The Victorious Opposition

I just received acceptance to American University’s Washington College of Law, which is my second-choice school. They have very good programs in both Intellectual Property/Technology Law and in Constitutional/Public Interest Law, including the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. They’re also within reasonable commuting distance from home - a couple miles off the DC Beltway, just across the border between Maryland and NW DC.

They also have dual JD/Master of Public Policy and JD/Master of Public Administration degree programs to which I can apply during my 1L year, using my JD application (i.e. I don’t have to take the GRE and do another separate applications process). If I decide to go that route (it would add another year to my program).

The fiscal realities of all of this are starting to sink in. OMG…

You can look around and find a lot of words of wisdom and sometimes whole codes for guiding your conduct in day-to-day situations.  I like Chuck Norris’s “Chun Kuk Do” Code of Honor:

I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.

I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.

I will always be in a positive frame of mind and convey this feeling to every person that I meet.

I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family and acknowledge that no other success can compensate for failure in the home.

I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.

If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.

I will give so much time to the improvement of myself that I will have no time to criticize others.

I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness toward another person’s viewpoint while still holding fast to that which I know to be true and honest.

I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.

I will always remain loyal to God, my country, family and my friends.

I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country, and myself.

Professionally, I hold to the ASIS International Code of Ethics:

ARTICLE I
A member shall perform professional duties in accordance with the law and the highest moral principles.

ARTICLE II
A member shall observe the precepts of truthfulness, honesty, and integrity.

ARTICLE III
A member shall be faithful and diligent in discharging professional responsibilities.

ARTICLE IV
A member shall be competent in discharging professional responsibilities.

ARTICLE V
A member shall safeguard confidential information and exercise due care to prevent its improper disclosure.

ARTICLE VI
A member shall not maliciously injure the professional reputation or practice of colleagues, clients, or employers.

In addition, I have any number of sayings, quotes, and passages that I can apply to decision-making in difficult situations or viewpoint on events.  One of my favorites:

“‘Luck’ is the ability to exploit accidents”  —Napoleon

What are some of your own guidelines, codes, principles, quotes, and all that?

In today’s mail was a letter from University of Maryland Law, with “Congratulations” in big bold letters on it. I’ve been accepted to UMD Law for Fall 2010. Since William & Mary is my top choice, and doesn’t do rolling admissions, I won’t know for certain where I’m going for several more months. But it’s now definite that, pending our financial situation, I’m going to law school next fall.

I’m excited and terrified at the same time.

This current cycle of disagreements has me worried that we’re going to blow up The VO. I don’t want to let that happen.

I’m calling a truce.

Thrill believes my Glenn Beck/WIPO post was inappropriate; I believe it’s completely in keeping with the kind of stories we do at The VO.
I believe that giving a pixel’s worth of credence to anything to do with the “Birther” conspiracy is inappropriate; Thrill believes there’s a valid issue that the President needs to respond to.

I don’t see any way that either of us is going to change the other’s opinion. The more likely outcome, given our personalities, is devolution into Thunderdome[TM].

So I’m done. I haven’t looked at anything written since I went out a few hours ago, and I won’t. I won’t post anything else on these topics.

I won’t back off from my coverage of what I think is worth writing about. But I won’t continue these threads just for the sake of trying to prove my point. It’s not worth it.

I hope my co-authors feel the same.

I spent Monday at William & Mary Law. It was a great trip. William & Mary is literally right next door to Colonial Williamburg in the southeastern part of Virginia. It’s about 150 miles from where I am now - a couple of hours down I-95 to Richmond and then east on I-64 to Williamsburg. Depending on the traffic around DC and Richmond, about 2.5-3 hours of driving. I drove down Sunday afternoon and stayed overnight, since I needed to be at the law school at 9AM on Monday. I left early so I could get there when it was still light out and do the drive over to the law school so I’d know where I needed to go. The upside was that I didn’t have to watch the Washington Suckskins embarrass themselves again.

There were four of us for the tour on Monday. Two were clearly undergrads there with their parents. One was an active duty Army Special Forces guy on a break between deployments and doing law-school investigations for when he gets out in 2 years; he’s been in 8 years, so he’s probably early 30s. I was clearly the oldest. And the only one who wore a suit & tie. I felt overdressed. But it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed for stuff like this, in my opinion.

The tour was done by a 3rd year student. It was interesting to get a student’s perspective on the school. She was fairly candid. One thing I’ve noticed is the extent to which all the applications require you to disclose information about past academic & legal “indiscretions”, and the amount of space dedicated to school’s honor codes. She made a point about it on the tour. When I did my undergrad, cheating was incredibly rare, and while people got put on academic probation for crappy grades, there was very little that one could have considered an “honor code” issue. Seems like it’s become quite prevalent in the last couple of decades. Any of you who’ve been in school more recently than me have any thoughts on this? Is it the ease of access through the InterWebs? A cultural thing?

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up my normal volume. As I mentioned in my DJ thread last week, I’ve been under the weather for a while (better now, thankfully). And I’m working on my Law School applications. Across the 9 schools I’m currently planning to apply to, I have more than a dozen essays I’m working on, so I’m a little burned out on writing/editing. Not to mention spending time trying to find a job, and physical therapy twice a week.

I have a couple of news items I saw yesterday that I’ll try to write short posts about later today, and a couple of deeper-research posts that I’m working on that will get wrapped up sometime soon. I’m going down to William & Mary Law for a day of touring & interviews on Monday (well, leaving on Sunday afternoon; it’s a 3hr drive away so I’m staying overnight). I’ll write something up about that.

Once I get through all my essays my volume should pick back up.

Since most of the reasons I want to go to law school are centered on things we debate here, I figure this is as good as place as any to solicit input - better than co-workers from my “other” life. I will, of course, be having this conversation with my wife and family, but I want to hear what you all think.

I had my first conversation today with a Law School admissions consultant from Kaplan. I decided to pony up the money for this service because I’m sufficiently outside the standard demographics of law school applicants that I really want insights on how to structure my personal statement/essays, resume, etc to capture the admissions folks and make it clear why they want to look at my stuff.

In the process, we discussed a hard-core truth. The admissions process is overly heavily weighted towards basic statistics of undergraduate GPA and LSAT score (generally accounting for 2/3 of the admissions decision), with the “other stuff” being considered only once someone has made the cut of the quantitative data. The bottom line is that my scores won’t even likely get me past the first cut at some of the schools I’ve picked out (something I knew going in), and only one of the schools on my list shows a better than 50/50 chance, based on 2008 admissions statistics. Harsh, but true.

I find this incredibly aggravating. I mean, I understand it - these folk get tons and tons of applications, and they have to apply some sort of quantitative filter to have any hope of doing their jobs. But it’s really going to screw me.

I did a 5-year joint BS/MS program as an undergrad (i.e. I got both degrees on the same day, at the end of my 5th year, taking a mix of undergrad and grad courses for my 4th & 5th years). The LSAC paperwork only counts the first four years of GPA. And doesn’t count my MBA from a few years ago at all, except to note it on the paperwork and tack on a copy of the transcript. I had a 3.65 GPA through 5 year of my BS/MS, but the 4-year total was 3.60. Even more aggravating, they won’t even likely look at the fact that I did my MBA at a top 20 business school and maintained a 4.0 GPA while working full time.

My LSAT score was good - 163 (on a 120-180 scale, 89th percentile). Not stellar, but pretty damned good. And given my scores from practice tests (which were LSATs from earlier years), it’s representative - I could maybe get another point or two if I took it again, but I’m not going to break 170 (which would get me in almost anywhere). With a GPA that took all of my academics into account, it would get me into all but the really top-end schools (e.g. Georgetown). As I said - aggravating as hell.

My consultant’s advice is to pick a couple more “safe” schools to apply to, in case I don’t get into the schools I really want to get into. I’ve spent some time this afternoon looking around for other schools to put on the list, and not finding anything (I could get into Catholic University pretty easily by these metrics, but their views on Church/State separation and mine are, well, “not in sync” is the most polite way to say it).

Right now my thought process is leaning towards “screw it”. If I can’t get into a law school with a program that fits me, then I’ll look for some other way to advance my career. I’m not doing this because I want to be a lawyer, per se. I’m becoming a lawyer because there are certain things I want to do.

Please give me your thoughts.

P.S. I’m going to William & Mary Law on the 19th, spending a full day with a tour, a class visit, a meeting with the Dean of Admissions, and meetings with the directors of the two clinics they have that so appeal to me (the Bill of Rights clinic and the Technology and the Courts clinic). They are head and shoulders my top choice right now, because of how their program seems to fit both where I’m coming from and where I’m going, so this should be a real reality check.

In my time on Facebook, I have been un-friended twice:

• The first time was in January, when I objected to the universal condemnation of Israel for their attacks in Gaza, and wondered why people weren’t condemning Hamas for the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians and using civilians as human shields.
• The second time was yesterday, when I objected to the characterization of anyone who objects to Obama’s “progressive” policies as racist - we just don’t know we’re racist - rather than acknowledging that some of us have fundamental differences of opinion about the appropriate role of government.

In both instances, the “friend” who un-friended me was a liberal.

At the same time, I have a large number of quite conservative friends, who consider me quite the liberal for my positions on same-sex marriage, church/state separation, the failure that was the presidency of George W. Bush, the disaster that is the war in Iraq, the incredible over-reaches/power-grabs of the GWoT and PATRIOT act, etc. I write about these on my blog and link there here, debate them, etc.

None of my conservative friends have un-friended me, as far as I am aware. Certainly not in the middle of an active debate.

People who know me - who are my friends - know that I am neither a “liberal” nor a “conservative”. There are areas where I am quite liberal (e.g. many social justice issues), and those where I am quite conservative (e.g. fiscal policy). I consider myself a libertarian, but with more of a “trust but verify” view of government than many libertarians.

Basically, I can find something to debate with pretty much anybody.

I finally got hired after seven months of unemployment!  It is the “stepping stone” job.

Thanks are due to everyone for who provided moral support.  The adjustment period will be tough, what with having to shower every day again, but I’m sure I can manage!

Clay County authorities have charged a 17-year-old for his role in connection to a drive-by shooting that took place last weekend in Pleasant Valley.

LeRon Darnell Jones of Kansas City was charged Thursday with one count of unlawful use of a weapon and resisting a lawful stop. Bond was set at $100,000.

According to court records, the incident occurred just after midnight on Aug. 8 when Jones allegedly fired several gunshots from a moving vehicle. Jones had been at a gathering at a residence in the 6800 block of Sobbie Road when he was asked to leave.

You know what’s interesting about this story?  I was there when it happened.  I know Jones on sight (although I didn’t know his real name until now) from many such incidents of dealing with him at the private parties I work at and in fact, I was the very one who asked him to leave this particular “gathering.”  It wasn’t a residence, it was the town’s civic center and I “asked” him to leave after he provoked a fight with another guy and was getting the worst of it while clutched in a headlock.

When we got him out the door, we had to protect him from the guy he had been fighting with and all of his friends.  Jones only had one friend with him and that kid isn’t worth a damn in a fight.  The guys who wanted to beat Jones’ ass left pretty quickly when I offered to provide a “faceful of pepper spray” to the next one of them who turned around to talk shit.  After that, I walked Jones and his little asshole friend to their car.  Jones was compliant but he was upset because he knew that we were going to ban him from all of the events that we provide security for and that it wasn’t fair because he “didn’t throw the first punch.”

Honestly, I believed that he didn’t strike first and I told him so.  I also told him that I had no doubt that he provoked it because of the frequency that he gets mixed up in these fights.  Well, he countered that fights happen even when he’s not there but I pointed out that you can’t justify bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior (thank you for that nugget of wisdom, Bill O’Reilly).

Before he left, I explained that this summer had been too crazy and way too many guys just like him had been getting killed.  I suggested that he come and see us after a few months, when things cool down.  He said “a’ight” and started the car.  The last thing I told him—in as emphatic a tone that I could manage for someone I have nothing but contempt for—was to “please, be careful.  There are too many people dying this year.”

Apparently, he didn’t listen to me.  He shot at someone at the gas station next door a few moments after driving away without knowing that a police officer was sitting nearby, watching the civic center for just that sort of thing.  I heard the gunfire; the little shit emptied a whole magazine and it even sent a couple of my co-workers ducking for cover, that’s how close it was.  At the time, I didn’t know it was him because a fence was blocking our view of the street, but it was predictable.

Tonight was even worse.  There was a brawl right before we were going to shut down (we were going to close 15 minutes early because we saw it coming) and the result was 40 gunshots near the parking lot of the venue.  A tv news van even showed up and filmed the front of the building within 20 minutes.  I don’t know if anyone was hit and left the scene or not, but I have no doubt that someone is going to die this weekend in retaliation.  And again and again and again.

Why do I deal with this?  I need the money.  Still, in spite of the sheer terror that I feel at least 80% of the time, I have to say that there is no substitute for this sort of cultural study.  Here we are with a sort-of black president and I watch young black men commit sui-genocide every weekend.  Frankly, I think I understand them better than Obama does and it all saddens me.

I work again tonight and I’m less than overjoyed about it.  However, I am sufficiently enthusiastic about earning grocery money.

Kansas City Star

UPDATE: I checked the news website for the local media van that showed up last night after the shots were fired. 

Officers were called to a location near East 63rd Street at Manchester Avenue at about 1 a.m. Saturday.

Police told KMBC 9 News that all of the victims are expected to survive. There were no immediate arrests.

That’s exactly where it happened.  All three are “expected to survive.”  The story might as well have gone on the say “...until they retaliate against the shooters—the identities of whom they will refuse to discuss with police—and then they will subsequently die in a later retaliation.”  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Over seven months into my unemployment, I have been called in for an interview with an employer that I have been talking to since December.  It’s for a position that I already performed a primary interview with a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been told that I am the only one being interviewed for it.  It’s going to be nothing more than a formality, apparently.  Although I’m going to be supervising about the same number of people as I did at my last job (around ten), it’s a position with less overall responsibility and pay than I hoped to settle for.  Nevertheless, I’m not discouraged because this employer is a recognized leader in my field, they have lots of work in my area, and they’re rapidly expanding.  I have no doubt that I’ll work my way up quickly.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been applying for jobs, networking, and basically advertising for myself.  Now it’s time to get back in earnest to two things that I love: my work and the VO.

Before I totally forget, I thought you guys might like to see the group photo of (from left to right, no pun intended) Kevin, me, and Mrs Thrill:

This morning, Mrs Thrill and I met up with baseball fanatic/road warrior kevinmkr and a friend for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in midtown KC.  It was wonderful to see that Kevin is every bit as kind and witty in person as he is in his comments and posting here on the VO and that—more importantly—the man truly does know and appreciate great beer. 

Unless I were voluntarily ground up into powder, I could not better express my gratitude for the gift that Kevin gave me: a bottle of Sammichlaus Bier from Austria.  They only bottle this one day per year (December 6th) after carefully aging it for several months and it holds a whopping 14% alcohol content.  I’m sipping it while I type this and I can positively tell Kevin that he stored it just fine; it is spectacular!

Kevin, I hope you made it to St Louis alright and that you enjoy the rest of your trip.  Please know that you have lifelong friends in Kansas City in Mrs Thrill and I and you and your lady friend (not sure if she wants to remain anonymous) are welcome at our home any time.

I’ve noticed that I’ve allowed myself to become a little distant as of late with the blog. My promise in writing here was that I would be honest, and an open book about my life. I’ve never really felt that there was any other approach to writing, and how I deal with life’s fame and failure is pretty much all an artist can do with any real amount of passion. So, in keeping with that trend, I know that this recession has affected us all. It’s made some disasters, and somehow in those disasters, much like a forest fire, sprouts and green emerge from the ash and charred remains of what happened before it. I want to know how all of us friends are fairing in this little storm since my last post on the topic.

Let me go first. I am fairing okay as of right now. I’m not living the high life, I still live in my two bedroom apartment here in Los Angeles, have the same twenty something year old car, and have held my job thus far. I’ve got some debt I’m not happy about, I wish I had to show more for my 33 years on the planet, and wish I was better off. I’d love to have one of those houses in the hills, and for the money I make, sometimes admonish myself for basically living like a college kid even to this day. Great job, great money, and basically nothing to show for it. My brother and his wife have more in terms of possession than I do. Sometimes I feel that I’m never really going to have anything.

What have I learned from this page of life that I’ve turned, and where I am in all of this recession madness? At 1/3 of the way through my life, I wouldn’t trade my path for anything. I consider life to be about experience, and the memories I have to show for it. My life has shifted to really trying to make the most of what I do have. I’m trying to focus on self improvement, and my relationships. It’s something that I can actually control, where as the rest of it I really can’t . Maybe I’m just getting old, but I really value all of my personal connections in life. Even the small connections we make here on the internet are very valuable to me.

I reference the VO almost everyday in an indirect way, and almost anything you write, I read and absorb. I then use it as experience examples in my everyday life. In a weird way, I kind of need this place and the community we all helped to create. When I’m up, someone reminds me of what I should think about, and when I’m down, you guys always are there to grab me by my bootstraps and remind me that problems exist anywhere. Over anything.

I freely admit that sometimes I get tired. Sometimes I barrel up to the keypad, and find that I have nothing to say. Sometimes, I just read something and say “fuck it.” Sometimes, I just really get frightened enough about what the future holds that I don’t even want to talk about it.

What keeps me going right now, is that I get to know how things are going with all of you too. I’m not in this alone, and even though many of you disagree with me, try to set me right, and generally let me know that you care. I won’t lie, with one layoff, one missed payment, and one more cataclysmic move I am in disaster mode. It’s on my brain like the weight of a Cyclops.

So, how are all of you? What’s the update on this very strange and scary time?

It’s been a strange feature of this year that I go through weeks at a time of complete inactivity and then suddenly have a cluster of high-intensity days that draw all of my time away from the VO.  It’s been like this for a couple of weeks.  This week will include a job interview tomorrow, some college work, part-time work, and, most interestingly; I am taking some instructor training in pepper spray and handcuffing (yee haw!).

In short, I’m totally swamped.  I’ll do what I can for the VO in the meantime, but this week in particular is very demanding in the real world.

Today is July 10th, my friends, and that means that the VO is one year old!  It’s been a great run so far and we plan to go on for many, many more years to come.

Thanks again to everyone who reads I hope that everyone will take a few moments to honor the site by telling us either what you like most about the VO or what you hope to see during the next year involving the VO.

I’ll go first:

What I’ve most enjoyed have actually been the behind-the-scenes interactions I have with our community.  The long overnight talks with the insomniac Manwhore, the sage advice from dwex, the exchange of academic research with pfluffy, and all others.  Above all, I’ve been very happy to have become better acquainted with blameme, who is actually the first Victorious Oppositioner and supported us before we had even secured the domain.  In the next year, I hope to forge closer ties with everyone in our community who is interested, particularly kevinmkr, who will be visiting my city next month.

You guys have been good to us!  Stick around, because it just gets better and better.