Wahoo, redux

The following is from a comment from an earlier post. I wanted to bring it to the front page in case anyone was interested.
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Oh jeez. Here we go.

First let me toss out examples like dogs and colors. We're talking about humans here.

Second let me eliminate trades and professions. People become these things by choice. Part of being a lawyer, for example, is putting up with all the jokes. Deal with it. Indians, on the other hand, can't opt in or out of being Indian.

Third, Indian mascots do much more harm than do mascots of the Irish, Scottish, etc. Why? Because the average person actually knows people of Irish and Scottish descent, whereas most people don't know any Indians. People actually start believing that all Indians look like Chief Wahoo and act like the Chief Illiniwik. It perpetuates the stereotype that Indians are red-faced savages, where in reality, the contemporary Indian has many different faces and wardrobes.

We see the Fighting Irish mascot and know that not all Irish people look like that (if any). But when I tell people that I am Indian, they first ask me "how?" or "how much?" or simply say "you're not a real Indian." They make my point for me.

I don't conform to people's expectations of what an Indian looks like. I usually have to "prove" my ancestry by reciting the history of my tribe, or mentioning that I've been to the reservation several times in the past. I am also Irish, but I've never had to establish my Irishness to anybody. But I don't have dark skin or a feather in my hat, and many people think, explain yourself! You don't look like any Indian I've ever seen! That's because the only Indians they've ever seen are on baseball caps and perform stunts at halftime.

Indian mascots misrepresent what Indians are, and they have detrimental effects on Indians themselves.

Yes, the Mariners suck

"Virtually eliminated by Memorial Day two consecutive seasons, the current Mariners operation, relative to its resources, is a civic sporting embarrassment."

The season is lost. My only hope now is that they trade Jamie Moyer this year. I hate that guy.

Chief Wahoo

I had a big argument with my roommates tonight about the Indian mascot issue. I won (I think). Anyone else want a piece? Bring it on.

There goes another bachelor

I spent the weekend in San Francisco feting the latest bachelor, DB. It was quite a time. The party started at noon Saturday, and didn't wrap up until about 6am Sunday. If he still wants to get married after all that, he has my blessing. Good times.

My summer of weddings rolls on this weekend, which is thankfully in town. Kimmy and Zak tie the knot up at the Salish Lodge, which will be fun. Then the following weekend I'm back down in SF for the DB-Gwynn wedding. Then I'll have two weekends here before I head off for another year at Hogwarts... er... law school.

What we need...

... is a giant space mirror to combat global warming.

That's just one of several alternative ideas (besides simply cutting down on CO2 emissions) summarized here. I vote yea on the space mirror. What could possibly go wrong?

LA Story

I spent the weekend in LA. My firm flew me down there for a meet-and-greet on Friday, and a firm-wide barbecue on Saturday. It was tiring, but it was good to see what the firm is like outside of Seattle. The LA headquarters is really a polar opposite -- it's lively, and rather willing to spend money on luxury. My branch hordes its pennies like a troll. It's a lot more fun in LA.

After a dinner with some associates and other summers at a partner's house on Friday, I met Foley in Hermosa Beach. We did some bar hopping, including a stop at the most terrible bar ever. We recognized its terribleness as soon as we entered, but we stayed because we felt we needed to salute the terribleness with a terrible drink. We couldn't think of something adequately terrible, so we asked the bartender. She was confused. She asked the barback for help, and he jumped right on the case. For Foley, he poured a Three Wise Men (Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker) with Tobasco on top. Eeeks. For me, the coup de grace. He started with Jagermeister (uh oh) then added Goldschlager (oh jeez) then topped it with Tequila (oh shit). And it was terrible.

At the Saturday barbecue we were given these mammoth porterhouse steaks. These were the biggest steaks I have ever seen in my life. Ranging between 2-4 inches thick at all times, the thing was almost as big as the dinner plate. At least 7-8 inches in diameter. And there were hundreds of them -- one for every person who wanted one (and hypothetically, if anyone wanted seconds). Much to the surprise of everyone, I ate the entire thing.

The next day I still had steak in my belly. I had just been told by the Seattle associate who went on the trip with me that the firm's senior partner... its Mr. Bigshot... was going to be in Seattle Sunday night and wanted us all to eat dinner with him... at a steakhouse (the awesome Metropolitan Grill). Oh great, more steak. This guy loves steak.

As I boarded my plane for the ride home, I noticed that Mr. Bigshot was sitting in first class, in the first seat. He's known for asking his employees to dress nicely, but here I was after a day on the beach in shorts and a t-shirt. Oh well. I stopped and said hi, and he offered to give me a ride from the airport to the restaurant for dinner. Of course I accepted... but man, this was going to be tough... chatting up the senior partner while I looked like a schlub.

The ride back was fine, though he started interviewing me at one point, then tossed out the "What can I tell you about the firm?" gauntlet, the one I got so many times during interview season. I spat up a couple questions, and we ended up talking about judicial clerkships for a while. After the ride I stopped by the office for a few minutes so I could change into nicer clothes before dinner.

Dinner was really good. Mr. Bigshot spent about $1150 for eight people. I ate another steak. Okay, almost another steak... couldn't quite finish it. It was a fun meal.

But my stomach had stopped having fun a long time ago. At 2:30am later that night, it staged an act of civil disobedience and rejected all that meat. Not fun.

All in all, a good weekend. Too bad my first wine-and-dine event ended with me hurling in my own bathroom, but I'm sure Vegas had that at even money.

Roberts... okay

John Roberts... I'm not crazy about him, but he meets the qualifications I ask for. He's wicked smart, and he's eloquent. I'm actually hoping his confirmation is relatively painless. I mean, I hope the Senate asks him tough questions, but I don't want to see fanatics buying airtime to take personal shots at him. He seems like a nice fellow. Let's give him a fair hearing.

It's disheartening to watch the cable channels tonight, though. They keep asking Democrats, "How can you attack him?" They keep asking Republicans, "How can they attack him?" Well, who says anyone has to attack him? We all knew he would be conservative. No shocker there. But as long as he's a reasonable jurist, there's no need for attacks. On some conservative blogs I see lots of gloating about how Democrats have nothing to attack him on*... and they think this is automatically a blow to the Democratic party. That's just stupid. It's just a good situation for everyone that the president picked someone who doesn't seem too crazy (yet). They only scary part is that he's only 50... so if he is crazy, we're stuck with him for a while.

* Some liberals will attack him on abortion, but we really don't know where he stands on it. He wrote a brief as a lawyer in Rust v. Sullivan that suggested Roe should be overturned, but that's as a lawyer, where he was representing his client, not himself. We don't know where Roberts the judge would come down on the issue. Presumably, Bush knows. Otherwise, I think you can attack him on some civil liberties issues -- i.e., he doesn't seem to be too keen on giving enemy combatants any due process rights. This is one of the things I think this country will end up regretting in a few decades... a serious black mark in our history along the lines (but not as bad) as internment camps.

The Chief stays

Chief Justice Rehnquist has had enough; he says he's staying. He says he'll stay as long as his health permits. Good for him.

Suicide bombers and cowardice

Professor Volokh has an interesting blurb over at the Volokh Conspiracy, where he maintains that suicide bombers are evil, but not cowards. Logically, he's right. But this is the same argument that got Bill Maher fired by ABC after 9/11... it's not an argument that the mainstream is willing to accept.

"Now it's true that attacking defenseless people is often seen as cowardice, but that's precisely because most attacks on defenseless people — as opposed to attacks on well-armed people — pose little immediate risk of death or injury for the attacker. Attacking defenseless people with a suicide bomb doesn't share that characteristic. Again, it's evil, but not cowardly."

I have a different rationale for calling them cowards. Suicide bombers may give up their own lives, but they don't give their victims a chance to fight back. So while they are not afraid of dying, they are afraid of failing. They are afraid of taking a risk. In our culture, taking a risk with one's life is the epitome of bravery. Suicide bombers don't do that.

I don't think suicide bombers are "risking their lives" when they go on suicide missions. They have already decided they will die -- there's no risk involved. But the Civil War soldier who lines up across a field from his enemy, hoping to stay alive for another day, or better yet, to survive the war... that's bravery. To put yourself in a life-or-death situation where the outcome is unknown, but you want to survive, that's courage.

I recognize that Volokh doesn't argue that suicide bombers are brave; he only argues that they aren't cowards. But I'll maintain that this method of warfare is cowardly. The decision to fight might not be cowardly, but to fight this way certainly is.

Tough day at work

Stepping back for a moment, you have to think that Scott McClelland has the toughest job right now. The press gave him an absolute browbeating yesterday and today. And although I wish he would actually answer the question, his job is clearly to answer only certain questions, and he is remarkably patient when he is under fire. The press must have asked him 30 questions about Rove today, and he calmly refused to answer each one. They even took some shots at him. Here's a lively exchange:

Q: Scott, this is ridiculous. The notion that you're going to stand before us, after having commented with that level of detail, and tell people watching this that somehow you've decided not to talk. You've got a public record out there. Do you stand by your remarks from that podium or not?
MCCLELLAN: I'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said. And I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is when the investigation...
Q: (inaudible) when it's appropriate and when it's inappropriate?
MCCLELLAN: If you'll let me finish.
Q: No, you're not finishing. You're not saying anything. You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke about Joseph Wilson's wife. So don't you owe the American public a fuller explanation. Was he involved or was he not? Because contrary to what you told the American people, he did indeed talk about his wife, didn't he?
MCCLELLAN: There will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it.
Q: Do you think people will accept that, what you're saying today?
MCCLELLAN: Again, I've responded to the question.
Q: You're in a bad spot here, Scott... because after the investigation began -- after the criminal investigation was under way -- you said, October 10th, 2003, "I spoke with those individuals, Rove, Abrams and Libby. As I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this," from that podium. That's after the criminal investigation began. Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation?

The Rove Affair

I am thoroughly enjoying this Karl Rove controversy. I don't really expect anyone to get fired or anything, but for now, it's fun to watch the Bush administration get so defensive. And then we get AP stories like this, reminding us of old statements from Scott McClellan, and stories like this, showing how conspicuously quiet the White House is now.

But here's where my paranoia kicks in. Rove apparently gave Matt Cooper, the Time reporter, permission to release his notes and emails about the leak. Yet, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is still in jail. The million dollar question (which I haven't heard anyone ask yet) is: who is Miller protecting? (or is it "whom"? whatever.) It can't be Rove. And if Rove purposely fell on the grenade, he's got to be protecting somebody higher up. Right? Doesn't that only make sense? Rove is the deputy chief of staff, so there aren't many people higher up than him. I won't speculate on where it goes, but you've got to figure that this doesn't end with Rove.

Hee hee. I'm giddy.

Bye Boonie

Bret Boone was traded to the Twins today, for basically nothing. I always liked Bret Boone, whether or not he was on 'roids. As I've said before, I could care less whether a player is on steroids -- it's his choice; he has to live in that body the rest of his life. Anyway, Boone always played hard. He wanted to win every game he played. And if you saw his teary-eyed press conference when he was released... he's not afraid to show emotion. Among baseball players, a class of boring, robotic homonids, that's rare.

He was sucking this year, so he had to go. But now that he's on a better team, I hope he turns it around and helps the Twins win the wild card. (If the Twins win the wild card, that means either the Red Sox or the Yankees are out of the playoffs, which is always good.) Bye Boonie. Thanks for the years of service.

My stomach comes up big

Yesterday I made my way up to Ferndale, Washington, to meet an oil tanker that had come into port. We represent the oil company, and this particular ship has been subpoena'd -- I was there with another attorney to collect a bunch of documents. It was an amazing ship, built just a few years ago with all the modern doo-dads and whiz-bangs. The captain took us up to the bridge, which honestly felt like a Star Trek bridge. My dad and brother would have completely geeked out with all the electronics. This humungous ship had two engines and two rudders, each of which could be manipulated individually. The maneuverability of this thing, considering its immense size and mass, is amazing.

The toughest part for me came at dinner time. They eat dinner really early: between 4:30-5:30. I had eaten relatively recently, so I wasn't that hungry. But we were all going to eat, and I was going to be seated with the captain and all his salty dog crewmen, so I knew I couldn't just poke at my dinner -- I had to put it down like I was Kobayashi.

We get to the mess, and I have a choice for dinner: a) spaghetti with meatballs and sausage, or b) bacon-wrapped scallops with green beans and rice. The captain and the lawyer I'm with both choose spaghetti. I can't be the fancy lawyer who chooses scallops, so I go with the spaghetti too, even though I know that will be more food. Luckily, though, the chef doesn't give me any sausage -- I don't complain.

We sit down in the dining room with a bunch of other crewmen. These guys have just come down from Valdez, Alaska... these are serious sailors. I figure they'll throw my overboard if I seem like I don't like their food. So I eat like it's my job.

And the funniest thing happened. My much-maligned stomach, which has been the object of ridicule for so many years by my so-called "friends," came up huge. I scarfed down that spaghetti and meatballs with so much vigor, it must have appeared as if I hadn't eaten in days. They didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure the guys in the hall were impressed. I'm pretty sure that, despite my Eddie Bauer sweater, they thought I was one of them. Damn right. Good job stomach!

Sonic developments

A day after the Sonics showed surprising wisdom by signing Ray Allen, Nate McMillan drops a bomb and moves to Portland to coach those delinquent Blazers. I'm actually not surprised that Nate left -- he's been in Seattle for 19 years, and he had to be curious what life was like elsewhere.

It's a tough loss, but Ray was the bigger fish. They had to have Ray. The team can still be good with a different coach, but it will have to be someone who emphasizes defense and rebounding.

My question: can Nate still be "Mr. Sonic" if he's coaching the Blazers? This guy says no. I say yes; people here will still love Nate, no matter where he goes.

Good weekend

What a great Fourth of July weekend. I was in LA for the wedding of Ben and Kim, two of my best friends from undergrad. It was a really fun time -- a giant reunion of friends from years gone by. Ben and Kim did it the right way, too -- they had pretty much everything done before the weekend started, so they could afford to hang out with all their friends and family.

Here's to the bride and groom!

Thoughts on O'Connor

I wasn't too surprised when I heard the news this morning, but I was saddened. I've always thought Justice O'Connor was a thoughtful and fair jurist, even if I disagreed with her line of reasoning from time to time. Her opinions made for the best law school exams; she is so intent on issues being decided on a case-by-case basis, she would often create fact-based multi-factor tests that were fun to write about. That's probably what I'll remember most about her.

She was also the key swing vote in Grutter v. Bollinger, the Michigan Law School affirmative action case. I have Justice O'Connor to thank for my school being as diverse as it is.

The blogosphere is going crazy today, blathering on about how important she is and how everything depends on Bush's nominee. I think that's a little exaggerated. Sure, she was an important member of the Court, and it's true that her vote was considered so crucial that many lawyers tailored their briefs specifically to appeal to her. But two things.

First, I think her retirement really just moves the focus now to Kennedy. He's the new O'Connor, and as he has shown recently (see Lawrence (the Texas sodomy case) and Roper (the under-18 death penalty case)), Kennedy isn't afraid to join the "liberal" group. I think we'll see lawyers start to target the Kennedy vote for now on.

Second, I don't think Bush's nominee will impact the abortion issue that much. The last important abortion case, Casey, had Kennedy, Souter, and Stevens upholding Roe. Since then, Ginsburg and Breyer have joined the Court, and it's assumed they would do the same. Unless someone switches, Roe is safe.

However, as noted above, affirmative action just might be in trouble.

Personally, I don't care so much about the political ideology of the next Justice. I just want someone who writes interesting and thoughtful opinions, and who can back up his/her holdings with solid legal reasoning. O'Connor could usually be depended on to do that.

Side note: What about Rehnquist? I'm holding steady, saying it's 60-40 that he retires.