Born on the hottest day in 1958 in a hospital about a mile from my practice, son of a lawyer who was a lot like Atticus Finch, I have been appearing in court since I was a teenager. The people of my hometown are just plain folks who really dont understand how the outside world has made their lives complex. Thats where I have found work for I am schooled in the secret knowledge of lawyers. Enough about me, I now am told I should use this space to disclaim that anything I have said here or on any blog should be taken by the individual reader to constitute legal advice. Instead, if you think you have more than a passing interest in any topic I touch on, you should consult an attorney.
Thesis: For self driving cars to work, everyone must use them such that the software can adequately predict the behavior of other vehicles. No exceptions. This requires a wholesale change of our American concept of Liberty, resembles the promises of a utopian world that always seems to degenerate into totalitarianism, and Americans are not … More Self Drive, Drive Self
We are in it now. Up to our necks. This virus not melting like winters snow nor evaporating like the dew of a summers morning. We have one hope only and that is all to gather our courage and behave as if our lives depended upon it, because it does. Here I had just a … More Covid Courage
I thought I was terribly clever thinking about this Steely Dan song from my youth when ever I thought about the pandemic. Of course, there are those who are more clever, and certainly talented. So here something better than I could possibly have created. Right, we can’t dance together. Say it again.
By now in the lock down we have read everything remotely interesting on the web and have, with great courage knowing the risks, began to read the comments our countrymen post after each story. We have a theory of the country promulgated by Thomas Jefferson which has a its foundation the yeomen farmers know all … More Never Read the Comments
I lay in bed thinking of all the lonely people wearing masks, hiding a face they keep in a jar by the door when it occurs to me this time we live in does not reflect a 1966 Beatles lyric from Eleanor Rigby we but instead something Billy Idol recorded in 1983, Eyes Without A … More Eyes Without A Face
When I recorded this piece a few days ago the butchers bill was only 8 times the number we lost on September 11, 2001. Today , a short while longer, it stands at 9 times that number. We get hopeful reports that the “curve is flattening” yet the more recent reports say the “curve is … More COVID-19 America
At the end of February 2020 Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State issued Proclamation 20-05, which reported as of then there were over 85,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and 66 in the United States. As of today there are more than ten times that number worldwide and over 80,000 in the United States. Seattle is … More Pestilence and Death, Famine and Destruction
In line with the notion that folk songs all need to be updated, this tune came to mind driving through Ballard, the formerly Norwegian town which was consumed by Seattle at one point. Like Ballard, the song is completely original. It starts with a the Chorus: I want to go down to Condo Canyon. … More Condo Canyon
I picked up the guitar and started singing all those old folk songs American’s love, like The Hammer Song etc. I realized they were all all labor songs from an era that has passed. They do not seem relevant. So I wrote a song about modern life. The Costco Song is more about how we … More The Costco Song
My guitar mentor Ford Giesbrecht has created an adaptation of another work of Edgar Allen Poe, composed the music, the video, and encouraged me to record this chilling yarn. All editing is of course his. To reacquaint the listener to the horror of this tale, recall that revenge is a dish best served cold. Hence … More The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe
