Out on a limb at Mike Lief.com

I especially liked when Justice Breyer agreed with Scalia that Feinstein's premise was wrong: The 14th Amendment applies to government, not private discrimination. The expression on her face was priceless.

It was a perfect Emily Litella moment, the greatest instant deflation of a gasbag since the Hindenberg visited Lakehurst, New Jersey in '37.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:35 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

October 06, 2011

Rainy Day Ensemble

It rained yesterday in Ventura, the first cold storm of the Fall, which meant it was time for my Rainy Day Ensemble: My old Navy trenchcoat and a fedora, much more useful (and stylish) than umbrellas -- which I loathe.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

National Review's Kevin Williamson posted a terrific tribute to Steve Jobs and the capitalist greed that inspired him to innovate and create things that people want, things that people can't imagine living without -- courtesy of an eeeevil corporation and its allegedly rapacious CEO.

... Mr. Jobs’s contribution to the world is Apple and its products, along with Pixar and his other enterprises, his 338 patented inventions — his work — not some Steve Jobs Memorial Foundation for Giving Stuff to Poor People in Exotic Lands and Making Me Feel Good About Myself. Because he already did that: He gave them better computers, better telephones, better music players, etc. In a lot of cases, he gave them better jobs, too.

Did he do it because he was a nice guy, or because he was greedy, or because he was a maniacally single-minded competitor who got up every morning possessed by an unspeakable rage to strangle his rivals?

The beauty of capitalism — the beauty of the iPhone world as opposed to the world of politics — is that that question does not matter one little bit. Whatever drove Jobs, it drove him to create superior products, better stuff at better prices. Profits are not deductions from the sum of the public good, but the real measure of the social value a firm creates.

Those who talk about the horror of putting profits over people make no sense at all. The phrase is without intellectual content.

Perhaps you do not think that Apple, or Goldman Sachs, or a professional sports enterprise, or an internet pornographer actually creates much social value; but markets are very democratic — everybody gets to decide for himself what he values. That is not the final answer to every question, because economic answers can only satisfy economic questions. But the range of questions requiring economic answers is very broad.

I was down at the Occupy Wall Street protest today, and never has the divide between the iPhone world and the politics world been so clear: I saw a bunch of people very well-served by their computers and telephones (very often Apple products) but undeniably shortchanged by our government-run cartel education system. And the tragedy for them — and for us — is that they will spend their energy trying to expand the sphere of the ineffective, hidebound, rent-seeking, unproductive political world, giving the Barney Franks and Tom DeLays an even stronger whip hand over the Steve Jobses and Henry Fords. And they — and we — will be poorer for it.

Resquiat in pace.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 19, 2011

Common sense is too damn uncommon

Yet another reason to like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:

Thomas rejects suggestions he’s a follower of originalism in interpreting the Constitution. “I am a follower of get-it-rightism,” he says, bringing laughter from law students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Thomas says it’s important to understand what is meant in the original document, what the words mean. “It’s a Constitution that’s written in words,” he says. “What, do people think it’s written in symbols? You need to say you’re a textualist. What else am I supposed to do, use a Ouija board, chicken bones?”

[...]

Thomas, who enters his 20th year on the nation’s high court next month, says the courts have become too involved in too many things. “I don’t know about all of these big moral questions any better than anybody else,” he says. “Unless I have a law to deal with, I think we’re off our terrain.”

Common sense and humility from a member of the highest court in the land?

More, please.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

September 17, 2011

It seemed a good idea at the time

A C-130 Hercules festooned with 30 rockets -- firing down, forward, and back -- to enable it to land in and take off from a soccer field. What could go wrong?

The slow-motion footage of that last landing is pretty incredible; even more incredible is that no one aboard the ill-fated bird was injured.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 14, 2011

OM(effin')G!

This photo gave me the vapors.

What, you don't recognize one of the most iconic buildings in the world? It's the Empire State Building -- although this isn't the view most of us get, looking straight down from the antenna at the very top.

Those guys are insane!

Make sure to click on the photo to see a larger version.

Whoa. I just got dizzy again.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 12, 2011

My political compass

I took this test of my political orientation (hat tip: Neo Neocon), and my results were a little surprising.

I don't usually think of myself as middle of the road about anything, but I've apparently shifted decidedly to the center when it comes to striking a balance between authoritarianism and libertarianism, which is odd, given that I often describe myself as an economic conservative and a social libertarian.

That self-description seems like something of an understatement when it comes to economic preferences; I nearly ran off the right side of the grid.

I suspect I'd have skewed more libertarian if they'd asked more questions about the right of individuals to self defense, to self-medicate, and whether or not the state ought to restrict most forms of minor vice with voluntary participation between consenting adults.

But what the hell, I can tell my friends that I'm officially a moderate -- at least on one axis.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:26 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

September 11, 2011

Remember

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September 10, 2011

An unimaginable future

The view from Liberty Island, circa 1991. Don't let the bright sunshine fool you; it was a cold winter's day, a biting arctic wind blowing from the north, the air clean and crisp, the twin towers of the World Trade Center looming over my shoulder. If you'd have told me they'd be gone in little more than ten years, I'd have said you were insane.

It seemed like they were always there, in the background. I never really liked them; too sterile, too modern, lacking any of the lush style and flair of the older buildings that made Manhattan such an architectural delight.

Rockefeller Center; the Empire State Building; the Chrysler Building. Man, they're beautiful.

But the behemoths that claimed lower Manhattan for themselves were so cold, devoid of human warmth or scale. The plaza between them was always a windy, barren patch of concrete, too cold and desolate for even the bums and pigeons. One hurried through the space as the wind howled, anxious to get inside, blind to the hidden charms of the twins.

But now, paging through a stack of old vacation photos, I spy a shot taken from Brooklyn, and there, in the background, they stand, beneath an oddly dark cloud.

And now they're gone, with their thousands of occupants and the brave firefighters and policemen who perished with them, too.

Only now do I realize that I miss them, never mind their ugliness or their ever-so-sophisticated design. They were a part of Manhattan, and if they were going to be stay or go, well, that was our decision.

And every time I look at the skyline, I think that it just looks wrong.

The appropriate response isn't sadness or sorrow or mournful contemplation.

The proper response is rage. White-hot fury. The need for vengeance, what the perfidious act of war inflicted upon our fellow citizens requires, and what our war dead demand.

Our enemies sneer, laugh and mock those who talk of healing, forgiveness and moving on. The jihad doesn't require our consent; only our necks stretched bare for the blade.

And what of those ugly Twin Towers, laid low by our enemies? I miss the skyline I knew and took for granted, and all the New Yorkers I had yet to know -- and never will after 9/11.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 06, 2011

Birds!

The competition for the thistle seed was especially fierce this weekend in the savage jungle backyard, the birds vying for a spot on the feeder, looking for an opening in the pattern ....

They're remarkably territorial; this fellow stared down the intruder coming in from below, while another swooped in from behind, the light glinting off his ebony beak.

The afternoon sun provided some dramatic lighting, isolating some of the more skilled avian aviators against the inky shadows.

Look out! Behind you!

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 30, 2011

The jury is back ...

The phone rang in my office, the display showing "Bailiff, Courtroom 47." I glanced at my watch -- 10 o'clock -- as I reached for the handset.

"They've got a verdict," she said. "I'll be right up," I replied, grabbing a legal pad and heading out the door. I called my investigator on my cell phone -- he wanted to be there for the verdict -- as I headed up to the fourth floor.

I ducked into the men's room, snugged-up the knot of my tie, struggled with (and gave up on) an out-of-control cowlick, then strode into the courtroom. I stood next to my chair at counsel table; the bailiff said, "I'm bringing them in," returning moments later with the 12 men and women; they filed into the jury box and found their seats. When the last one was in her chair, I settled into mine, face blank, as I tried to discern their decision.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" asked the judge.

"Yes, your honor," answered the forewoman, who handed the folded sheet of paper to the bailiff, who handed it to the judge, who glanced at it and handed it to the clerk, who stood up and read it to us.

"We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant ...."

I watched their faces; they studiously avoided eye contact with the defendant -- and me, too, for that matter -- giving away nothing, even as their decision was revealed.

The judge thanked them for their service and released them from jury duty, and I chatted with the jurors who decided to wait for me in the hallway outside the courtoom.

The verdict? Well, that'd be telling. Let me say this: Although I remained stoic throughout, I felt like Roscoe does in this video.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 29, 2011

The jury is out ...

The jury got the case (assault with a deadly weapon) Friday afternoon, deliberated for a couple of hours and then went home for the weekend. They've requested readback of the victim's testimony for this morning, and the nail-biting and second-guessing begins.

Of course, it could be worse.

I could be dealing with this.

A North Texas juror who was booted from a trial has been cited for contempt after trying to "friend" the defendant on Facebook.

Court records show 22-year-old Jonathan Hudson on July 19 was removed from the jury in a Tarrant County civil case. The trial, over a 2008 car wreck, proceeded with 11 jurors.

Hudson last week pleaded guilty to four counts of contempt and has been ordered to serve two days of community service.

Texas recently added specific language to jury instructions that bans jurors from discussing the case on social networking sites. Hudson had received those instructions.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Sunday that Hudson attorney Steve Gordon says his client "made a silly mistake."

Seriously? Do we really have to remind jurors that they're not supposed to FRIEND DEFENDANTS ON FACEBOOK while deciding their fate?

Yeah, I know, it was a civil case, but still, unbelievable.

(shakes head)

I need another cup of coffee.

And some more aspirin.

(drums fingers on desk)

Was that my phone?

(sigh)

I'm sure they'll be coming back any minute now ....

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

August 22, 2011

Why the death penalty?

Death penalty opponents like to say that it has no deterrent effect; that it's a savage, brutal punishment, one that serves no legitimate societal purpose, doing nothing more than exacting revenge and satisfying our blood lust.

Stories like this, however, prove the stupidity, the besides-the-point nature of their critique.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Moments before she was slain last week on Chicago's Southwest Side, 17-year-old Charinez Jefferson begged the gunman not to shoot because she was pregnant, prosecutors said today.

Despite her plea, Timothy Jones, 18, opened fire on Jefferson anyway, yelling an expletive at her as he shot her in the head, prosecutors said. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and fired several more times, striking her in the chest and back.

Jefferson was pronounced dead a short time later, but doctors were able to successfully deliver her baby boy, who remained in critical condition today, Assistant State's Attorney John Dillon said.

"Tests are expected to be performed to determine whether the child has any brain activity, as there are concerns over the child possibly suffering from oxygen deprivation after the victim had been shot," Dillon told Judge Laura Sullivan.

Sullivan denied bond for Jones, 18, who was charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 16 slaying.

[...]

Jones had seen Jefferson walking with a rival gang member in the 3000 block of West 64th Street and approached them in a car, Dillon said. He got out of the vehicle and fired at least one shot at the rival, who ran off, leaving Jefferson to fend for herself. After begging Jones for mercy, Jefferson was shot at "point-blank range," Dillon said.

Jones, of the 6300 block of South Rockwell Street, was arrested at his home Saturday after numerous witnesses identified him as the killer, according to information from prosecutors and court documents.

A police source said that Jones was a "stick-up man" well known to area police.

At the time of the shooting, Jones was serving 2 years of probation for a 2010 burglary conviction, Dillon said. He also has a "lengthy" juvenile record, including convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and burglary, Dillon said.

Stop and think a second about this soulless thug, already on probation for crimes committed while a juvenile.

I'll concede that the death penalty would likely do nothing to deter a piece of filth like this from committing a terrible crime. After all, what could possibly be a greater deterrent than a terrified, pregnant teenager begging for her life, the life of her baby?

To listen to the fear in her voice, see the horror and hope in her eyes as she tried to convince him not to pull the trigger, searching for a human connection, a glimmer of compassion.

Think of the kind of demon -- for there is no other way to describe such a being -- who could remain unmoved, even enraged by her pleas. Picture him as he considered for an all-too-brief moment walking away, his eyes flat, empty -- did they show any emotion at all before he shot her in the head, then stood over her body, swollen and large with the child she carried, and fired more shots into her chest and back?

There is no redemption.

There is no rehabilitation.

There is no possibility of a safe return to society.

The death penalty serves a useful purpose especially in cases like this, where we can collectively kill this mad dog, protect other, future victims from his murderous attentions, erase this stain from our world, forget his name.

But remember his crime. And remember his victims.

Charinez Jefferson, 17, and her now-motherless and possibly brain-damaged son.

Why the death penalty?

Because this crime demands it.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Are you sure that's still okay to eat?

When I was growing up, my Father -- born of the Great Depression -- was infamous for sniffing suspicious-looking leftovers in the refrigerator and pronouncing them eminently edible, much to the consternation of me and my sister.

Sometimes it seemed he took particular delight in a fearsomely foul, mold-flecked specimen, recounting tales of privation from the days before FDR and Adolf Hitler jump-started the economy with something known as WWII. He'd look at us, a gleam in his eyes, open a carton of milk that was rapidly transforming from liquid to curd-clotted sludge, breath deep, then tell us that the expiration date was merely a suggestion, before pouring a disgustingly-thick glass.

I suspect Dad would disagree with every conclusion in this article about how long food can be kept before it should be tossed.

Cheese
Life span: One week to two months
Cheese is essentially curdled milk, a pretty shelf-stable dairy product. Still, it can -- and will -- succumb to mold. Soft and stinky cheeses -- cottage cheese, cream cheese, blue cheese, Camembert, and feta -- should be eaten within a week. Hard cheeses like cheddar and
Parmesan will stay fresh for up to two months. So go ahead and invest in that two-pound block of Parmesan.

Death rattle: When you see mold on a soft cheese, throw it out. By the time mold becomes visible, it’s already infected the whole lot. Of course, some cheese is intentionally moldy, like blue cheese. Keep tabs on it and look for any red or white mold. If a hard cheese starts growing mold, cut it off and eat the rest; the mold won’t affect the flavor.

Oh, how I remember Dad cutting away hairy, green patches from some cheese that stank the day it left the store. Even as a child I suspected that "[b]y the time mold becomes visible, it’s already infected the whole lot."

Blecch.

Read the whole stinky thing.

Especially you, Dad.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 11, 2011

Straight talk from an angry Brit

Brit Pat Condell offer his pungent analysis of the riots -- and the rioters -- who've demonstrated for all to see that this is not the England, these are not the Englishmen of yore, and mores the pity.

It's a shame Condell pulled his punches, 'tho.

Posted by Mike Lief at 08:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 09, 2011

Let's resist the urge to "contextualize" looters

Self described lefty Brendan O'Neill delivers a sharp rebuke to those who seek to "contextualize" -- Orwellian new speak for excuse and justify -- the amoral and thuggish lowlifes rampaging throughout London and other cities, looting, burning and pillaging whilst the hapless police stand by and wring their hands.

O'Neill is willing to put the lawlessness into a broader political context, but he reaches some conclusions that are most assuredly anathema to the Left: the riots are clear evidence of the corrosive influence of the welfare state on the very fabric of society itself.

The political context is not the cuts agenda or racist policing – it is the welfare state, which, it is now clear, has nurtured a new generation that has absolutely no sense of community spirit or social solidarity.

What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs. The youth who are ‘rising up’ – actually they are simply shattering their own communities – represent a generation that has been more suckled by the state than any generation before it. They live in those urban territories where the sharp-elbowed intrusion of the welfare state over the past 30 years has pushed aside older ideals of self-reliance and community spirit. The march of the welfare state into every aspect of less well-off urban people’s existences, from their financial wellbeing to their childrearing habits and even into their emotional lives, with the rise of therapeutic welfarism designed to ensure that the poor remain ‘mentally fit’, has helped to undermine such things as individual resourcefulness and social bonding. The anti-social youthful rioters look to me like the end product of such an anti-social system of state intervention.

But it’s more than childish destructiveness motivating the rioters. At a more fundamental level, these are youngsters who are uniquely alienated from the communities they grew up in ... We have a saying in Britain for people who undermine their own living quarters – we call it ‘shitting on your own doorstep’. And this rioting suggests that the welfare state has given rise to a generation perfectly happy to do that.

This is not a political rebellion; it is a mollycoddled mob, a riotous expression of carelessness for one’s own community. And as a left-winger, I refuse to celebrate nihilistic behaviour that has a profoundly negative impact on working people’s lives.

O'Neill also addresses an aspect of the riots that highlights for me the importance of the Second Amendment, the right to defend yourself -- or others -- from attack, including the right to protect your home or business, a right most assuredly denied to our English cousins.

There is one more important part to this story: the reaction of the cops. Their inability to handle the riots effectively reveals the extent to which the British police are far better adapted to consensual policing than conflictual policing. It also demonstrates how far they have been paralysed in our era of the politics of victimhood, where virtually no police activity fails to get followed up by a complaint or a legal case. Their kid-glove approach to the rioters of course only fuels the riots, because as one observer put it, when the rioters ‘see that the police cannot control the situation, [that] leads to a sort of adrenalin-fuelled euphoria’.

The rioters set fire to a family owned department store, a business they'd run for 150 years; today it's gone, destroyed by the mobs, abandoned by the same police who abandoned the British social contract: give up your weapons and we'll protect you.

During the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict, Korean business owners grabbed pistols, rifles and shotguns; to no one's surprise (other than gun ban proponents), their businesses and property survived almost completely unscathed, passed over by the rioters and looters for easier targets.

But you don't have to be a businessman to see the value of being able to defend yourself from the mob, especially when the police have run away, the rule of law replaced by the rule of the jungle.

It's interesting that these riots -- and the flash mobs in the previous post -- seem to be on the increase in areas where the citizenry is unarmed and dependent on the state for protection.

Posted by Mike Lief at 01:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Plain talk in the City of Brotherly Love

How bad are things in tourism-dependent Philadelphia? Bad enough that Mayor Michael Nutter made sense, and ended up in substantial agreement with your humble correspondent -- at least when it comes to the appearance and behavior of our nation's misbegotten and entitled youth.

The Washington Times reports:

Mayor Michael A. Nutter, telling marauding black youths “you have damaged your own race,” imposed a tougher curfew Monday in response to the latest “flash mob” — spontaneous groups of teens who attack people at random on the streets of the city’s tourist and fashionable shopping districts.

“Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer,” Mr. Nutter, the city’s second black mayor, said in an angry lecture aimed at black teens. “Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”

“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said. “You have damaged your own race.”

Mr. Nutter announced that he was beefing up police patrols in certain neighborhoods, enlisting volunteers to monitor the streets and moving up the weekend curfew for minors to 9 p.m.

Parents will face increased fines for each time their child is caught violating the curfew.

As if that's not shocking enough, the NAACP and the ACLU chime in, supporting the mayor's tough talk and backing the curfews.

I applaud the unexpected common-sense response from the mayor. Beyond the crime -- which is appalling enough -- the sartorial advice is terrific. The self-obsession that leads some people today to dress like derelicts and mutilate, mark and scar themselves for the rest of us to see, and then demand acceptance for the pathologies on view is beyond astonishing.

"They don't hire you 'cause you look like you're crazy" is about the truest thing I've heard a politician say in ages.

Bravo, Nutter!

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 04, 2011

New and improved "Coexist" bumper sticker

I loathe the "Coexist" bumper stickers -- you know the ones I'm talking about -- with the word spelled with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and assorted pagan symbols, as well as a patchouli-reeking-hippie peace sign.

This one's *much* better, a snarky, "God made man, Samuel Colt made him equal" response to the granola, "Michael rowed the boat ashore" 'tude of the original, inasmuch as hoping, wishing, and praying for peace love and understanding is an aspiration for many, but it's a far more realistic one with a .45 at the ready, if needed. I prefer it because it reflects a better understanding of human nature -- and the world -- than does the all-too-naive and sappy original bumper sticker.

Posted by Mike Lief at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

For all you wannabe sleuths: Everything you ever wanted to know about blood spatter analysis

Created by: Forensic Nursing

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 02, 2011

Coming soon: Red Tails

As a long-standing aviation buff and voracious reader since I cracked the covers of my first book long ago, no topic has captured my interest like World War II -- especially the aviators who battled in the skies over Europe, and no aircraft captured my interest quite like the B-17 Flying Fortress.

So this trailer gave me chills. It's the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the black fighter pilots who provided cover for the B-17s and B-24s and their crews over Nazi-occupied Europe, brave men who lost fewer bombers under their protection to enemy aircraft than any other unit in the Army Air Corps.

This looks great!

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 25, 2011

Thoughts on Norway

Having had the weekend to mull over the murders in Norway, a few thoughts.

The killer, a man who detonated car bombs in Oslo with the stated intent of killing the prime minister, and who dressed as a policeman and then slaughtered more than 80 teens and young adults at point-blank range over 90 terror-filled minutes, faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison -- that's about 82 days for each victim.

Norway eliminated the death penalty in 1902, and took it off the books for treason in the late '70s; the last execution was after World War II, when a member of Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling's regime kept a date with the firing squad.

Norwegians live in a democracy, so that's the legal system they presumably want, one wherein convicted criminals enjoy a punishment that seems more like a vacation than a deterrent. Even in the aftermath of this slaughter, the newspapers cite man-in-the-street interviews reaffirming opposition to the death penalty.

I live in California, where there's a renewed push to eliminate the death penalty, opponents citing expense as one of the primary reasons to allow killers to stay with us, as well as the supposed lack of a deterrent effect.

I'd humbly suggest that the Norway massacre is the kind of case that demands an execution. Guilt is not an issue; there's photo and video evidence (see the newspaper above) of the killer moving amongst his victims at the island retreat, finishing off the wounded with shots to the head. Justice for the victims, and the protection of society itself require that such evil be met with the harshest possible justice, not this enervated version of Scandanavian pampering, which manages to exceed even the wildest fantasies of the inmates of California's asylum by the bay, aka, San Francisco's City Council.

The American mainstream media reports have given great play to the killer supposedly being a fundamentalist Christian; I'd suggest "gleeful" isn't overstating the mood in some newsrooms. That's in rather stark contrast to the reportage about Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, an Army doctor who went on a rampage, killing his fellow soldiers.

The media bent over backwards, ending up like a circus sideshow contortionist, in its efforts to avoid implicating -- hell, of mentioning! -- that fact that Hassan was Muslim and had committed the murders because of his belief that his faith required him to engage in jihad against the infidels.

If, in fact, the Norway killer is a Christian, he's no sort of fundamentalist; slaughtering the defenseless doesn't fit any Christian theology I'm aware of, and in fact runs afoul of most tenets of the faith. So it's less than surprising that recent reports say that the killer is actually agnostic, his sense of right and wrong founded upon, well, the rock of secular humanism.

Finally, has there ever been a better example of the folly of gun-free zones? The island retreat where the killer wreaked his greatest havoc was apparently devoid of any weapons -- other than the ones used by the gunman. This meant that he could take his time, strolling along the shoreline, executing his victims at leisure, all of whom could do no more than beg for mercy.

In a ridiculous display of new-age stupidity, Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang said, "I don't think security can solve problems. We need to teach greater respect."

To which I say: Complete and utter nonsense, a total disconnect with reality. Does the mayor therefore advocate eliminating the police and the military in favor of Respect Patrols?

The Israelis responded to massacres of school children by requiring teachers and aides to be armed; since then, there have been no such massacres by gunmen executing their unarmed victims at leisure.

Rather than teach respect, I'd humbly suggest that the Norwegians need to teach marksmanship and encourage the study of small unit tactics and military history, including the value of shoot-and-scoot flanking movements. Has anyone from the Respect Brigade noticed the massacre ended when men with guns arrived?

Predictably, the gun control fetishists are calling for greater restrictions on civilian ownership of weapons, because it's obvious that a man willing to massacre teens would obey stricter gun laws. The problem wasn't lax gun laws; it's that the victims didn't have any.

There is no possible way to prevent evil, of preventing an evil man from committing terrible acts; the only thing anyone can do is react quickly to end the assault, and that requires the ability to defend one's self -- and others -- from the wolves.

Disagree?

Well, how did that work out for the unarmed folks trapped on that island with a killer?

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 22, 2011

Past is prologue for Obama's reelection chances?

Michael Barone thinks that the off year election cycles in the House of Representatives may be a fairly accurate predictor of the following presidential election -- which is bad news for Obama and his backers.

[F]rom 1996 through 2008 there is only a 1% difference between the Democratic percentages for president and the House; between 1952 and 1992, with the single exception of 1964, when Lyndon Johnson ran ahead of Democratic congressional candidates, Democratic House candidates’ percentage ranged from 5% to 14% higher than Democrats’ percentages for president.

The question then suggests itself: to what extent can we consider the popular vote for the House in off-year elections as a prediction of the presidential vote in the next election? The answer appears to be: pretty good.

Of course, it's difficult to factor in the wildcard in the equation, which is, of course, the GOP -- aka, The Stupid Party. Still, the fecklessness of the Republicans aside, the numbers are what they are.

Perhaps Hope and Change really is coming -- just four years later than expected.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 11, 2011

Bogie's looking distinguished

Bogie and I look at each other; I notice the grey in his eyebrows, his muzzle, frosting the tips of his ears. I wonder if he notices the grey in my fur. Bogie is almost 11 years old, a canine senior citizen, which fills me with a sense of dread at the thought of life without the happy hound, his mortality reminding me of my own.

When he spotted me that fateful day at the animal shelter, neither of us had any grey; now, we're both looking (ahem) distinguished. For an oldtimer, Bogie's still remarkably spry, leaping into the air and racing around the backyard, albeit without Roscoe's seemingly endless energy.

Bogie may not have Roscoe's stamina, but he's not afraid to take the (play) fight to the puppy. It's funny to watch Roscoe push, nip and bark at Bogie -- until the older dog decides to remind the younger dog who's boss.

Posted by Mike Lief at 07:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

July 04, 2011

Reflecting upon Independence Day

This clip, from HBO's miniseries, "John Adams," recreates the moment when George Washington took the oath of office, becoming the nation's first president. An almost unrecognizable David Morse portrays the former general, capturing the man's humility, but it's Paul Giamatti as Adams who's unforgettable; his eyes burn with emotion and revolutionary zeal as he watches the former colonies gain their first chief executive.

It's hard for us today to realize the passions that moved our nation's founding fathers to rebellion -- treachery and treason in the eyes of those loyal to the English monarch -- risking their lives and the lives of their families for independence.

In this scene, the delegates rise, one by one, to cast their votes for -- or against -- independence. Imagine standing in the crowd on that sweltering July day and hearing the Declaration of Independence read for the very first time.

This clip, from the 1972 film version of the hit Broadway musical, "1776," has John Adams (played by the wonderful William Daniels), expressing his frustration with and contempt for Congress -- a feeling well deserved and little changed amongst Congress watchers past and present.

It opens with one of the best lines ever, as Adams storms into Congress:

ADAMS: I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress! And, by God, I have had this Congress! For ten years, King George and his Parliament have gulled, cullied and diddled these Colonies with their illegal taxes! Stamp Acts, Townshend Acts, Sugar Acts, Tea Acts! And when we dared stand up like men, they have stopped our trade, seized our ships, blockaded our ports, burned our towns and spilled our blood! And still this Congress refuses to grant any of my proposals on independence, even so much as the courtesy of open debate. Good God, what in Hell are you waiting for?

If you're in the mood to be both entertained and informed, start with "John Adams" and finish with "1776."

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Independence Day: We hold these truths to be self-evident ...

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

You can view high-resolution versions of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of RIghts here.

Posted by Mike Lief at 06:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 25, 2011

Coming soon: Captain America

What's this? A superhero movie set during World War II, where the good guy is an American GI? The bad guys are evil Nazis? And there doesn't appear to be any Hollywood-imposed moral ambiguity, blame-America-first snark?

Tough talking Tommy Lee Jones, .45 cal. Thompsons and 1911A1s, fedoras, brassy dames in uniform and Horten flying wings, and the answer to the eternal question, "Where do superheroes come from?"

Nazi: What makes you so special?

Captain America: Nothing. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn.

Oh, yes!

Did I mention I'm from Brooklyn?

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 23, 2011

Put me in, coach! Baseball dreams from centerfield

FIrst base coach Babe Ruth sings with Brooklyn Dodger outfielders Tuck Stainback, Buddy Hasset and Kiki Cuyler during the '38 season.

When was the last time you saw the video that accompanies John Fogerty's 1985 hit, "Centerfield"? This is one of those songs that makes me indescribably happy (but I'll try). Baseball in its modern incarnation leaves me relatively unmoved, as do most professional sports. With rosters changing constantly, fans with an emotional attachment to a team are rooting for the uniform or the corporations that own them, not the players.

I was a kid during the last gasp of the days when the same guys played for a team year after year; hell, some players spent their entire careers with the same ball club! You weren't cheering for the owner; it was the boys in the outfield, the Sultan of Swat, Joltin' Joe who made your heart sing with the CRACK! of a line drive, or broke your heart with a pop fly to the infield and the waiting glove of a smiling shortstop.

This song -- it really should be the official song of Major League Baseball -- always makes me think of how it felt to watch the Dodgers when I was a kid, and the video does a brilliant job of evoking that ever-more-alluring time, with its depiction of clean-cut, smiling, handsome players, not a tattoo to be seen.

The video also highlights the decline in public standards in the stands. Check out how well dressed the fans are: Most men wear a hat, and a coat and tie, too; blue collar types wear clean, neat clothes.

The first game ever played at Ebbets Field, April 5, 1913. Click on the photo to see a larger version, then check out the well-dressed folks in the bleachers.

Yeah, it's more comfortable wearing sweats and a t-shirt, but dressing like a gentleman encourages you to act like a gent; the clothes really do make the man. Conversely, dressing like a thug, emulating the so-called style of 21st Century crooks and lowlifes, only coarsens the ordeal of daily life in the big city.

Jackie Robinson gets a handshake as he scores a run during his first year with the Dodgers.

Where -- and when -- would you rather attend a game? Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, circa 2011, and risk being beaten into a coma by a gang tattoo-covered moron?

Or Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, circa 1947, cheering Jackie Robinson against Joe DiMaggio and the reviled Yankees, as you yanked the fedora off your head and waved it about like a madman, cheering for your guys?

"Centerfield" makes me want to hop on the subway and emerge from the tunnels across the street from the long-ago demolished Ebbetts Field, buy a hotdog, and see if I can spot my grandfather in the stands, a young version of my dad at his side, maybe catch a glimpse of Babe at first base, telling one of the new guys to steal second.

Nostalgia's a sucker bet, but this song makes me long for a time I know only from photographs and stories told by my father. It sounded wonderful, which probably explains why Fogerty's anthem seems to strike such a chord in me.

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today!
We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field.
A-roundin’ third, and headed for home, it’s a brown-eyed handsome man;
Anyone can understand the way I feel.

Chorus:
Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Well, I spent some time in the mudville nine, watchin’ it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the mighty Casey struck out.
So say hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio;
Don’t say "it ain’t so", you know the time is now.

Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch ’em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) it’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!

Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

I don't even own a glove and that makes me want to play! Hell, I'll even close the laptop and get off the couch.

That's how much I like this song.

Posted by Mike Lief at 05:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 22, 2011

I have seen the aliens ... and we are horrifying

I was a fan of science fiction from the time I first learned to read; Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were my favorites, and they both published in John Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction during the '30s and '40s -- hell, Heinlein published his very first story in Campbell's magazine!

Campbell was no slouch as a writer; perhaps his most famous story was 1938's "Who Goes There," -- very scary -- adapted for the big screen in 1953 as The Thing From Outer Space," starring James Arness as, well, a giant carnivorous carrot. Not scary. But it was remade in '82 by John Carpenter; his version of The Thing," starring Kurt Russell, was a classic, a truly terrifying tale of a shape-shifting extraterrestrial picking off the members of an isolated antarctic research station, one by one, assimilating and incorporating them into itself, assuming their shape and identity, quite faithful to Campbell's novella, which you can read here.

Nearly thirty years later, I stumbled across Peter Watts' story, "The Things," told from the perspective of the alien. I don't know that I've ever read a more disturbing piece of science fiction. Watts' manages to make us seem thoroughly alien, and the protagonist's point of view, his -- its thoughts about our world, our seemingly-isolated existence, our seemingly-inexplicable reluctance to be "assimilated" by the creature is deeply unsettling.

It begins:

I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front.

I am being Copper. I am rising from the dead.

I am being Childs. I am guarding the main entrance.

The names don't matter. They are placeholders, nothing more; all biomass is interchangeable. What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else.

I see myself through the window, loping through the storm, wearing Blair. MacReady has told me to burn Blair if he comes back alone, but MacReady still thinks I am one of him. I am not: I am being Blair, and I am at the door. I am being Childs, and I let myself in. I take brief communion, tendrils writhing forth from my faces, intertwining: I am BlairChilds, exchanging news of the world.

The world has found me out. It has discovered my burrow beneath the tool shed, the half-finished lifeboat cannibalized from the viscera of dead helicopters. The world is busy destroying my means of escape. Then it will come back for me.

There is only one option left. I disintegrate. Being Blair, I go to share the plan with Copper and to feed on the rotting biomass once called Clarke; so many changes in so short a time have dangerously depleted my reserves. Being Childs, I have already consumed what was left of Fuchs and am replenished for the next phase. I sling the flamethrower onto my back and head outside, into the long Antarctic night.

I will go into the storm, and never come back.

I was so much more, before the crash. I was an explorer, an ambassador, a missionary. I spread across the cosmos, met countless worlds, took communion: the fit reshaped the unfit and the whole universe bootstrapped upwards in joyful, infinitesimal increments. I was a soldier, at war with entropy itself. I was the very hand by which Creation perfects itself.

So much wisdom I had. So much experience. Now I cannot remember all the things I knew. I can only remember that I once knew them ....

Read Campbell's "Who Goes There," or watch Carpenter's The Thing, then read Watts' "The Things."

You may not sleep well, but it's worth it.

Posted by Mike Lief at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

A look at the best Dad a guy could have, from the 1930s through the 2000s.

Dad in Golden Gate Park with my Grandmother and his younger sister, my Aunt Lee, circa 1937.

This shot is probably from 1950 -- in Brooklyn -- before Dad joined the Navy.

Dad aboard ship during the Korean War. My father is proud to have served; I'm glad I could carry on the family tradition.

Working at a pharmacy in downtown Los Angeles, circa 1965.

The Lief Family, circa 1965, with Dad's parents. If I haven't mentioned it, it's a scientific fact that they were the best grandparents known to mankind.

Disco Dad. Polyester leisure suit and a redonkulous moustache. Oy.

I snapped these shots during our cross-country train ride in 2004, when Dad and I celebrated his 70th and my 40th birthday by indulging our dislike of flying by riding the rails to Florida, returning to California via the Panama Canal aboard a cruise ship.

Posted by Mike Lief at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 14, 2011

Conan O'Brien kills at Dartmouth

Scott Johnson notes at Powerline that Conan O'Brien delivered the commencement address at Dartmouth this past weekend, highlighting a tremendous point made by the comedian at the beginning of his speech, when he acknowledged that Pres. Bush (41) was seated behind him on the stage, waiting to receive an honorary award.

O'Brien said:

Before I begin, I must point out that behind me sits a highly admired President of the United States and decorated war hero while I, a cable television talk show host, has been chosen to stand here and impart wisdom. I pray I never witness a more damning example of what is wrong with America today.

What a wonderful way to acknowledge the ridiculous status we accord entertainers in what passes for educated society. Good for O'Brien.

He goes on to deliver an often very funny speech -- would that my graduation had featured such an entertaining speaker!

Good morning and congratulations to the Dartmouth Class of 2011. Today, you have achieved something special, something only 92 percent of Americans your age will ever know: a college diploma. That’s right, with your college diploma you now have a crushing advantage over 8 percent of the workforce. I'm talking about dropout losers like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg.

It's an excellent point: When 92 percent of 21-year-old Americans have a bachelor's degree, it means next to nothing in and of itself, serving only as a check-the-box item on a job application. It's also nice of O'Brien to highlight that some of the most fantastically successful entrepreneurs of the last 50 years achieved their success without the benefit of an expensive diploma.

This next bit perfectly captures undergraduate life:

But don't get me wrong, I take my task today very seriously. When I got the call two months ago to be your speaker, I decided to prepare with the same intensity many of you have devoted to an important term paper. So late last night, I began. I drank two cans of Red Bull, snorted some Adderall, played a few hours of Call of Duty, and then opened my browser. I think Wikipedia put it best when they said "Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League University in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States." Thank you and good luck.

I got a kick out of O'Brien's advice to the graduates' parents, cautioning:

If your child majored in fine arts or philosophy, you have good reason to be worried. The only place where they are now really qualified to get a job is ancient Greece. Good luck with that degree.

And, I have to tell you this:

You will spend more money framing your child's diploma than they will earn in the next six months. It's tough out there, so be patient. The only people hiring right now are Panera Bread and Mexican drug cartels.

O'Brien then segued into a mediation on failure, but he began with his take on the sputtering economy's impact on the job search, as well as another reason for the lack of job openings, with this ever-so-general bit of personal knowledge:

[O]ne of the reasons it's so tough finding work is that aging baby boomers refuse to leave their jobs. Trust me on this. Even when they promise you for five years that they are going to leave—and say it on television—I mean you can go on YouTube right now and watch the guy do it, there is no guarantee they won't come back. Of course I'm speaking generally.

I'm agnostic on the whole Conan-Leno contretemps, but that's just awesome.

O'Brien uses his loss of the Tonight Show gig as a jumping-off point for a fairly serious look at the importance of accepting that failure and disappointment are a part of life, and that they can provide opportunities to change direction, to chart a new course, to succeed in ways that might never have occurred to you, had the change not been forced upon you.

Now, by definition, Commencement speakers at an Ivy League college are considered successful. But a little over a year ago, I experienced a profound and very public disappointment. I did not get what I wanted, and I left a system that had nurtured and helped define me for the better part of 17 years. I went from being in the center of the grid to not only off the grid, but underneath the coffee table that the grid sits on, lost in the shag carpeting that is underneath the coffee table supporting the grid. It was the making of a career disaster, and a terrible analogy.

But then something spectacular happened. Fogbound, with no compass, and adrift, I started trying things. I grew a strange, cinnamon beard. I dove into the world of social media. I started tweeting my comedy ... I did a lot of silly, unconventional, spontaneous and seemingly irrational things and guess what: it was the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life. To this day I still don't understand exactly what happened, but I have never had more fun, been more challenged—and this is important—had more conviction about what I was doing.

How could this be true? Well, it's simple: There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized ... Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course. This happens in every job, but because I have worked in comedy for twenty-five years, I can probably speak best about my own profession.

[T]he point is this: It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention.

So, at the age of 47, after 25 years of obsessively pursuing my dream, that dream changed. For decades, in show business, the ultimate goal of every comedian was to host The Tonight Show. It was the Holy Grail, and like many people I thought that achieving that goal would define me as successful. But that is not true. No specific job or career goal defines me, and it should not define you. In 2000—in 2000—I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.

I think that's a great speech, wise and profound, neither condescending nor superficial.

There's a lot more in his speech, much of it very funny, but also surprisingly clear-eyed and well worth reading (or watching, if you're so inclined). Check it out.

Posted by Mike Lief at 04:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2011

Swift justice for rapist

If justice delayed is justice denied, then this must be as fresh as justice gets.

Investigators said a man has died while in the act of raping an elderly South Texas woman.

The Refugio County Sheriff's Office identified the man as 53-year-old Isabel Chavelo Gutierrez. Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Wright said the incident happened June 2 after he rode two miles by bicycle from his home to that of his 77-year-old victim in the tiny coastal community of Tivoli.

Wright said the 5'-7", 230-to-250 pound man sneaked into the woman's house and raped her at knifepoint.

During the assault, he said he wasn't feeling well, rolled over, and died.

[...]

Gutierrez was a registered sexual offender on parole from a sentence for aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child.

When this grandma-raping sex-offender parolee arrives in hell, he'll find -- much to his chagrin -- that the Devil's henchmen do lots of cardio at Hellay Fitness; there'll be no myocadial infarctions to interrupt his eternal comeuppance.

Posted by Mike Lief at 09:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)