Motley Blog http://www.motleytools.com/blog/ For the Greater Good of Every Individual The Blog of Douglas Tooley en Copyright 2008 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:53:07 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Zen of the Water Stick - Whitewater Slalom at Beijing Beijing Whitewater C-1 Video (approx. 15 minutes) The American in this class was a newcomer, Benn Fraker, from Georgia, who placed sixth. Heather Corrie of America placed 8th in the women's kayak class, while the male kayaker, Scott Parsons, did not make the final. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/the_zen_of_the_water_stick_whi.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/the_zen_of_the_water_stick_whi.html Out Through the In Door Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:53:07 +0000 Eating Raoul Eating Raoul Directed by Paul Bartel Starring Paul Bartel Written by Paul Bartel, with Richard Blackburn 1982 Imagine the Wine aficionado couple from the recent movie 'Sideways' (Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen) ten years later and you have the start of this movie. Then put on your bell bottoms and other 'inspired' items from the 1970's, light up some Thai Stick and get ready to swing baby! Or, if you prefer, a glass of Pinot Noir or a Fume Blanc! FWIW Giamatti and Madsen could probably put together a pretty mean Country Restaraunt, but I'd hope they treated the help better than Bartel and his screen wife.]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/eating_raoul.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/eating_raoul.html Classic Flicks Delusional, or Love? For Fun or Love... Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:33:36 +0000 Measuring State AG McKenna - and Pierce County Prosecutor Gerald Horne I'm a fan of current Washington State Attorney General McKenna. I saw him work in detail on the Sound Transit Board in the tough days leading up to the passage of the first Bond Issue. Many times he was the sole voice of dissent, though frequently he worked with his fellow King County Councilmember, the relatively independent Maggi Fimia of Shoreline. Although he himself was opposed to the project he was always constructive and his involvement led to a strong start for that agency - and a strong bus dominated plan of service for his own district area, the Eastside of King County. Unfortunately the Sound Transit Board lost its leadership continuity in the days after passage. My opinion is that the turnover was a powerplay by the powers that be (operating through the Greater Seattle Chamber of Comerce). There was also a well managed financial 'scandal' that pretty much finished the job not too much later.. I'm voting for McKenna this time around, and I think he'll win. However I am concerned as to whether he's keeping his own 'continuity of leadership' as he matures in office. I'm of the opinion the barrel is rotten and we all know what all to often happens to good folks in such a situation. Top on the bad apple level, and more senior to McKenna, would be the former AG, Christine Gregoire, and, on the Republican side King County Prosecutor (Seattle and immediate suburbs) Satterberg. FWIW, these two are the start of the Government 'Blame Game' cited effectively by current GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/measuring_mckenna_pierce_count.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/measuring_mckenna_pierce_count.html Crusing Cascadia - NW Regional Everybody's Business - Public Corporate and Government - as appropriate Law and Consequence Orbital Spins Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:44:00 +0000 Clinton v. Bush - at Yale Some speculation here on the 'profiles' of Bush and Clinton during there College years - for a bit of mostly non-partisan educational 'fun'. Although both got their undergraduate degrees in 1968, Clinton did not arrive till 1970 for his Law Degree - after his Rhodes Scholarship. Curiously, the Washington Post biography of George W. cites 1964 as a transitional political year at that institution. I've done a quick google review of both men's record at Yale, but before I get to the facts let's start with some assumptions I had before starting to write this piece. http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/clinton_v_bush_at_yale.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/clinton_v_bush_at_yale.html For Fun or Love... Orbital Spins Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:19:05 +0000 Rules of Attraction Rules of Attraction By Bret Easton Ellis 1987 I was prompted to read this book by my recent review of the classic Christian Bale movie written originally by Ellis, 'American Psycho'. This book, his first, was also turned into a movie, by the same name. I've seen it - my memory of it is positive, but no more distinct than that it reminded me of my first alma mater, Hampshire College. 'Rules of Attraction' as a book however has created quite a distinct memory. Excuse me while I indulge myself by recanting same - and restating some of his same 'rules' for your own pleasure and evolving judgement. Ellis is a moralist wielding sexuality like a Shao Lin monk or Zen master wields a sword. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/rules_of_attraction.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/rules_of_attraction.html Books Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:12:22 +0000 Being There Being There Directed by Hal Ashby Book and Screenplay by Jerry Kozinski Starring Peter Sellers with Shirley McLaine and Richard Dysart 1979 This movie was the capstone of a career of shere comedic genius. Sellers is perhaps best known as the bumbling French Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series, starting in 1963. 1964's 'Dr Strangelove' (directed by Stanley Kubrick) may well exceed this movie in the eyes of history, but both are clearly part of it. 'Being There' is a critique of TV driven culture and politics and in it's time it was biting. In this age of emerging internet media influence the look back makes this a different movie than at the time of it's release. I recently watched it again, and enjoyed it immensely, all the more so for this being an election year. If you aren't familiar with the plot it concerns a reclusive gardner forced into a world he only knows from TV, after his lifelong employer dies. He actually does pretty good, much to the chagrin of the black maid who took care of him previously. In reviewing Sellers Filmography for this piece I noticed a 1967 James Bond Spoof he did of "Casino Royale'. The cast includes Ursula Andress as the Bond Girl, David Niven, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, John Huston, Deborah Kerr and William Holden. I'm gonna watch this one soon, sorry Mr. Meyers. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/being_there.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/being_there.html Classic Flicks Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:42:31 +0000 Belle Epoque Belle Epoque (The Age of Beauty) Starring Penelope Cruz 1992 This 1992 romantic comedy was set during the Spanish civil war - a favorite period for Guillermo Del Toro whom I've also recently covered. (This period also holds my attention - arguably the most significant chapter of the 20th Century.) This was Cruz's first leading role, the youngest of four sisters 'hosting' the only man in town, a deserter from the Spanish Army. There is no nudity in the movie, but nonetheless it is very, very sexy, as well as funny. If you are not familiar with the Spanish Civil War it immediately preceded WW2 ending in the victory of the military dictator Franco in 1939 - backed by the Axis and the Catholic Church. The opposition, the 'Republicans' were largely communist, including some 30,000 American Union sympathesizers who volunteered in the 'Abraham Lincoln Brigade'. Although often disparaged the so-called anarchist faction of the Republican side did stand up to the communist influences, though perhaps this is what caused their defeat. BTW, the film adaptation of the Hemmingway Book regarding this war, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', is also pretty good. Although Ingrid Bergman is not particularly convincing as a spanish peasant girl she is perhaps at her absolute best. This leaves me in a dilemna - which is the more romantically beautiful - Bergman or Cruz. Cruz or Bergman. Please, excuse me while I think on that one a bit.. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/belle_epoque.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/belle_epoque.html Classic Flicks Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:00:54 +0000 King County Superior Court Candidates - Suzanne Parisien Email Exchange A frequent complaint of anyone who takes their responsibility as a citizen seriously is the lack of decent information on judicial races. Getting a good picture of a Judge is difficult. Unless one is a regular observer of the court - a practicing lawyer, an intelligent court clerk, or above average police officer. One area where we definitely could do better is holding these individuals responsible for the consequences of their actions when the mess up - if it rise to that level, even just once. Even more important of course is removing such a dangerous individual from the practice BEFORE they ever get to consideration for a judicial seat. I've got no smoking gun on Parisiene - however I do have a bit of information, enough to cause me not to vote for her, absent evidence to the contrary, and perhaps of some use to you. Parisien is a 90k a year Assistant Attorney General since 1997, hired by Christine Gregoire. My direct knowledge of her is through an email exchange - a response to an email to Ron Sims about the trickiness of dealing with abuse issues - whether they be sexual, racial, or anything. I don't think that Ms. Parisiene read my email closely enough to realize that I wasn't disagreeing with his assessment of Gregoire - and as such perhaps not as pro-Gregoire as Ms. Parisien thought. This was in the spring of the 2004 Gubernatorial year when Sims was contesting for the old style democratic nomination - I haven't checked but I would assume Ms. Parisien did go through the appropriate hoops in order to volunteer for her boss's campaign. . I've done a quick google on Parisien - perhaps the best info out there are the various candidate interviews done by political organizations including partisan legislative district bodies. She graduated from SU and went to Law School back east, practicing there for a time, returning here in 1997 for an AG position. She moved to Mercer Island 6 years ago. She's done a lot of domestic violence work, including with King County, and this is what concerns me. For a supposed expert on the subject of abuse her answer strikes me as curiously lacking. Some State Departmental employess, including some in the AG's office make it a practice of 'abusing' the law on harrassment, etc, for their own benefit and, apparently, 'control' needs. I have to wonder if Ms. Parisien hasn't in fact used my particular case in order to herself take advantage of this weakness in our current judicial oversight ability. I can't say for sure, but absent a strong condemnation of these practices on the behalf of State employees in Downtown Seattle Superior Court this is definitely a way too risky candidate. Curiously, the King County Bar Association only rates her as 'qualified' - the third highest ranking in the race for position #1. The gay bar group ranks her as unqualified. I'm not up on current legal practice in Seattle, but I do hope that this represents a knowledge of the abuses of Gregoire and her associates as it applies to the practice. Certainly there are at least a few folks who are more than fed up with it - some of them are likely even friends of Sims! The damage done by Gregoire and her cohorts to all aspects of authority in this State - public and private sector has yet to be determined. This is why I oppose Gregoire. That's not saying I have any legal evidence against her, it's just saying she's just too risky to hire. There are areas that do need further professional investigation - on probable cause, if you will. Most notable of those are her other 'professional' associates. Though the King County Court's may well believe that any individual capable of making a rational, legal, argument against the behavior of a State Employee (on OR off the clock) is in fact the equivalent of a violent lawless sexual predator it may well be that it is the opposit which is the case. I'm still open minded about Parisien, but absent her condemnation of these practices, including as they've been applied to myself, she is, at best, not fit for this office. I won't burden you with an articulation of the worst case...at least not yet. Here's the email exchange, again, from the 2004 Gregoire Campaign: http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/superior_court_candidates_suza.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/superior_court_candidates_suza.html Around the Lake - North King County Fool For A Client Law and Consequence Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:44:32 +0000 Veep Peep Tom Brokaw has recently been suggesting Al Gore as VP and energy Czar - to both Gore and Obama. That is an interesting prospect, and, for me, I couldn't think of a more persuavive, and credible, addition to his pitch. Value wise I'm definitely more in line with Obama, but there is nothing worse than the inability to deliver on such promises, most likely creating the reverse. McCain is a military guy, and although a good one, the upper ranks of the DC military establishment definitely need a wipping. Bringing him in to cover up the mess could also lead to as negative a result as a failed Obama presidency. Joseph Lieberman has been talked about as a Lieutenant for McCain. This is interesting, but I don't think realistic. More likely McCain will promote a younger member from his own party. I'm not capable of guessing who might be on the short list, but if he can select a member of the GOP that can credibly continue McCain's legacy than that too would be a very powerful team. If McCain can find a Republican woman in her 40's or early 50's who is also a credible maverick and a 'compassionate conservative' that individual would likely be the first female president of the US... regardless of McCain's success or failure. http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/veep_peep.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/veep_peep.html Orbital Spins Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:56:32 +0000 The Moral Center The Moral Center By David Callahan 2006 Callahan rose to notice in America with his early 2004 book 'Cheating Culture' where he makes the case that America has been taken over by those who dishonestly make their living - on the right and left. 'Moral Center' is his 2006 post election reflection on solutions for that problem. I knew Callahan as an undergraduate (where Brock Adams was Trustee, in addition to his duties as US Secretary of Transportation). Callahan was on the political track while I was a economist into divestiture and workplace democracy. But we did have the chance to have several worthwhile conversations - my strongest memory is noticing that he was getting letters published in the New York Times on a regular basis. Definitely someone worth talking with, and hopefully I for him. I'll leave his solutions to you, but let me extract his quoting of FDR for your thought.
Roosevelt was masterful at laying claim to the ideals of self-creation and personal liberty through hard work. In his 1936 speech to the Democratic Convention, Roosevelt decried industrial barons who had imposed a "new despotism", and said that "the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man." He exhorted America to fight a "new industrial dictatorship" that crushed "individual initiative". FDR than spelled out his vision of freedom: "Liberty requires opportunity to make a living - a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives a man not only enough to live by, but something to live for .....Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the marketplace."
Just prior to the conclusion of the book he quotes from another early 20th century leader, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.
We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of the few or we can have Democracy. We cannot have both.
]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/the_moral_center.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/the_moral_center.html Books Everybody's Business - Public Corporate and Government - as appropriate Law and Consequence Orbital Spins Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:25:00 +0000 Cops, Crooks, and Politicians Cops, Crooks, and Politicians By Neil W. Moloney With a foreword by Former Governor John Spellman 1993 This book is not quite the tell all that the title promises, however for those concerned with public safety, post WW2 corruption, or Pacific NW history this is a must read. This is a cop's story of an uncompleted investigation, starting with a 1954 murder of a Seattle Police Officer in a Greenwood neighborhood bank robbery. The perpetrators were Canadians, apparently connected. The author, former chief of the Seattle PD, Port of Seattle, and the Washington State Patrol, started his career about this time. He rose to the top ranks in the 1974 corruption scandals, a story he also addresses. He doesn't name American names, or at least new ones. He does talk at great length about Canadian corruption and implies that there are similarities in 'practice' on this side of the border. One name he mentions a lot, and seems to like, is former US Attorney Brock Adams who did his best to prosecute the case. Curiously this book was written not long after Adam's disgracement on no evidence. Reading between the lines the names not said would be Norm Maleng and the Judges of King County, to start. Moloney though is a good cop, and states only those conclusions that he can back up. It is up to the reader to bring their own experience to the story - and to ask themselves whether those same corrupt practices continue - or, as more likely, reinvent themselves. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/cops_crooks_and_politicians.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/08/cops_crooks_and_politicians.html Around the Sound - Metropolitan Puget Sound Regional Issues Books Everybody's Business - Public Corporate and Government - as appropriate Fool For A Client Law and Consequence Orbital Spins Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:59 +0000 El Topo El Topo (The Mole) Written, Directed, and Starring Alejandro Jodorowsky 1970 (re-released on DVD 2007) European art films can suffer from dense cinematic symbolism - and this movie certainly has much of this strangeness It also definitely works. Stylistically it is a spaghetti western but it is much more of an allegory than any other contribution to that genre. The start of the movie left me perplexed. I think my interpretation may help to make sense of the movie, so a bit of a spoiler, which may or may not be true. After Jodorowsky's wife is killed by a rampaging gang of thugs he is left only with his naked son, his horse and guns, and a picture of his beloved. Though the movie starts with his pursuit of the killers but is really about the many challenges he and his son face in the decades following. In company of the recent 'Dark Knight' release 'The Mole' sits very well. Being a hero is not so simple as it seems, and it will change your life of your entire family forever.]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/el_topo.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/el_topo.html Classic Flicks Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:43:44 +0000 American Psycho American Psycho Based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis Starring Christian Bale Directed by Mary Harron With Reese Witherspoon, Wilem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Justin Theroux and Jared Leto 2000 Bret Easton Ellis's 1990 novel is a wickedly delicious account of 1980's yuppie culture.. It is quite graphic and definitely deserves it's 'R' rating - and a rating to take literally. Enough said. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/american_psycho.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/american_psycho.html Classic Flicks Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:30:07 +0000 El Espinazo Del Diablo El Espinazo Del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) Written and Directed by Guillermo Del Toro 2001 Like M. Knight Shymalan Del Toro has the ability to capture the light of humanity in well crafted horror. This movie is darker than Shymalan. Like the more recent 'Faun's Labryinth' the period is the Spainish civil war, one of the most interesting chapters of the 20th century. ]]> http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/el_espinazo_del_diablo.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/el_espinazo_del_diablo.html Classic Flicks Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:23:13 +0000 Last words on Hillary, 2008 I have to admit that although I was a supporter of Hillary I'm in fact encouraged by the fact that some of her supporters have gotten at least a small bit of comeuppance. Hillary herself will certainly go on, and hopefully the power structures of this Country will learn the appropriate lesson. Hopefully. Both my sister-in-law and ma are big Obama supporters. That positited the rhetorical question in my mind of comparing the 'stereotypical' female Obama supporter in contrast with the typical female '50 year old white woman' Hilary supporter. Upon reflection the question, though interesting, is mute. The important thing is to treat each individual on their own merits, and that's a rule that's a part of every commandment Moses scribed in stone millenia ago. However there is another question, not asked by the mainstream corporate media that may be very relevant. Perhaps it is not gender that was the reason for Hilary's loss, but her generation? Are people sick and tired of the boomers and their 'group think' ethos which ignores individual responsibility and encourages the sort of negative behavior exhibited, at times, by the stereotypical '50 year old spoiled white woman'? As such the question of the day: Will the boomer generation ever put forth another finalist in the race for president, in either party? http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/last_words_on_hillary_2008.html http://www.motleytools.com/blog/2008/07/last_words_on_hillary_2008.html Orbital Spins Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:44:49 +0000