Dena and Noah's son was born today, just a few minutes ago.

This is all terribly surreal and hard to process. Dena, who I talked to just now, said that it was even more so for her.

The obligatory questions:

• Mother and child are all fine.

• It's a boy.

• He doesn't have a name yet. I said it seemed odd to have a child without a name. Dena ( Read more... )

By two days into 2011, two people were shot and killed in Portland. (The first, for those who don't want to read the links, was a bouncer at a club, on New Year's Eve; the second was a homeless man who, at least according to police reports, threatened officers with a knife and was unstopped by a Taser ( Read more... )

I did not quite manage to not spend any money on Black Friday yesterday. This seems like a reasonable sacrament, in honor of all those poor Wal-Mart workers trampled to death by rampaging throngs. Didn't happen, alas.

The importance of all other consumerist and holiday-related extranea, however, is obliterated by this report that the FBI thwarted ( Read more... )

With everything else going on, the California governor's race hasn't been at the top of my attention, but this was too good to pass up:

MEG WHITMAN: You know, 30 years ago, anything was possible in this state. The government was small and effective, it's why I came to California.

JERRY BROWN: You know who was Governor 30 years ago? ME!!1This is ( Read more... )

Student applies to Princeton's law school, is informed that it doesn't have one. Ha ha ha oh wow.

And he went on to be rich and successful. You never know your luck.

According to the Guardian and the Press-Enterprise, the Menifee Union School District in southern California has pulled all copies of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary off class shelves, and is considering banning the book entirely. Because it provides a definition of "oral sex" that a parent considered "age-inappropriate." (For those who don't want ( Read more... )

Wow. I actually did get quoted in the paper. (On the second page.)

Bonus: For the anti-tax-increase side, they picked a 61-year-old Republican from Hayden Island, who owns an ad agency, and who says "Government doesn't make prosperity, businesses do." Yeah, how's that plan worked out for you the past few years, dude?

The other day I got a call from some telemarketing researcher about Measures 66 and 67, coming up in the special election (more information here). I let them ask their questions, and even said that I'd be open to calls from the media outlets that paid for the poll. Today I got a call from a reporter from the Portland Tribune, interviewing people on ( Read more... )

WHAT.Summary of this article: A public defender in New Orleans was injured by sheriff's deputies when they forcibly removed him from the courtroom at the instructions of the judge. Judge Willard's office claims that the lawyer "refused to comply with a directive from the judge," and struggled while being removed; but according to the chief public ( Read more... )

Washington D.C. personal injury lawyer Charles Schulze, age 73, died last week after saving the lives of two drowning boys by jumping into the ocean and swimming them to safety.

No dream of heaven could be great enough reward for this. I can only pray that my own life, and death, may be half so good.