OK, so I know I have been slacking this month, but give me a break, I have really cool house guests up from Atlanta, and I have been having a ball showing them "My Favorite Places" here in Boston.

On one of their first days visiting here, we decided to take a stroll through Boston Common and down Newbury Street. If you've never been down Newbury its really a study in opulence, especially if you walk down the street starting from the Ritz Carlton right on the Commons. You'll find every designer label, boutique clothing stores... Not really my cup of tea, but as a people watcher (one of my favorite idle passtimes), you can certainly see quite the variety on a simple stroll down Newbury.

When we got down the street about halfway, my guests and my wife decided to go in to one of the shops just to poke around, and I sat out on the curb under a flowering tree of one kind or another to have a smoke. It was one of the nicest days we have had so far this year, in the low 70s, sunny, a cool breeze. A day that brings the crowds to the streets of Boston, so Newbury was busier than it might have been on another day.

While I was enjoying the good day and my dose of nicotine, I noticed a couple walking down the street holding hands and smiling broadly, the kind of smile that you really rarely see or show other people yourself, a smile of total contentment. The kind of smile that you notice beeming through the crowds. As the couple walked past me, I noticed they were wearing two matching T-shirts, on the front it said "I Love Boston", the style you might find at any street vendor in the park. But as they walked past, I figured out why they were grinning like Cheshire cats. The back of their shirts said "Just Married". Now this wouldn't have been anything that out of the ordinary, except that the couple holding hands were both male.

The great thing about it was that here I was, on the street enjoying a beautiful day, and there they were, celebrating a bond that had been denied to them for so long, and we were all happy. The world hasn't come crashing down since May 17th, the fuss in this city has largely died down, except for the Governor's threats and hot air from time to time, and you know what? Nothing has changed, yet everything has changed, and this state is a better place for it!

Here's the latest scheme to "deter" kids from drugs and alcohol.

Basically, the gist of it is, the police will be paying $50 rewards to food delivery people and hotel clerks to rat out teens they suspect are drinking or using drugs. So, when that pizza comes to your door, and you're having a good time with your friends, or maybe the pizza guy just doesn't like you, or maybe you didn't tip him well enough, expect a knock from the police. Granted, the delivery people don't get the money if there is nothing fishy going on, but gimme a break, talk about a blatant way provide a set of false pretenses for a policeman enterring/searching your house!

OK, if the government wants to pay people to rat other people out, why don't they stick to rewards for violent felons rather than "opening up the door" to no pretext police searches for a few kids having a party... They already have enough reasons to be able to go in and bother the kids if they are being a nuisance and bothering their neighbors, do we really need to employ the pimple faced pizza delivery man as a narc?

Well, now my sister has her own little blog! Check it out here!

I know I have been lax about posting, but work has been hectic, theres a new motorcycle that needs riding (which I haven't had much chance to do given the nasty weather), etc, etc.

Starting on Saturday, some friends of ours are coming to town and they have never visited Boston before, so as we show them around perhaps I'll be able to write something about seeing Boston with a tourists eyes again...

Well I have finally picked up the new bike, got the new tires put on, and all is well!

I really love this bike, the handling inspires confidence, and for a sport bike its not too uncomfortable to ride for distance, which is definitely a plus. The only downside is that in the process of getting this bike on the road, time hasn't allowed me to be as diligent as I should about going to the gym and as a result over the last few weeks I have put on a few pounds, but now that this is all taken care of, I should be able to get back on track.

Hopefully over the summer I'll post up some pictures of the tours I go on, on the bike. So happy to be on two wheels again!

But I have been busy securing my latest "fun toy", a 2000 Triumph TT600:

Here's two bumper stickers I want to get printed, and the back stories behind em.

The city I live in, Everett, has these bumper stickers that say: "Everett's Schools, Everett's Pride", but unfortunately, the public schools in Everett are among the worst in the state. As ranked by standardized testing (don't get me wrong, I know this isn't the best indicator, but it is SOME indicator), Everett falls in at 232 out of 302. According to Boston Magazine's summary of public schools, it has one of the lowest percentages of students going on to 4 year college's in the state. So, I want to get a bumper sticker that says: "If Everett's Schools Are Everett's Pride, I'd Hate To See Everett's Shame"

The second bumper sticker relates to how this town chooses to spend money. See, if you don't have a driveway, you have to park on street in Everett, and as a result you do get parking tickets for those off days that you forget to move your car for street cleaning, your car does get towed at exorbitant extortionary rates when there is a dusting of snow, etc., etc. Well for a town that clearly makes a good deal of revenue distributing parking tickets (there are days when every car you see on a street with have a nice little orange "note"), you'd think they'd reinvest some of that money in the town, and to make things run smoother you'd think they would invest the minimum amount of money possible in distributing those tickets to maximize their return? Not Everett, Everett has fulltime cops being paid at overtime rates drive around and distribute parking tickets, not metermaids at $12 an hour, but fulltime overtime cops at $50 or more/hour. Yet, in Everett's public schools, students have to share books instead of getting their own copy to read or study. So, as a result the other (somewhat long) bumper sticker I want is: "Everett: Where Cops Getting Overtime Write Parking Tickets And Students Have to Share Books. Priorities? Fuggetaboutit"

UPDATE
My wife writes in the comments that:

In the recorded incident, they didn't have books to share... they were using BAD photocopies of old books. They had to share THOSE... and couldn't take them home.

She thinks I need to change the bumpersticker, but I still think it says it all.

OK, from craigslist rants and raves comes this beauty!

I will repost it here in its entirety, in case for some reason it falls out of fancy on craigslist.

See, isn't this much better than if I sent you some annoying spam(ish) email with the latest funny rant or rave?

Here it is, attributed to "Matt".

Hey Crackhead

Yes, you. You sick fucker. On Wednesday morning I emerged from my girlfriend's building by U.N. Plaza to find that you had sawed the tops off both the sparkplugs on my motorcycle. At the time, I had no idea why anyone would do that. Other than the sparkplugs, the bike was untouched. Some kind of bizarre vandalism? A fraternity prank gone awry? I had no idea. All I knew is that I looked like a huge douchebag riding the Muni to work in a padded motorcycle jacket and helmet.

Because the bike was immobilized I got a $35 street sweeping ticket that night. Thursday I had it towed to the shop ($45) where they replaced the sparkplugs and the boots ($50 including labor). They explained to me that "people" - I use the term loosely here - like you break off the tops of spark plugs and use the porcelain tubes to smoke crack. As an engineer and former MacGyver fan, in a way I think this is kind of cool. But then I remember that I just paid $100 for YOUR crackpipes, and I get angry again.

Crackhead, it was really good to have my bike back though. I rode home from the shop with a couple of spare sparkplugs and a smile on my face. I figured the next time I parked at my girlfriend's place overnight I would have to buy some crackpipes and tape them to my bike as a peace offering. Overall, I wasn't that upset. Despite having to ride the bus for three days and dropping a hundred bones at the shop, I had gained some fascinating knowledge, a new set of sparkplugs, and a pretty funny anecdote about how fucked up you are, and how our paths once crossed briefly in the night.

But you couldn't just let sleeping dogs lie, could you Crackhead. You couldn't just stay in on Friday, watch Letterman through the window of a home electronics store and then call it a night. You couldn't rest on your laurels. Two porcelain sparkplug crackpipes just wasn't enough for you, was it Crackhead? You just had to come back for more.

This morning, a scant fifteen hours after I rode it out of the shop, I found my motorcycle violated once again. This time you only took the right one - maybe you were having an off night. At least this time I had a spare sparkplug and the tools to fix it - or so I thought - having ordered a 73-piece toolset from SEARS.com last week. But no, the sparkplug socket in my new toolset was for American sparkplugs. So I had to go down to the neighborhood Ace hardware. They had an 18mm socket that would fit over my sparkplug, but it was for a 1/2" drive ratchet. My toolkit only has 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets. So I had to buy a 1/2" ratchet along with the socket. Even though the clerk took pity on me and gave me the senior citizen discount (I'm 25) it still cost me $22 all told. Now, you might say that I should have just gotten a 3/8"-to-1/2" drive adaptor instead of springing for the whole ratchet. And to that I say "Shut the hell up, Crackhead, I'm not finished. And besides, I was eventually going to buy a 1/2" ratchet anyway so it's probably not worth it to take it back now."

OK, now I'm rambling. But the point is, Crackhead, that you have done me wrong. Now, I get that you love crack. That is totally understandable. I've heard it is really fun, at first, and quite addictive. What I don't understand is,

YOU ARE A CRACKHEAD. WHY DON'T YOU OWN A CRACKPIPE?

I am an engineer. Do you ever see me shaking down bums in the Loin for a calculator and sliderule? No, you don't. Because engineering is the main thing I do, I went and bought myself a calculator. The main thing you do is crack. How do you get by without a crackpipe? The other crackheads must clown on you non-stop. I mean, the fucking saw you used to saw off my sparkplugs is probably worth five or ten bucks. Why not sell or trade it for a crackpipe? You really haven't put much thought into this, have you?

Please, Crackhead, please don't tell me you sold your crackpipe to buy crack. Even a stupid crackhead such as yourself couldn't possibly be that stupid.

I've decided that taping crackpipes to my motorcycle would be tantamount to appeasement. You have crossed a line, Crackhead - specifically California Street. You have come onto my own street and you have desecrated that which I hold dear. You have stolen from me, and you have caused me to spend the last half hour writing this post instead of engineering shit, and it is concievable, if not likely, that my boss could find out about this and fire me. I am hella pissed at you dude.

Here are my options as I see them:

1. Write a note saying that I have coated both of my sparkplugs in rat poison and tape it to my bike at night. You can thank Tim for that one, it was his idea.

2. Don't write a note, but just coat both sparkplugs in rat poison. This is probably closer to a punishment that would fit your despicable crime. I'm sure this is super illegal and shit, but it's not like anyone is going to miss you, Crackhead. Don't fool yourself.

3. Wait in an alley near my bike armed with my new stainless steel mirror-finish Ace Professional brand 1/2" drive socket wrench, my 18mm sparkplug socket, and my searing rage. It's pretty heavy and well balanced. I am not a large man, but I am angry.

In conclusion, Crackhead, why don't you just do both of us a favor and buy yourself a crackpipe? It will both enhance your crack smoking experience and save me a lot of time and felony assault charges. Think about it.

Sincerely,
Matt

So this law school thing really is a done deal. University of Cincinnati accepted my deferral until fall of 2005, and while the letter says that I have a guaranteed spot in the class of 2008, it also says that in December I will have to submit some sort of updated application. Hopefully this doesn't mean that I will have to submit another complete application, because that would really be a pain. Hopefully the scholarship money I got will carry over too. These are all things I need to find out, but at least I have a guaranteed place in the class.

The reality of going from living high on the hog (95th percentile salary range in the Boston area), to being a broke student again are definitely starting to sink in. Given that my wife will be working as a teacher in Cinci when we get there, the money situation is going to be tight. I fully plan on doing some work on the side, but I am torn whether I should take a brainless job doing something I have done in years long gone (tend bar, wait tables) that will give me a regular set of part time hours (15 - 20 a week) and a regular stream of minimal cash, or if I should try to seek out consulting work doing software development on the side. The problem with seeking out consulting work on the side is that the seeking part takes some serious time, the collecting your money part takes some time, and the work isn't anywhere near regular when you can't commit to big projects. The upside is that I could easily ask $100 an hour for that work given my experience. The upside to waiting or tending bar is that i have a regular stream of cash and known/schedulable work hours, but the cash is minimal vs the time expended. So, do I go for the large sums of money sporadically, or a steady trickle of dollars to keep me in beer

While its a little disconcerting to be thinking about these things again, its also exciting.

This is one of the most interesting and frightening set of pictures and stories I have found lately. Its some observations from a biker riding through the dead land around Chernobyl. You HAVE HAVE HAVE to check it out, like scenes from a horror movie, but this is real life folks.

Kudos to Anthony Rickey for bringing this site to my attention. Seriously creepy stuff.

UCL has a great post about the heat of passion defense and how it has been used as a defense in cases where a man is propositioned by a homosexual. UCL talks about how the heat of passion defense has been construed by the "good ol boys" to be a justification mostly in cases of male emasculation (adultery, homosexual advances). He/She says "my main argument (is) that this defense is centered on the notion that anyone who dares put a man's masculinity into question, deserves what's coming to him or her". Actually, the real heart of the argument he/she is putting forward is that the courts have historically and have currently been biased toward male interests, but UCL doesn't just blurt it out, its left as an undercurrent.

One problem I have with UCL's arguments can be found in this quote:

A final point. CC interestingly points to the battered women defense as a supposed example of how the law treats female rage equally to male emasculation. I say "interestingly", because the battered women syndrome only applies when a woman is violently, brutally and repeatedly assaulted by a male abuser over a course of several years. In other words, a woman has to endure decades of broken bones, battered skulls, black eyes and scars before she gets a "heat of passion" defense. A man, on the other hand, need only be propositioned by a homosexual or subjected to viewing his wife having sex with someone else, and his excuse is handed to him on a platter.

I am in no position to do the research to find this out for certain, but I would have to guess that somewhere a jury has been given instruction to consider a heat of passion defense in case where a woman killed her adulterous husband, or where a woman killed her husband when she found out about his male partner... I could be wrong, but it seems plausible that this case has already come and gone.

I too would be curious if there are any cases on record where "a man's unprovoked advance toward a woman led to a court sanctioning such an advance as a defense to murder". On the flipside, I would also be curious to find out if there are any cases where a woman's unprovoked advance toward a woman led to a court sanctioning such an advance as a defense to murder. Or a woman's unprovoked advance on a man... Before I would condemn the heat of passion defense I would have to see how many of the cases above have been allowed that defense. If I had the resources to do the research, I would, but since I haven't even started my first year of law school yet, and don't have handy dandy westlaw access, I'll leave finding those cases as an exercise for the reader

I broke down and actually donated to a political party, specifically the John Kerry campaign.

Normally, you would find me blathering on about liberal libertarianism and its benefits, but the reality of politics in this country is that we live in a firmly entrenched two party system, and when it comes down to it, my life would certainly be a "few dollars happier" if Bush and his cronies were out of the White House.

I have added a link in the sidebar to contribute to the Kerry campaign if you are so inclined, or you can click on the button below. It takes less than 2 minutes to give a few bucks, and even a few dollars will help out towards getting Bush out of the White House.

A blog from a Tax Prof from my future law school A good read, although i must admit to waiting to check it out until after the stress of tax season!

I have yet to stumble across any other blogs from UC Law profs, so its great to see what seems to be the first come online

Comes a few really great posts from publicdefenderdude. The first you can find here another here, and another here (UPDATE: blogspot's links to specific posts seem to be broken. See his posts on 4/7, 4/12, and 4/15). IMO, publicdefenderdude's and Ken's are the two best blogs by criminal attorneys out there. You should really go and check em out!

Dunno why the frequency of posts over at publicdefenderdude have picked up, maybe the publication in the blog book has gone to his head, but whatever it is, I hope he keeps up the good work

A friend of mine stumbled across this as a banner ad on drudge report. Scary, that's all I have to say!

This weekend, the wife and I are headed up to Portland for a little R&R. Since we will be up there for the whole weekend, I figured I would google around for a nice place to go out to dinner on Saturday night. If anyone knows of a good place for a romantic dinner, let me know! I figure we may hit up the art museum during the day, and try to get in some nice walking along the coast depending on the weather. Its definitely getting to be weekend trip weather!

After a long wait to find out if I was going to be accepted to the University of Cincinnati College of Law, I got the acceptance letter on Saturday Its very hard to describe the feeling of getting that acceptance letter, since it was certainly a jumble of emotions. Judging by the numbers I should have likely been accepted, but there is always that shadow of a doubt, that sense that maybe it wouldn't work out, so when the big letter rather than the small letter showed up in my mailbox, at least that dobut was resolved. First the initial elation at the acceptance, then the realization of what it really means, and all the preperation that will be required to make it possible for me to attend.

First I will have to apply for a defferal until Fall of 2005, since if I am to do this I really need to have my finances in order and my wife needs to complete the practicum portion of her graduate program in education so that she can become certified as a teacher (Since one of us will have to work full time in order to make this whole dream possible). Anyone out there with experience with the deferral process and how likely it is that a defferal will be granted? If I don't get the defferral, I can always apply again in the fall, but it would be ideal if I had this all figured out and nailed down so that I can plan and prepare for it.

In any case, I GOT IN! and that sentiment is still prevalent as I type this wearing my new UC College of Law hat

UCL has his/herself (sorry, can't get into that "em" thing yet) a nuisance neighbor. I am sure everyone has had to deal with this situation before, but being that UCL is a lawyer, he/she is very much aware of the legal recourse available in this situation. His/her question is whether in this case it would be a slimeball move to excercise his/her rights to the full extent of the law.

In my opinion, asserting your rights does not make you an evil slimeball, but with a few caveats. I am a firm believer in the law as last resort, and I try to ask myself the question "Have I exhausted every other resource to solve this problem" before considering legal action. In this specific case I would ask: Have you talked to them on more then one occasion about the disturbances? Have you tried calling the police to have the police talk to them about this issue? Have you talked to other neighbors to see if they have talked to them about this issue? If other neighbors are disturbed, have you considered writing a letter together asking them to keep their dog and the noise under control? If you can honestly say that you have exhausted the other courses of action, then by all means, get an injunction against disturbance of the peace. Remember though that these are your neighbors, and you will be living next to them for possibly a long time to come, and they can make your life even more of a living hell if they feel the need for retribution. Getting a court order to have their dog put down is pretty harsh, and while it may be justified depending on the danger level of the dog, it will certainly put you on your neighbor's hate list for a very very long time.

I talked a little bit about this before (here and here), and while looking through the archive at the smoking gun, it seems they have got their hands on the search warrant application for the Dagy's residence. (You can find it here)

What this application reveals is that police were able to get a search warrant based upon three peices of evidence of marijuana cultivation.

1) The Dagy's average electric usage was significantly higher than the surrounding homes.
2) A drug dog had a hit on the home for the presence of drugs (the dog was trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines)
3) The Dagy's took their trash out at an "unusual" time. (they brought out their trash on the morning of trash pick up instead of the night before)

Do these things seem to add up to plausible marijuana cultivation to you? They sure don't add up to me. In the application for the search warrant, the police detail the electrical usage for the Dagy's neighborhood, showing that the Dagy's did indeed use more electricity than the surrounding homes, and they also detail that the electrical lights used by marijuana growers are typically 400W or 1000W lights, and this is why high electrical usage is an indicator of possible marijuana cultivation. What the police seem to have failed to note in their application (not that it should be incumbent upon the police to do so, but it certainly should be incumbent upon the judge issuing the search warrant to question if this power usage pattern could plausibly be indicative of something other than marijuana cultivation since its the premier peice of evidence listed) is that any number of other household appliances can use an equivalent amount of power. One computer running 24 x 7 (I have four computers at home that run 24 x 7), would be the equivalent of one 400W grow light, and two computers the equivalent of one 1000W grow light or two 400W lights. How many of you out there leave a computer or two running all the time at home? I would bet that if you are even the least technically inclined you probably have at least one that runs all the time. Be careful, that puts your electrical usage within the realm of "justifiable search warrant" at least according to the judge that granted this application.

The other "evidence" that is supposed to be considered in conjunction with the high electrical usage is indicative of almost nothing at all. I would be willing to bet that someone who lives in my apartment building smokes a little grass now and again, something that would set off drug dogs in a hurry. I run 4 computers all the time, this puts my electrical usage with those guidelines used by the police in issuance of this warrant. My electrical usage is likely much larger than the usage of the other occupants of my building, or my neighborhood due to the fact that I have chosen to live in a lower rent area to put aside some money to buy a house, and I doubt that most of my neighbors have 4 computers. I take out my trash the morning of trash delivery because its more convenient for me to do so. MY home meets all the requirements to obtain a search warrant and I bet that a large number of my readers homes match them as well.

In this electronic age, higher than average electrical usage is simply not enough to justify suspicion of ANY kind, even in conjunction with a drug dog "hit", which is not very specific in nature. Probable cause? Not in this case.

First batch of annoying blog spam... now i must clean the database... GRRRR

Do these spammers actually think anyone will click on their links?

I was the first to tell you that going to war in Iraq was a bad bad bad idea, but now that we are there, we don't have a choice but to stay the course.

Publius at legalfiction has a great post about this topic and has made the point far more eloquently than I could have, so take a look.

UPDATE: Apparently he saw the same Bill O'Reilley "Master Plan" episode that I saw while I was at the Gym. Somehow, I always get stuck on the bike in front of fox news, and its actually good excercise because fox news gets me so fuming mad, it really gets my heart rate up. The audacity they have in calling themselves fair and balanced blows my mind every time. Even more interesting was that they did a segment on the new liberal talk radio show by Al Franken and crew, and Fox News, of all outlets, had the audacity to criticize Al Franken for saying that he intended to use his show as tool to get Kerry elected. This coming from the "All Bush, 24 x 7" station... At least they are good for getting my heart pumping on the stationary bikes!