressed (though only slightly) religious minority, I'm getting really sick of this martyr complex by many Christians in this country.

Bush says he's not a citizen? Did he lose the right to vote? Get his passport revoked? Well, at least he can get a drivers' license.

Somehow, truly oppressed and slightly don't mesh because oppressed implies severity but I guess it's ok since he wasn't going into victim mode.

Schiavo on Larry King

Patterico watched the interview and has a long reaction piece:

Concerning the videos, Schiavo said that there is other film that shows Terri to be unresponsive. When King asked if CNN could go in to film her independently, Schiavo and his lawyer declined, arguing her right to privacy.

According to them, this woman has no consciousness, not even a little, she is a vegetable, but we're concerned about her privacy?

MIA

Am I the only one who really really wants to know where Bryon Scott is? Now would also be a good time to hear from Molly.

Airline seat wars

Now for something completely different -- a new product designed to prevent the airline seat in front of you from reclining.

On the last two flights, I faced the reclining seat problem. On the first flight, the seat in front of me came back so far that the tray table was uncomfortably close. The flight attendant came by, saw the situation and asked the man in front of me to lift his seat. The second flight, since I was awake, I raised my knees whenever the seat in front of me started to recline. When it didn't recline all the way, the person stopped trying.

The only good solution to this situation is to design planes differently.

Insurance Commission

Now those who have been damaged have to deal with their insurance companies. If you or anyone you know has any problem with the insurance company, call the Insurance Commission:

1-800-927-HELP

Fire Update

There are 10 major fires now. The fixed wing planes are good but we only have two. They keep bringing in firefighters but there are now 8500 firefighters here. I don't know when we can't get more or can't support more.

This site says they're thinking of closing the Angeles Crest Forest. They did that two years ago and it cut down on new fire starts. (Personal note: my daughters went for a school trip that year IN the Angeles Crest Forest. I paced for a week while other parents thought I was overreacting.)

In the comments below, someone speculated about terrorists but arsonists are so bizaare that we need not look further most times.

UPDATES: Citizen Smash updated the fires throughout the day yesterday. Read in a group, you can feel what it's like living here, with new fires springing and areas that seemed safe harbors (like the 10 lane Interstate 15) under threat.

Byron at Slings & Arrows wrote a summary of the fires in his area, as he wiped ash from his computer screen. Later, a new fire started and was moving down the ridge towards his home. I got an email at 7:30 pm that he was ok, but a post 15 minutes later indicated the fire was still advancing, albeit slowly.

Da Goddess, from San Diego, also has updates and pictures.

Aphrael has the map and can only speculate which of his family members have lost their homes.

Welch (Douglas, not Matt) has some excellent links to satellite pictures and an interactive map.

Fire Season

Fires to the left of us. Fires to the right of us. We're sitting in the middle hoping nothing flares near us and watching with astonishment at how bad it is. 300 homes lost. Cobb reports the airports are down due to radar trouble.

William's in charge

One of Diana, Princess of Wales', friends on the book by the butler:

When asked whether there was any way the former butler's revelations could be halted, Ms Parry replied: "The only person that can get a grip on this is William. I think he needs to step in and sort this out and put Burrell back in his pantry where he belongs."

An interesting perspective on the power wielded by a 21-year-old man who is second in line to the throne.

Appointment deal

Short version for those, like me, taking a breather between election and inauguration:

Davis had to act on all the bills passed by the Legislature by October 12 so there was no question of leaving them for Arnold.

He did not have to make state appointments. He did. A lot. Then he wanted the Democratic Legislature to convene in special session to confirm them. A deal has been cut. No special session. Arnold will make appointments but will keep 17-20 of Davis' picks intact and those, along with Arnold's appointment, will be confirmed in the regular course.

Insider on the backroom politics:

I think the untold angle in this whole affair was that Senate Leader John Burton really did not want to bring his members back to do Davis' bidding, not just because it would look bad politically but because Burton never liked Davis.

The Toy Drive

I've been remiss. I haven't blogged about the toy drive for children in Iraq.

I blame the downside of perfectionism. I wanted to do a big post on how it started, how its grown and what it means -- all with links to the various sites that have combined to do a fabulous job.

I still don't have the focus to do all that -- but at least I can tell you to go to Operation Give and get involved.

Tips on Traffic

Most bloggers, particularly new bloggers, want to know how to build traffic. Here's my tip: blog. You have to post 1. frequently and 2. regularly.

Sounds simple but I notice the rule whenever I break it. Skip a day and you'll see the blip. Skip two days, as I did this week and you will see the difference in traffic. Blog readers are like newspaper readers and tv watchers. They have a schedule, whether it's formal or informal. Some read in the am, some at lunch, some in the evening. Some check several times a day. If you update your blog in the am, or the evening, or throughout the day, your readers get used to it and check in accordingly. Fail to meet that schedule and they stop checking in regularly and check in once in a while or not at all.

If you blog for yourself, only when in the mood, then you have no reason to fuss about the lack of readers. If you want readers though, you have to write for them.

Grocery Strike

Due to the fires, we have been watching local news. When I hear something, I try to find similar news online, so you have a link. Sometimes, I'm not successful. I wonder why. Did I misunderstand what I heard? Was the early report wrong? Was it less important than it seemed? Or are the print sources not reporting it?

The strikers were picketing two distribution centers. They have stopped. Here's the LA Times report:

On Thursday, the UFCW agreed to stop picketing outside two grocery distribution centers in El Monte and Brea so that about 250 Teamsters could return to work.

"Nobody's buying anything in the stores anyway," he said. "And it's only going to get worse."

Missing was a fact that came out on the local news -- if those Teamsters did not get back to work, they would lose THEIR health insuramce benefits. If true, then I'm not buying the threat that all the distribution centers will be shut down at any point. Nor am I buying the reason -- that shutdown of the distribution centers wasn't necessary.

Fire Season

In 1988, I moved from West LA to a suburb north of LA in the foothills. That year, there were many small fires in the area. I grew accustomed to hearing of a fire, checking to see how close it was to the house, and following the reports like the weather.

We later learned that a Glendale fire investigator was setting the fires and then investigating them (successfully, wouldn't you know). His bizaare behavior was made into a book, which was then excerpted in Reader's Digest. Fire frequency in this area dropped. Still, we were accustomed to them and here, fire season is as regular as rainy season.

Three or four years ago, Calblog husband, Maddy and I were curled up in bed watching X-files on a Sunday night. Amanda had gone to sleep. X-files ended and before a commerical, the news came on with a huge fire and La Canada Flintidge plastered across the bottom of the screen. Almost simutaneously a neighbor was banging on the door.

The hills to the south of us were on fire. The entire sky was lit up. The fire was huge and less than a mile away. As the Calblog husband said, it looked like the apocalypse. The winds were blowing away from us. Maddy and I dressed and I made sure I knew where my wallet and keys were.

Calblog husband said don't worry, it would have to jump the freeway. Minutes later, it jumped the freeway in 3 places.

We slept little that night. By morning it was under control. They had flown the firefighting planes over it. We were lucky. Either the winds or the darkness should have grounded the planes but the danger from the fire was so high that, for the first time, they violated those guidelines. The planes made the difference.

The next morning I drove on the freeway. No one had to tell us where the fire had jumped the freeway. The burn marks were there. One callbox had been all but consumed.

Had the fire started on the hills to the north, the fire experts believed it would take about 15 minutes to reach Foothill Boulevard. We'd be in about minute 12. Most of our friends are closer.

This weeek's big fire is relatively far from us. We have the smoke though. The sky in Pasadena was orange yesterday and the smell of smoke was thick. The air was difficult to breathe. I came home early and kept the air conditioner on.

The Santa Anas will blow all weekend and we'll watch the fires. It's part of life here.

KEEP ON CHOPPIN' WOOD

Calblog Husband here. This story is a week or so old, but I told it to Justene and she told me to post it. If you follow football, you probably have already heard about it. If not, read on.

The Jacksonvile Jaguars are a struggling NFL team. Their first-year coach, Jack Del Rio, did not want them to give up after their slow start. So he devised a motivational stunt. He told the players they needed "to keep chopping wood". To give life to the phrase, he arranged for a log and an axe to be brought to the Jaguars' locker room. Players were apparently encouraged to show they had not given up on their season by picking up the axe and chopping the wood.

One day, Jacksonville's punter picked up the axe, and started hacking away at the wood. He then accidentally gashed his leg, had to have emergency surgery, and is out indefinately.

The Jaguars' record? One win, five losses.

Star Trek

Volokh has a couple of posts on the various Star Trek series. I love Star Trek. I can always been drawn into a discussion. Here are a couple of quick points in response:

1. Even if DS9 got better, they did not have enough characters that I cared about. Calblog husband hated the captain and after a while, it was not fun to watch the show while he complained throughout.

2. That said, I would like to watch DS9 again. It's not on any of my channels. We used to get it on KWGN but that's not an option on my current setup. Sometimes I am tempted to spend the $1000 to rehabilitate my 12 foot dish but then I realize DVDs would be cheaper.

3. You may think that Troi only mentioned the obvious, but she was on a bridge full of men. Military men no less. Often, very often, when I bring up an emotion in litigation, all the men around me look at me like I've invented glass. I'm pretty sure Troi's point was only obvious after she said it.

4. Captain Archer annoys me and I'm a big Scott Bakula fan. Still, it's star Trek and I'll watch.

5. I watch TNG at least once a day. Still.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

Right on the Left Beach looks at the Rumfeld memo and the resulting discussion, a story I've barely followed. Money quote from the breaker:

Hey Lefties, it's the civilization stupid.

UPDATE: Citizen Smash has more.

Where We Are Going

My predictions have often been spectacularly "Arnold won't run" wrong. That does not stop me though.

Personally, I am pro-life -- the Catholic, conception to death, kind of pro-life. Politically, though, I believe the laws don't set behavior, they normalize public consensus of behavior. Laws which are unaccepted are simply breached regularly. As a small example, is there anyone who thinks we can pass a law that actually keeps everyone from speeding? As a larger example, Prohibition was a huge failure.

So making abortion illegal will return us to the backroom illegal abortions. Perhaps the number of abortions will decrease, but with the improvement of medicine making those backroom abortions safer, don't bet on it. Since passing a law will not stop abortions, there's no incentive on my part to work towards that.

However, I do not thnk the laws of the past 30 years accurately reflect the consensus. The ban on partial birth abortion and the ruling to restore life to Terri Schindler-Schiavo are a sign of the pendulum swinging back towards the middle.

When all is said and done, I think we will still allow first trimester abortions, regardless of my personal views or any pro-life protests. That line will not change unless medical science moves way beyone where we are. We will still allow removal of heroic measures like respirators. In those truly gray areas, where the line is fine and reasonable people without a predisposition towards one philosophy or the other struggle with the right answer, I think we will err on the side of life.

Airline travel

I laughed when American Airlines announced a few years ago that it was taking some seats out of coach. By my calculations, it was an extra 6 inches per seat. How could that make a difference? It did, though. It made a big difference. I've also been impressed by recent flights on Alaska, Air Canada, and JetBlue.

Here's the list of the five worst coach sections.

Greatest Novels

A Hat Tip to Prestopundit for pointing out the Guardian's list of the 100 greatest novels. Here's the problem I always have with "great novels". Sometimes I just HATE them.

#5 Tom Jones -- ugh. Having to do a report on it and unable to force myself through it, I watched the movie. Couldn't finish that either.

#17 Wuthering Heights -- From all I'd heard about this book, I expected to love it. I didn't get around to reading until the last year or so. At least I could finish it but was sorry I'd wasted the time.

I've read more of these than Presto has, but none of them thrilled me enough that I'm rushing to read the rest of the list.

On the other hand, there are some books from authors I like. I loved Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch by George Eliot so #28 Daniel Deronda by Eliot will get a look.

Reagan revisited

Interocitor rants a bit on the CBS take on Reagan. Worth a read.

From Florida to Tennessee

Weird legal situations that tear people apart happens a lot. Blawger Steve Covell is on top of this case:

There is probably more to the case than you will hear from the parties involved. However, one thing is crystal clear: Tennessee law provides that when an accusation of abuse is made, the state must either charge someone with the abuse or return the child within thirty days. Six years later the family is torn apart and the parents are now divorced because of the stress. The family thought this nightmare was over recently when they finally obtained a court order to return their son, only to have the order rescinded on a "technical" issue. In all this time, there has been no evidence that anyone abused Tristen back when he was fifteen days old, much less either of the parents.

Terri: It Ain't Over

I ranted yesterday at Dean's World. I'm done ranting. However, the occasional news update couldn't hurt:

"Terri's Bill" specifically directs the chief judge (David Demers) of the 6th Judicial Circuit Court to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent Terri "upon issuance of a stay," but he has not yet done so – which Anderson views as a matter of urgency.

My news updates will be as biased as possible. Deal with it.

UPDATE:

In another development Wednesday, David Demeres, the chief judge of Pinellas County Circuit Court, ordered lawyers for both sides to agree within five days on an independent guardian for Terri, as required under the law signed by the governor.

If an agreement cannot be reached, Demeres said, he will appoint Dr. Jay Wolfson, a professor of health and law at Stetson University, as the guardian. Wolfson also works for the College of Public Health at Florida State University and the College of Medicine at the University of South Florida.

Snarkiness

Ever notice how Ravenwood can sound just like Xrlq? I'm a sucker for snarky men.

Anti-spam

Talk Left reports on the Federal Anti-spam Bill that just passed the Senate.

Jeb Bush orders Terri to be fed

After the FL legislature took action. Read the order here.

Now, if they can allow rehabilitation . . .

Terri Update

The FL Senate has passed Terri's bill with different language. It's going back to the House for language reconciliation. Soon, folks.

The Trouble with Tribbles

The Bear Flag League expands again. Welcome:

Cobb
Baldilocks
Mulatto Boy
Left Coast Conservative

The other strike

Interocitor is watching the MTA strike.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo

A number of bearflaggers are on this: xrlq, Patterico, Peter Sean Bradley, and Tone Cluster.

Here's the action item:

Here's what needs to happen. Call and/or write James King in the Florida Legislature and demand that emergency legislation be passed immediately--today--to create a moratorium on starving/dehydration such as Terri is being forced to endure.

Patterico has the view of a neurologist and the suggestion that Terri is not alone.

Stupid lawsuit of the month

A California woman suing Smuckers because the "simply fruit" jam also contained:

fruit syrup, lemon juice concentrate, fruit pectin, red grape juice concentrate and natural flavors.

I needed a quiz

Blogs of the Day

Shark does blog of the day and I have no intention of treading on his space but I was so wrapped up in two of the Bear Flag members today that I had to recommend them:

Lex Communis

and

Interocitor

The Boxcutters

It's a late present for Calpundit's birthday, but I'm recommending a Guardian article. They have what I think is the completest coverage of the boxcutter incident. It's not even very long, just tightly written.

UPDATE: I know completest is not a word. I liked it and I had to put up with blogress.

California Corporations

Carnival of the Capitalists # 2 is up at Jay Solo's. I like the idea. Not only does it highlight a particular philosophy but it showcases the blogosphere being used for business topics, an area in which the blogosphere has been underrepresented.

Corp Law Blog offers up an explanation for why California based businesses choose Delaware corporations. After explaining the greater certainty in Delaware law, he concludes:

I haven't really answered Professor Bainbridge's question -- I think he's more interested in why California is more unpopular with public companies headquartered in California than, say, Michigan is with public companies headquartered in Michigan -- but Delaware's well of predictability is so much deeper than the other states, and its popularity so much greater, that the degrees of difference among the other 49 states (and D.C.) are relatively unimportant to the businesspeople who ultimately decide where to incorporate

I have a hypothesis. CA was the hotbed of the dot com boom where companies started with an idea and went straight to investors. Investors, more than your average entrepreneur, wanted the stabilityof the DE laws and it becae conventional wisdom that if you wanted to make it, you had to be a DE corporation. Since the CA dotcommers did not exist in a vacuum, that became the state of choice for many CA businesses. That same culture did not exist as strongly in the other states.

STRIKE UPDATE

Calblog Husband here with my un-scientific strike update. I drove by both Vons and Ralphs this morning, and then went to Vons this afternoon. The number of picketers is down, and they seemed resigned to their task and somewhat out of spirit, as compared to last week, when there were far more picketers and the mood was almost festive. Now, it's been a week; they have missed a paycheck (although apparently they did get strike pay), and reality is setting in. I'm sure the comments of the Safeway CEO about management's offer being the best offer that will be made did not help their morale.

The store seems to be running fine, but there are still some shortages of products. Some aisles look normal; but there is no fresh chicken; and the deli remains closed. I had no problem with the clerk who checked me out.

I cannot understand these people who say they will not cross the picket line, except if it is a long strike, or if they are too inconvenienced. Personally I have no problem crossing this or any other picket line. But if you are a labor supporter and want to respect a picket line, stick to your principles; don't say you won't cross it except if you have to wait longer than ten minutes to check out at Trader Joes.

The Culture of Death

Lex Communis has some points regarding the Terri Schindler-Schiavo situation.

New word?

In today's BOTW, Taranto refers to Meryl Yourish as a blogress. I had not heard the term before and I hope I don't hear it again.

Grocery Strike: You Decide

I thought I would see this discussed throughout the blogosphere but I haven't found it yet. Feel free to supply links in the comments.

KFI's John and Ken located the offer of settlement from Safeway to the striking workers and have made it accessible here. Now you can read the offer and decide for yourself if the union is being reasonable. Some points to consider:

-- Does the offer really cut benefits 50%? John and Ken assert that only retirees who go outside of network have to pay 50%. The union talking points that Maddy insisted on picking up when we crossed the picket line as usual said that the increase in premium (the $5-15), the increased copayments and caps combine to make it a 50% cut.

-- From the calls John and Ken took (and with screeners, it's unclear how even the sampling was), it appeared that rank and file union members never saw the whole offer. Every reader of this blog has access to union members (hint: look for the signs). Feel free to ask them about the contract and report back.

The mainstream media is not giving us much sense in this story. I think the blogosphere could be doing a better job of it. For example, I have been in stores in various places and except for the pickets outside, I can't tell much difference. This experience runs counter to the media reports of chaos.

For further reading, check out Howard's analysis of the effect of cutting the CEO's pay.

Where are people shopping? Costco? Trader Joe's? Non-unon stores. Yeah, that'll really help the union out.

Easterbrook

I missed the whole Easterbrook affair while it was unfolding. Now it's mushroomed. The short version: He wrote for the National Review Online blog. He blogged something. A furor arose in the blogosphere, saying his post was anti-Semitic. There was some dispute about whether it was or not, but nowadays merely mentioning someone's race or religion leaves you vulnerable.

I had dismissed it all as one of those storms that pass over the blogosphere with some regularity. Over the weekend, the storm turned into a Class 4 hurricane, when ESPN fired Easterbrook and made it look like they'd never hired him in the first place.

I hereby formally charge ESPN with violation of BLAP.

What fun

The DC Sniper is representing himself. Just like Moussaoui.

Arnold is coming

The Insider has substantial insight into possible choices for Arnold's appointees.

THe Boxer Watch

The LA Times has a piece summarizing the current candidates, announced and runored, and handing out the talking points from both sides. (via Rough & Tumble)

The rest of my life, I guess

From Sgt Stryker, via Instapundit:

Why are we doing this? What's going on in Iraq is far more important and larger than election cycles and short-sighted political sniping. We both know that Iraq's a 50 year commitment and looking at it from that perspective, what passes for debate and commentary nowadays is silly and stupid.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo

The family's website reports that the legislature may act today. Unfrtunately, it may be too late. Even though they can prevent her death now, some longterm damage may have been done and this woman can't afford any more damage.