Supreme Court Victory for Free Speech!

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections Thursday, ruling that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress. The decision could drastically alter who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in this year's crucial midterm elections…

Farewell to 2009

Despite this headline, 2009 has been the best year of my life to date. How can this be you ask? The economy tanked, the government bailed out some of the biggest corporations on the planet, and we got stuck with the bill, what was good again? Well, I met and got engaged to the most wonderful woman I could ever imagine, and I got a great job at a law firm in Hanover. What more could a guy ask for? Moral? Think positive, try hard, ignore the news, and you might just get lucky :)

How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus

by Patrick J. Michaels

This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on December 18, 2009.

The East Anglia emails are just the tip of the iceberg. I should know.
Few people understand the real significance of Climategate, the now-famous hacking of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Most see the contents as demonstrating some arbitrary manipulating of various climate data sources in order to fit preconceived hypotheses (true), or as stonewalling and requesting colleagues to destroy emails to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the face of potential or actual Freedom of Information requests (also true).

In Loving Memory of Jake Kadamus

I went to your funeral today Jake
I can't believe you're really gone
Sorry about that busted ski pole from about 5 years back
I've always thought fondly of those days
when you, Zack, me, and Seth used to go skiing
15 below or blowing blizzard or pouring rain
we didn't care long as we were out there on the slopes
or those times we used to go and lose golf balls around your house
played on your swing set, baked Christmas cookies at our house
stayed up all night on sleep overs
I'll miss that mischievous grin
and that infectious laugh
you were like my second little brother
I'll miss you buddy

...Or Not

Got the rejection email from Enterprise on Monday. Long process I know. But hey, that's OK. New plan: Retire at age 25. Only 15 days into the plan, but so far the execution is going perfectly.

Enterprise

Third application attempt to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and I finally got past round one in the interview process. In fact, I just passed round two today! :) ...ooh and I made some blueberry pie for dessert tonight... first time in ages :)

2 Clips, 21 rounds, balloon still has air in it!

A Time Line

Jan. 12th.
Meh. Thats sort of interesting. Weird though.

Jan. 16th.
Haha woah. Don't think this is going anywhere. I'll humor her though.

Jan. 19th.
She actually seems like a pretty interesting girl. Nice too.

Jan. 29th.
Well she showed me a picture of herself... must be a good sign.

Feb. 1st.
"what do you think about meeting?"
me: haha
I'm fine with it
I was actually thinking you weren't ready yet
since you said that first night you weren't sure about this whole online dating thing.
"well this is my feeling on it: i think we have talked quite a bit, i have found that through online conversations we have quite a bit of similarites with enough differences to keep things spiced up and that in order to know more meeting you would be helpful"
me: yes I agree
"i guess my comfort for the online dating thing has not really changed but my comfort with you has increased if that makes any sense at all"

Feb. 8th.
First date. We spent 3.5 hours at the restaurant. Need I say more?

Feb. 14th.
Could we have picked a better day for our second date? and both of us didn't realize it at first!

Feb. 21st.
It's official! :)

Feb. 27th.
Today. Dates # 8 AND 9 are already planned.

Laura, you are the most amazing girl I have ever met. You are my exception ;)

Montana Takes Aim at Federal Controls That Exceed Constitutional Authority

“I would hope that our U.S. Supreme Court would begin to retreat from what I think is an abusive interpretation of our interstate commerce clause,” said Rep. Deborah Kottel, a Democrat from Great Falls who supports the measure.

Did you know?

...that 15 of the 44 synonyms listed for "Romantic" on Thesaurus.com have definitions that are also synonyms for the word "unrealistic"?

...anyways, I uncovered this slightly disturbing fact while doing some research for what was going to be an extravagantly worded post regarding my activities Sunday evening. So instead, I'll just blurt it out: I had my first 'real' date in nearly 3 years this past Sunday the 8th!