I also wonder how many of those attorneys, nearly 30 years later, now practice in corporate firms.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Film Scenes That Matter: ...And Justice For All
I'd love to know how many lawyers were inspired into their careers by Pacino's character, Arthur Kirkland, and by this final scene.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The Jacknut Chronicles' Sunday Edition: The Devil In The DMV
Butch Paugh, a West Virginia minister who seems to genuinely believe he gets inside tips from The Man Upstairs, has been lobbying state government for years to allow West Virginians who share his beliefs to drive legally without a state issued drivers license. (Quick wave "hello" to Pastor Butch: everytime I mention his name on a blog, my Sitemeter goes bonkers from someone in central WV a-google-ing his name.)
Why the issue with the DMV? He thinks having digital pictures, part of the licensing process carried out at the DMV, in cyberspace is paramount to accepting the mark of the beast.
(But for some reason, Paugh isn't that concerned with his digital image being on the youtube. He's got more posts on that video sharing site than a 14 year old vlogger looking to impress chicks.)
Think I'm lying? Here's the link to the actual discussion Paugh had with West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin about the issue from a couple of years ago.
Well, I'll be damned if Paugh's efforts haven't paid off. According to the Charleston Gazette, it looks like MoJo figured out a compromise.
"A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver's licenses could be the beginning of the biblical 'mark of the beast' will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles today.
'What these people objected to was the digital image. Right now, I have three or four people who have requested it for religious reasons,' DMV Commish Joseph Cicchirillo said. 'I think what they told me was it had to do with the mark of the beast.'
One member of Paugh's group, Phil Huddock, a Randolph County physics teacher, contends that the digital photos give people's 'unique facial' qualities and 'will do more to identify people than fingerprints.' He also objects to school photos, saying companies that take the pictures are sending them to the national database of the Amber Alert program, which deals with finding missing children.
'My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken,' he said."
It's always been my contention that if the whole Mark Of The Beast thing was true, I'd be first in line to sign up. Being able to exchange and obtain information quickly and over long distances would be a valuable technology to have, and never having to use cash or cards to buy groceries at Kroger would be really cool. Simply waving my hand--with my account information encoded in a chip embedded in the palm of my hand--over the clerks scanning device would not only be efficient, it could be fun. Sorta like I was magic!
C'mon, jacknuts. Lighten up.
Why the issue with the DMV? He thinks having digital pictures, part of the licensing process carried out at the DMV, in cyberspace is paramount to accepting the mark of the beast.
(But for some reason, Paugh isn't that concerned with his digital image being on the youtube. He's got more posts on that video sharing site than a 14 year old vlogger looking to impress chicks.)
Think I'm lying? Here's the link to the actual discussion Paugh had with West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin about the issue from a couple of years ago.
Well, I'll be damned if Paugh's efforts haven't paid off. According to the Charleston Gazette, it looks like MoJo figured out a compromise.
"A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver's licenses could be the beginning of the biblical 'mark of the beast' will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles today.
'What these people objected to was the digital image. Right now, I have three or four people who have requested it for religious reasons,' DMV Commish Joseph Cicchirillo said. 'I think what they told me was it had to do with the mark of the beast.'
One member of Paugh's group, Phil Huddock, a Randolph County physics teacher, contends that the digital photos give people's 'unique facial' qualities and 'will do more to identify people than fingerprints.' He also objects to school photos, saying companies that take the pictures are sending them to the national database of the Amber Alert program, which deals with finding missing children.
'My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken,' he said."
It's always been my contention that if the whole Mark Of The Beast thing was true, I'd be first in line to sign up. Being able to exchange and obtain information quickly and over long distances would be a valuable technology to have, and never having to use cash or cards to buy groceries at Kroger would be really cool. Simply waving my hand--with my account information encoded in a chip embedded in the palm of my hand--over the clerks scanning device would not only be efficient, it could be fun. Sorta like I was magic!
C'mon, jacknuts. Lighten up.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
Oh! That Reminds Me!
Speaking of my car:
I started my first job full-time job in early 1985, and left it 17 years later after agreeing to spend a year employed in Des Moines, Iowa. My last day, a Friday, was a difficult one: I was leaving long-time friends, a business I'd helped build and the place I met and fell in love with my wife.
It was emotional. Really emotional.
I left the going away party at my office at 3:00 pm, jumped into my 1996 Ford Taurus and headed home. I was going to spend the weekend packing, and then drive to Des Moines on Monday. After driving through the downtown area for a few miles, I decided the Taurus needed an oil change before the trip. So, I pulled quickly into the Jiffy Lube.
The oil change took less than 10 minutes (as advertised!), but I noticed the guys working on the car were laughing really hard, then looking at me with strange grins on their faces. When I stepped up to the counter to pay, I asked the manager -- who was still laughing -- what was so funny.
"We got a kick outta your license plate," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. His comment made no sense.
"Your license plate. We think it's funny."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied. So he lead me back to the oil-changing area, where guys were still standing behind my Taurus, laughing. There, all shiny and bright where my old license plate used to be, was this (although it was a WV plate, not a NY plate):
Suddenly, I realized why my friend Cara Hedrick slipped out of my going away party for a few moments that afternoon. She put it on, hoping I'd drive 1,500 miles and half-way across the country without knowing.
I started my first job full-time job in early 1985, and left it 17 years later after agreeing to spend a year employed in Des Moines, Iowa. My last day, a Friday, was a difficult one: I was leaving long-time friends, a business I'd helped build and the place I met and fell in love with my wife.
It was emotional. Really emotional.
I left the going away party at my office at 3:00 pm, jumped into my 1996 Ford Taurus and headed home. I was going to spend the weekend packing, and then drive to Des Moines on Monday. After driving through the downtown area for a few miles, I decided the Taurus needed an oil change before the trip. So, I pulled quickly into the Jiffy Lube.
The oil change took less than 10 minutes (as advertised!), but I noticed the guys working on the car were laughing really hard, then looking at me with strange grins on their faces. When I stepped up to the counter to pay, I asked the manager -- who was still laughing -- what was so funny.
"We got a kick outta your license plate," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. His comment made no sense.
"Your license plate. We think it's funny."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied. So he lead me back to the oil-changing area, where guys were still standing behind my Taurus, laughing. There, all shiny and bright where my old license plate used to be, was this (although it was a WV plate, not a NY plate):
Suddenly, I realized why my friend Cara Hedrick slipped out of my going away party for a few moments that afternoon. She put it on, hoping I'd drive 1,500 miles and half-way across the country without knowing. Man, I have some great friends!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Long May You Run
After 188,000 miles, I finally gave in and traded my 1996 Ford Taurus. My favorite car, ever. The trade wasn't for another car; instead, the swap got me about a thousand dollars worth of electrical and handy-man-type work completed at my house. The kind of stuff I couldn't put off any longer, but which I had no personal ability to do.
I miss it already.
The Taurus was the first car I ever bought new and paid for. It broke down exactly once, in 2002.
The guy who put in the new fuel pump it needed said, otherwise, the car was in great shape. It was so dependable that I grew to love that damn car.
And I always thought it loved me back.
Even during the swap, it seemed as though the car was sacrificing itself for my greater need.
I hope that wherever it runs, it runs right.
I miss it already.
The Taurus was the first car I ever bought new and paid for. It broke down exactly once, in 2002.
The guy who put in the new fuel pump it needed said, otherwise, the car was in great shape. It was so dependable that I grew to love that damn car.
And I always thought it loved me back.
Even during the swap, it seemed as though the car was sacrificing itself for my greater need.
I hope that wherever it runs, it runs right.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Phenomenological
Historia De Un Letrero (or The Story Of A Sign), which recently won the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Short Film, is a beautiful five minute reminder that sometimes its one's perspective on reality that is most important.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Daddy, What's An ' 8-Track' ?
I used to plug the Charlie Daniels Band 8-track into the player of my dad's truck, and turn it up loud as I drove to my girlfriends house. Sixteen years old, full of sass and pretending I lived every lyric of the song "Long Haired Country Boy. "
Listening to a song over and over on the 8-track was no easy feat, but I wore that tape out in just a few short months. So I felt a surge of nostalgic excitement when I read The Charlie Daniels Band will be playing at the West Virginia State Fair on August 14th.
Then I remembered: These days, I'm pissed at Charlie Daniels.
My frustration has nothing to do with Daniels being an ultra-conservative who appears regularly on various Fox News shows, and who shares the stage once in a while with Sean Hannity. Nope, I don't begrudge anyone their politics, regardless. My frustration has to do with the idiotic tinkering Daniels did several years ago to my favorite of his songs.
The original contained the lines: "I get stoned in the morning, I get drunk in the afternoon," and later "I don't want much of nothing at all, but I will take another toke."
Daniels cleaned it up. He now sings "I get up in the morning, I get down in the afternoon." And instead of taking another toke, he sings about telling "another joke."
"But I will tell another joke." What the fuck?
Every time I hear the new version, I want to scream. It's Charlie's song, of course, and he can do with it what he wants. But when he changed it, he changed my memory.
Listening to a song over and over on the 8-track was no easy feat, but I wore that tape out in just a few short months. So I felt a surge of nostalgic excitement when I read The Charlie Daniels Band will be playing at the West Virginia State Fair on August 14th.
Then I remembered: These days, I'm pissed at Charlie Daniels.
My frustration has nothing to do with Daniels being an ultra-conservative who appears regularly on various Fox News shows, and who shares the stage once in a while with Sean Hannity. Nope, I don't begrudge anyone their politics, regardless. My frustration has to do with the idiotic tinkering Daniels did several years ago to my favorite of his songs.
The original contained the lines: "I get stoned in the morning, I get drunk in the afternoon," and later "I don't want much of nothing at all, but I will take another toke."
Daniels cleaned it up. He now sings "I get up in the morning, I get down in the afternoon." And instead of taking another toke, he sings about telling "another joke."
"But I will tell another joke." What the fuck?
Every time I hear the new version, I want to scream. It's Charlie's song, of course, and he can do with it what he wants. But when he changed it, he changed my memory.
Bastard.
Changin' lyrics of a decades-old hit song to reflect a change in personal values...And you never did think that it ever would happen again, in America, did you?
Sunday, August 03, 2008
The Jacknut Chronicles' Sunday Edition: This Joker's Wild
He's no Heath Ledger. But 20-year-old Spencer Taylor is a jacknut.
The Three Rivers, Michigan resident figured the best way for him to get away with stealing The Dark Knight memoribillia from a local theater was to put on a purple suit, a green wig and face paint a la Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker.
Way to be stealthy, jacknut.
The Three Rivers, Michigan resident figured the best way for him to get away with stealing The Dark Knight memoribillia from a local theater was to put on a purple suit, a green wig and face paint a la Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker.
Way to be stealthy, jacknut.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Real Heroes Deserve Better
I'm more than saddened by the tragic and senseless death of a local social worker, Brenda Yeager.
Missing since Wednesday afternoon, Mrs. Yeager's dead body was discovered by police inside a car being burned by Stephen Foster, Sr. According to reports, Mrs. Yeager was sexually assaulted and murdered by Foster's son, Stephen Foster, Jr. and his fiance Rosemary Forney, while on a scheduled professional visit to their home.
Here's the latest news.
I didn't know Mrs. Yeager, but I know dozens of people like her. People who go into the community to help young children who are disabled, ill or abused, to support the elderly or to help improve the lives of those living in poverty.
Heroes. People who deserve attention for the work that they do day-to-day.
Mrs. Yeager was a hero who, sadly, had her life taken by the very people she was trying to assist.
She deserved better.
Missing since Wednesday afternoon, Mrs. Yeager's dead body was discovered by police inside a car being burned by Stephen Foster, Sr. According to reports, Mrs. Yeager was sexually assaulted and murdered by Foster's son, Stephen Foster, Jr. and his fiance Rosemary Forney, while on a scheduled professional visit to their home.
Here's the latest news.
I didn't know Mrs. Yeager, but I know dozens of people like her. People who go into the community to help young children who are disabled, ill or abused, to support the elderly or to help improve the lives of those living in poverty.
Heroes. People who deserve attention for the work that they do day-to-day.
Mrs. Yeager was a hero who, sadly, had her life taken by the very people she was trying to assist.
She deserved better.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Flashback! Bad Movies That Haunt Me: Speed
A bomb's on the bus
"What do you do? What. To. Do?"
Ask for a refund
"What do you do? What. To. Do?"
Ask for a refund
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