Five AM to 10 PM

I’ve barely time to do anything.  I’m up at 4:45am because I have to catch a 5:34am train because I have 7:30am meetings.  Then I work all day.  I get home around 9pm.  I haven’t slept well, haven’t seen my kids in days.  I’m arguing with the wife, mainly because of the no-sleep and no-kids things make me grouchy.  And I’m underpaid (though I’m perfectly willing to admit that in today’s economy I’m lucky to have a job and also that everyone feels that they’re underpaid).  

And I’m just so damn tired.

So why am I up at 11:15pm instead of asleep?  Because I’m stupid.  I’m into this new TV show, The Wire.  Best show on television.  Up there with the Sopranos.  Funny how two of the best shows ever on television are about the same thing: the Baltimore police department.  The Wire is.  And the other is Homicide: Life on the Street.  That was an awesome show.  Andre Braugher was one of the best actors on TV, ever.  There was this one scene I remember, where he goes into the box (the interview room) with a guy who was really stupid, but innocent.  And the detectives knew he was innocent.  But the Brass wanted a confession.  So Andre goes into the box and intellectually maneuvers this guy into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit.  The scene was awe inspiring.

But I digress.

Why are people so surprised that I’m right wing?  I was talking to some people today who were harshing on the President, and asked me essentially what I hated most about the guy.  I said that I was the wrong person to ask because I’m in the 26% who still likes him.  They all looked at me like I had two heads.  Anyone who knows me at all knows that I’m completely conservative.  Big Ann Coulter fan.  Michelle Malkin.  Jonah Goldberg.  Mark Steyn.  Daniel Pipes.  Jay Nordlinger.  Basically the entire National Review.  They’re right and everyone else is wrong.  Dangerously wrong.  And slightly delusional.  Wrong and delusional are fine if you’re talking about baseball, and how you actually like the Yankees and not the Red Sox.  That’s wrong and delusional.  But wrong and delusional when you’re talking about people who want to kill my kids is not something I can ever take lightly.  Or excuse.  Or usually even stay silent about.

But I digress again.

This was really going to be a short post about me being tired and unhappy.  How did I get onto that other crap?

Can someone please give me suggestions on how to make myself happier?  And nothing about better living through modern chemistry.  I need some activities that will take my mind away from money troubles, from tiredness, feeling underappreciated, all that crap.

How about it, my dear Reader?  Any suggestions?  And if it’s location based, remember that I’m in the City.  The Big Apple.  The City that Never Sleeps.

Ah, yes, the original point.

Good night.

[Hey, I'm in the suburbs.  I can sleep a little.]

When do you hold the door

When do you hold the door

Originally uploaded by Hank LNU

At what point in the hall must a person be before you hold the door
for them?

It’s a LONG hallway.

Veaj Is Gonna Love This

Sometimes you just know when someone is going to love something.  You feel it, when you know a person well enough.  Like I knew that she would love the fact that every morning there are whole families of snails on my front walkway, I know she’ll love this: lion cub hugs.

Enjoy.

 

Tennis Anyone?

Tennis Anyone?

Originally uploaded by Hank LNU

Game ended before it started, but the backboard was a fearsome
opponent on this summer day.

Happy Vernal Equinox everyone.

Respectfully….

Have you ever noticed that people sometimes get unintentionally ironic?  Generally, when one starts a sentence with “Respectfully,” or “With all due respect…” they’re generally going to be disrespectful.  Though, to be fair, the “with all due respect” starter does beg the question of how much respect is due.

In particular, you never want to hear this sentence in a deposition (and I’m a trial lawyer, so I know): “Respectfully, I think he’s just referring to the fact that he can see your breasts.”

Oops.

Go here, and read the deposition transcript.

Good Reading

Go here, now.  Great site.  I’d describe, but I’ve got no time before my next call: I didn’t want to forget this.

Got to her from the Art of Over-Thinking.

Bored, Tired, Frustrated, Overheated

How is your day?

Mr Lady is Fantastic; and Very, Very wrong

I’d love to be able to write a post refuting this marvelous post by Mr. Lady. But I can’t.

Not because she’s right. Oh, no. She’s very wrong.  I simply haven’t the time to correct her.

Let me just say that America is and has been the greatest source of true good this world has seen in quite some time. Millions of people are free today because of her. Millions more have a chance at freedom that they never would have without her. Whether they make the most of that chance that we’ve given them isn’t up to us.  And people exist who fight that freedom, who have stood up to be counted with the forces of oppression. Oppression of men, women, homosexuals, oppression of free speech, of the right to assembly, of the right to protest, that Mr. Lady laments in its paucity. Oppression of the right to think. To act. To love. To simply live. And us? We fight those people. We spend blood and treasure—the former infinitely more precious than the latter—in the pursuit of giving to others who have never known freedom the opportunity to be free.

That is not shameful. How to even think that it is? How have we gotten ourselves to a place where an intelligent, thoughtful, eloquent woman like Mr. Lady can think that?

There is just cause to grieve against our government. Of course there is. We’re not perfect. Our government, made of people, certainly isn’t, as all things made by people are imperfect, sullied at inception with our imperfection. But the good we’ve done!

And the factual errors! We were never lied to. We weren’t tricked into war. We were attacked. And we fought. At heart, I believe that is why we reelected Bush, and why I still support him. Because he could have continued the failed—but popular—policies of his predecessor, policies that were birthed in cynicism, and reared on appeasement. And he didn’t. He was visionary. He saw early on that a new question, the fundamental question of our times, had been asked. And he answered correctly. The path being laid out before us by our enemies leads to a world that this country was created to reject. And Bush rejected it.

There are lies being foist on us: global warming, to name one. And there’s a conversation to be had among reasonable people how best to win in Iraq. But the prerequisite is a desire to win. Not to leave. To win. Because I will be proud of my country up until the day where we quit. Where we say that just because it’s hard, freedom is no longer worth fighting for. And even worth dying for.

And there are legitimate causes that need passionate people: freedom for Cuba, ending terrorist support from Syria, the near-constant death rained on Israeli children from Gaza, Tibet, the incredible waste that has become of the UN, that once-glorious organization. Plenty to fight for. Even here at home: fight against poverty, against crime in our urban centers, against homelessness. And I’m happy to pay my fair share of the effort to solve these problems. Happy to. Because I’ve been blessed many, many times over. And I recognize my debt to this country. This country that let my father, who came from nothing, who had nothing, rise in standing and salary to putting his kids through college, and graduate school. And loving them. And staying with his chosen partner in life, his wife, my mother. For 45 years. No issues of class, or race, or religion. Intelligence, hard work, luck. Those were the ingredients of his rise, and of the promise that this country made, and still makes, to the world. Anything can happen here. Anyone, of any background, the tired, poor, and huddled masses, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore yearning to breathe free.

And even until today, that beautiful lady in New York’s harbor still lifts her lamp beside the golden door.

That is why I’m proud of America.  And until we give up those cherished values, those principles that our forefathers fought and died for, I will remain proud of America.  And why, although I respect Mr. Lady, I humbly dissent from her opinion to the contrary.

Too Stupid To Live

Not you, and not me.

This guy.

Now, I’m all in favor of blogging, but if anyone should know that the 1st Amendment doesn’t apply everywhere in the world, it would be a lawyer!

My favorite part:

In another post on his blog Saturday, Nair taunted authorities, saying he was in Singapore at a particular hotel, and also gave his phone number.

“I am now within your jurisdiction… What are you going to do about it?” Nair wrote.

To which dare the authorities responded:

“Nair is charged with insulting a public servant, which on conviction carries a maximum fine of 5,000 dollars (3,660 US) or one year in prison.”

He is currently in jail.