Whistler Pics Coming Soon!

As soon as I can load them up and get them up. Monster gets the Best.Husband.Ever award 'cause he surprised me with a new camera and that's exactly what I wanted him to do. More proof that he can finally read my mind?? He would scream violently, "No!" Spoilsport.

I am relaxing in the bedroom, angling for a spot where the fan next the window will hit me perfectly. The trees outside my nearly shut curtains are barely moving, there is no breeze against this stifling heat. The end of July weather is blistery hot and it takes all my energy to get up, get dressed and work all day before collapsing into my beautiful, cool, dark den of a bedroom. Monster will be home soon with some promised Thai take out and Chuncky Monkey ice cream. Yum! This summer, though hot and uncomfortable, has been delicously indulgent.

Those are all the coherent thoughts I can string together. Pictures of our weekend adventure coming soon!

I Shot a Man in Reno...

The thing is, due to jurisdiction laws, if you shot a man in Reno, you would go to jail in Nevada, not California.

Japa Dog!

I love street food but Vancouver does not branch out much further than the hot dog. However, what Vancouver does, it does brilliantly. I already blogged about my post-exam hot dog experience on Granville and Broadway but I had been hearing of the Japa Dog from my friends at school and recently learned it's location--on the corner of Smithe and Burrard. I was on my way to meet Monster, so I decided to check out Japa Dog. There was a line already formed when I approached (I think there is pretty much always a line) and the stand even has its own celebrity "wall".















That's Anthony Bourdain in the top right hand corner. Apparently, he featured Japa Dog in his "No Reservations" TV show. I asked the cooks what their most popular dog was and then ordered it: the Takimayo.

















The Takimayo comes with tiny strips of seaweed on top which give the hot dog a deeper, smokier flavour. It came on a seseme seed bun and was smothered in onions grilled in butter and some kind of mayo/ketchup mixture that I couldn't fully identify.















As you can see, I had to take a bite before taking a picture.




















I will soon be back to try the other eleven hot dogs on Japa Dog's menu. And will be constantly on the lookout for more great Vancouver hot dog stands.

Rose Garden & New Law School

Every summer, the campus rose garden (which fabulously overlooks the ocean) displays itself in full bloom. Here are some pictures I took on my phone. They are not the best quality but they do portray a bit of this enhancing garden:




















Another reason why this rose garden is so special is because...our law school is moving next door! We finally got the $30 million+ we needed to build a gorgeous, top-of-the-line, light-filled, shower-in-the-basement, terrace-on-the-rooftop law school. In the meantime, we are moving here:
















To come into our new space, you have to walk through the rose garden. At the beginning of term, it will be a beautiful walk. The rest of the year, it will be a wet slog. But...there will still be more light and colourfulness than we currently have in the big, grey bunker.









Here is a drawing of the new law school. The large window area in the front is where the library will be. By the way, those windows look out over the mountains and ocean.















I would have enjoyed my tedious hours in the library just a little bit better if I could have looked out from the new school's glorious windows.

Yes We Can...Eat Sushi

Barack sushi.

X-Women

I, my parents, and all my sisters are mutants. Ha! So is the lil' Squishy!

The Daily Squishy

10 months old. A little tired here after her first Canada Day celebration.















After eating solid (or not-so-solid) food.











Even though Mommy's a vegetarian, the Squisher can still get her hands on some meat.

Funnies!

Diary Entry: March 7, 1999

[Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. March/April 1999]






While looking for my sister's missing birthday present (I "hid" it somewhere out of the way weeks ago and now can't find it), I found my old diary from ten years ago. I wrote the following entries on a trip from South Africa to Zambia. My dear friend Tirzah and her husband had bought an old missil launcher from the government and replaced the launching pad with a plexiglass-encased camper. It turned out to be really nice and comfortable, with seats, like airplane seats, that we could adjust to lay flat at night. There was also a large storage area under the back seat for supplies and aid items which served as a double bed. Anyway, the first day of the Zambia trip, I made this entry in my journal:

"March 7, 1999: We left Barberton at noon, after last minute projects were completed like sewing a new duvet cover for my coverlet and helping Tirzah sew mosquito netting with velcro to cover all the windows and doorway of the camper. After packing up food, water and aid supplies, the six of us said goodbye to the home team and drove up the steep hills towards Zambabwe.

We traveled 250 km to Grabolder then Linda, Chloe and I walked through the township to find TP, salt and mustard. It didn't take long and we returned with the items found at a small kiosk, then ate fish sandwitches and off-brand Cheetos at a government-run campground. The campground had rows of clean bathrooms and showers but no TP. Glad we brought our own. After showering with a mosquito-repellant soap bar, I "moisterized" with more mosquito repellant and then, after arranging the netting, I helped Ben spray the inside of the camper with a strong, very poisonous mosquito repellant. We sat outside under the stars while we waited the half an hour needed before we could safely breath the air in our camper.

And there are so many stars! I forgot, when living in a city, how full the sky is, crammed all the way around with stars and more stars. Gorgeous! We are happily full and excited about what comes next. The little bar in the campground is under a straw roof and I am writing this while listing to South African country songs coming from the TV in the corner. Soon, I will be going to bed and its only 7:30. But it's dark, we are clean and fed and getting up early tomorrow."

Watching My Future Come Closer

Friday morning, my new firm sent me flowers. They are huge, exotic and colourful. Right now, they sit cheerfully in my upstairs bedroom and when I look at them, I marvel. These are flowers from my new firm. The downtown firm that hired me to work after law school. The law school from which I am one year away from graduating. In the very urban, metropolitan city where there is always something fun to do and new to explore.

For the past eight years of my life, everything I've done has been focused on the long term. I got used to putting aside short term happiness and goals for longer term plans. Now the things I've been focusing on forever: a law degree, a legal career, an urban lifestyle, are so close that I can nearly touch them. But embracing the fruits of my labor has been surprisingly hard. I didn't think I would feel so unworthy. I didn't think all these changes in my life would feel so random and unplanned. I know how to do sacrifice but I don't know how to do success.

Monster has been the one who has believed all along. He is so happy for all the good that's come, but not surprised by it. He constantly tells me how proud he is of me, how hard I've worked and how I deserve these good things.

I process my good fortune through him.

Obama Goes Further than the Bush Administration on Indefinite Detentions

At a Senate hearing yesterday, Department of Defence General Council Jeh Johnson testified that even for those Guantanemo detainees to whom the Obama administration allows a trial (as opposed to a military tribunal), President Obama still has the power to continue indefinitely imprison those acquitted at trial. Johnson called this detention "presidential post-acquittal detention power" and it represents an unparalleled executive power grab which moves the Obama administration ever further from the principle of rule of law than the Bush administration. And that's saying something.

What indefinite detentions means is that anyone the President wants to keep imprisoned will remain imprisoned. Obama's indefinite detentions ensures that "real" trials will only be allowed for those detainees it is certain it can convict. Detainees who are not a "sure thing" for conviction in court will not get a trial but rather a hearinsg in a closed military commission. And those who do not get a conviction in the military commissions will be imprisoned anyway, preventatively.

I believe Glenn Greenwald said it best: Giving trials to people only when you know for sure, in advance, that you'll get convictions is not due process. Those are called "show trials." In a healthy system of justice, the Government gives everyone it wants to imprison a trial and then imprisons only those whom it can convict. The process is constant (trials), and the outcome varies (convictions or acquittals).

With his indefinite detention policy, President Obama is saying just the opposite, that it is the outcome that is constant. Detainees all end up in jail. The Executive chooses the process a detainee gets but the ultimate goal is ensuring convictions.

And thus I find myself in the strange and uncomfortable position of missing President Bush. Although he was a repugnant leader in many ways, at least he was honest about his ideology. I would argue that those who voted for Bush knew what they were getting: a conversative figurehead who would promote the interests of big business, private corporations and government intrusion into the private rhelm. But us poor saps who voted for Obama believed we were voting for civil liberties, the prominance of the rule of law and progressive change. In the end, we got another Bush--Bush Squared--even more willing to exert executive power in slashing habeas corpus rights. And yet, he is so shiny! And smart! And hip! And so, we love him.

And yes, even I love him. Sadly, I admit it. I've been reading his book Dreams From My Father, and it is just the most amazing book I've read all year. He wrote it after law school about his experiences as a biracial American. There were many times I had to put the book down to ruminate on a particular point. It's just that good. Dammit!

Scalia! How Dare You Be Unpredictable!

In a surprising rebuke to the Conservative values that brought many of the current justices to bench, the Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") ruled today that federal bank regulators erred in blocking efforts by the state of New York to combat predatory mortgage lending (the exact same lending practices that triggered the nation's financial crisis.)

In a 5-4 ruling by SCOTUS, Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative (and proudly asshole-y, if thats a word) jurist, surprised me by writing the majority's opinion. He was joined by the court's four liberal judges. The Scalia majority held that, contrary to what the Bush administration had argued, states can enforce their own laws on matters such as discrimination and predatory lending, even if that crosses into areas under federal regulation.

Justice Clarence Thomas (my second least favorite justice), writing for the four dissenters, argued that laws dating back to the nation's founding prevent the states from meddling in federal bank regulation. He was joined by the new guys appointed by Bush II, Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Samuel Alito, as well as the wild card, Mr-Girls-Should-Be-Protected-From-Ickiness Anthony Kennedy.

Some in the financial sector are angered by this ruling. They fear it'll lead to a variety of state laws that'll make it harder for banks and other financial firms to take a national approach to the marketplace. But consumer advocates were elated! A consumer advocacy organization rep from the Center for Responsible Lending remarked, "This Supreme Court decision is a victory for taxpayers, who have suffered enormously as a result of abusive business practices in all types of lending. This decision will help to restore confidence in the financial services industry and the national economy."

Interestingly, Congress has already been studying changes to pre-emption rules as part of President Barack Obama's proposed revamp of financial regulation. President Obama proposes the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This new agency would have the power to write and enforce rules on mortgage lending practices and monitor the process nationwide. The proposal expressly states that these rules would be a floor nationwide. Thus, states could write their own tougher rules should they so desire.

The Bush administration argued that it had to the right to pre-empt any state effort to regulate because they were all above the law and s**t. But even after winning that argument (!!!), the OCC failed to address the issues of predatory lending that Elliot Spitzer, and later his successor Andrew Cuomo (son of Mario), sought to address.

Spitzer and Cuomo were concerned that white borrowers routinely were given lower interest rates than blacks and Hispanics. Losses in mortgage finance morphed into a global credit crisis, bringing down venerable investment banks including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and insurer American International Group. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Read more here.

My Summer Schedule

This summer, I've had a pretty chill summer job with lots of free time in the evenings, coinciding with long summer days. Here is how my weekdays look:

5:30 AM: wake up (the sun has been up for a good hour or so and the light makes it easier to rouse)
5:45: dress and wander downstairs to check the TV and Internet for overight developments in the news all while applying my make up in stages (sunscreen, let it sink in, foundation, let it dry, mineral powder, etc)
6:00: Monster gets up and comes down to make coffee for us.
6:15: I make breakfast (usually bagels with cream cheese) and we sit on the couch watching the news and sipping our cofee
6:30: Monster leaves for the day and I clean up a bit
6:45: I lock up and walk to the bus stop
7:02: Bus arrives
7:10: I get off the bus and walk over to the Tim Hortons parking lot, where I meet my friends and we carpool to work
7:30: Arrive at work
3:30: Leave work
4:30: on Tues/Thurs I work out, on other days, I run errands or go out with Monster
7:00: Dinner
8:00: We watch movies or shows Monster has recorded or downloaded during the week
10:00 I go to sleep to start the whole thing tomorrow!

Gettin' All Maverick-y? You Betcha!

Gov. Sarah Palin announced today that she will step down as Alaska's chief executive by the end of the month. She will not seek re-election as Governor.

After watching this video, I am as speechless as Palin was rambling and verbose. But for all her wordiness on Obama's "new spending economy," the greatness of the Alaskan pioneers, the meanness of those who make fun of her son Trig, her children's breakfast table conversations,point guarding in basketball, I have no idea what she thought she was saying. All I know is that she believes giving up a job you were elected to by the people of your state is noble and responsible if you don't want to see re-election. If you don't seek re-election, then you might as well resign 'cause sh*t-all is going to get done.

It's so transparently a bid to move down to the mainland and interject herself thoroughly in the national political stage. She will be the big Republican star! Now she can do so without having the additional bother of running a state, even a big empty one like Alaska. After all, many governors remain effective long into their second terms, so why does Palin believe she is doing anyone a favour by not dedicating herself to a job she campaigned for and promised to perform?

But to top it all off, the speech itself was erratic, meandering and poorly written. And once again, all the ills in Palin's life are blamed on the media...during a press conference she herself has called and orchestrated in her literal backyard. In my many travels, I once met someone who kind of reminds me of Palin. She was a woman about Palin's age, also very attractive, also with a gaggle of kids and a high flying career. This particular woman was very manipulative. In fact, her kids used to call it "pulling a Mom" when somoene tried to maneuvre a situation to their own benefit. And, like Palin, this woman thought nothing of lying and twisting things around, so long as she came out on top.

As for Sarah Palin, I think we have not seen the last of her. She will end up on top, of sorts, at least for a little while. My prediction is she'll move to the mainland, grab some high profile position in the G.O.P. and make a bid for the Presidency in 2012. Or else shill on the Home Shopping Network.



Update: I've attached the video:

Wedding Bells on the Way for My Little Sister

Being number four in a family of six siblings is a tough space to fill. You are not one of the older kids and not really one of the younger ones. Instead, you are a sort-of middle child, occupying the space between the extremes. My sister RJ has done a fabulous job of making a life for herself, even when things got scary and uncertain. She has shown amazing tenacity in the face of tedium and has become quite the adventurer! Yesterday was her birthday and her boyfriend surprised her with an engagement ring. Congratulations!