Resident Wife

What is the Big Deal?

Let me preface this by stating that I've inherited a degree of my father's Cold War paranoia. In the early 1960s, he served in the Army Intelligence Corps, mostly in Germany. He did background checks, so his knowledge of what the government (or anyone else) can find out about you has made him rather touchy about his personal information. Anything that smacks of "Ja, show me your papers" really ticks him off. (Costco Membership Clerk: "May I have your Social Security number, sir?" Dad: "No!" Costco Membership Clerk: "But I need it for your membership number." Dad: "You don't need it for any transaction without federal tax consequences! Make one up!" Exit poller: "Who'd you vote for?" Dad: "None of your goddamn business! Exit polls are a threat to democracy!") I'm a bit touchy about such things myself. My phone number is unlisted, I use pseudonyms on my blog, and I keep my Social Security number off my driver's license, checks, health insurance ID, etc.

So, given my inclinations, did it bother me to have my bag searched Thursday night?

Thank You, Rachel

Rachel Lucas is packing it in. Damn. Let's hope it's just another sabbatical. Hers was the first blog I ever read, and one my Top 3 Ever. I never left comments or emailed to thank her, and now I wish I had.

So, with the Fourth of July still fresh in my mind, and Rachel about to drop out of the blogosphere again, I just want to send her a great big Thank You for opening my eyes to the importance of the Second Amendment. I never gave it much thought; pretty sad, considering that I grew up a stone's throw away from Lexington and Concord. Now I live in a limousine-liberal town, where Democrats are the majority and political correctness is rampant. (Elementary school kids do "jumping Jack-and-Jills" and play "Tug-of-Peace" in gym class, and no, I'm not joking.)

What the hell happened? How did my home state, home of the Minuteman, become a bastion of the nanny state? Helmets and seatbelts for all! You couldn't by booze on Sundays until 6 months ago. And you still can't buy fireworks here. Good luck getting a pistol permit. Is it lingering Puritanism? Kennedy infestation? Maybe not, since our Republican governor just signed an indoor smoking ban. (You disappoint me, Mitt.)

For the record, I'm registered as "Unenrolled," and my political compass points to the Libertarian Right. I don't drink or light fireworks, hate cigarette smoke (but married a smoker), and think anyone who doesn't wear a seatbelt or helmet is a fucking dumbass. But, Darwinist that I am, I have no desire to impose my preferences on others. Do whatever the hell you want; just don't expect me to subsidize the outcome. And get off my land!

Anyway, I wish Rachel all the best. At least Kate is back; that takes some of the sting out.

Cry Me A River

Crybabies

Several hundred lawyers flooded the State House yesterday to call for higher state payments for private attorneys who represent the poor, arguing that the current rate is so paltry many of them are abandoning public defense. The compensation rates for court-appointed private lawyers in Massachusetts are $30 an hour for District Court cases, $39 an hour for Superior Court cases, and $54 for murder cases. Those rates have remained fairly constant for two decades, and haven't changed at all since 1997. They are also among the lowest in the country: Only New Jersey and Wyoming pay private lawyers less to represent the indigent, according to the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state agency that provides lawyers to the poor....

After the hearing, Anthony Benedetti, the general counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, said many of the 200 lawyers who have dropped out of the system in the last several years did so because of the low hourly rates.

Well, it's nice to have options, isn't it? Is representing the indigent a requirement to practice law in this state? Since attorneys are able to drop out of the system, the answer appears to be no. So be it; if enough lawyers drop out, maybe market forces will work in their favor. But it's ridiculous to whinge about making only $30 an hour for something you don't have to do. Thirty dollars an hour is about 3 times the real hourly rate paid to medical residents working an 80-hour week. And they have to do a residency in order to practice. I'm not buying the argument that young attorneys work long hours just like residents do. Doctors are in school longer, and the median salary for attorneys in the first 3 years after law school is twice what residents make during that time. Things are tough all over. Boo hoo.

Superbowl!

As a lifelong New Englander, I'm glad the Patriots won, but I'm not the type to jump on the bandwagon in full fair-weather-fan glory. Especially since I don't know a damn thing about football. Even though I write like a man, I watch football like a girly, girly girl. "What's a down? Why do they still have the ball? Why'd they stop the clock? Oh, why'd he hit that guy when he was already down? That's just mean!" You get the picture.

So, why bring up football and gender? Because the Superbowl, for me, will always be tainted by the bullshit assertion that there's a 40% increase in domestic violence on Superbowl Sunday. Christina Hoff Sommers debunked this a decade ago (you can find a summary here), but it was still floating around in my husband's medical school curriculum just a few years ago. This is bad, bad, bad for everyone.

Note to the Man-Hating Battalion of the Tinfoil Hat Brigade: when your battle cry is "Never let the facts cloud the issues!", your credibility is in the toilet. Misrepresenting facts is evil. Men are not the enemy. And you sure as hell don't speak for me.