Fireworks

I went and watched some fireworks down by the harbour last night with a bunch of Australians and Guatemalans. It was nice to be back watching the fireworks.

I didn't take any photos of the fireworks. But I did take a photo of Anmol, so that'll have to do.



Happy New Year

LOS ANGELES COURT TO POLANSKI PROSECUTORS: CUT A DEAL

In a highly unusual and lengthy (70 page) slip opinion, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles has declined to overturn a trial judge’s refusal to entertain award winning director Roman Polanski’s bid to dismiss the 32 year old pending “statutory rape” conviction against him due to his fugitive status.

However, the appellate court to the stars (the same court that will be weighing convicted music producer Phil Spector’s fate in late 2010) suggested that Polanski allow himself to be sentenced without returning to the United States and could then raise his claims of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct at the time of sentencing—without ever setting foot back on US soil.

The director is currently being held in a gilded cage: He is is under “house arrest” in his fabulous villa in ultra-exclusive Gstaad while a Swiss court decides whether to ship Polanski back to Los Angeles to face the charges he fled over three decades ago.

The court of appeal panel also emphasized the substantial evidence identified by the trial court supporting the serious prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that the famous fugitive has alleged:

“The trial judge now presiding over the matter, Judge Espinoza, has already indicated that at a sentencing hearing Polanski would be able to fully litigate the allegations of misconduct and a prior pledge by Judge Rittenband as to Polanski's punishment: At the same hearing at which Judge Espinoza ruled that he would not entertain Polanski's section 385 request, he also stated, “[H]aving reviewed all of the evidence in this case, notwithstanding the People's assertion that the misconduct that occurred is still in dispute, there was substantial, it seems to me, misconduct that occurred during the pendency of the case which will be among the many factors that would be considered by me and any other court that would sentence Mr. Polanski. He had a plea agreement with Judge Rittenband. Unfortunately, Judge Rittenband is long since deceased, but the terms and conditions of that plea agreement are well known.”

The panel went on to comment:

“We are disturbed by the district attorney's refusal in the briefing submitted to this court to address or consider what appears to be an admission by a former member of the district attorney's office that he: engaged in highly improper ex parte communications with a judge about a pending matter; recommended the misuse of a sentencing tool as a punishment; deliberately provoked the judge against a defendant based on a newspaper photograph and no further information; and pursued a personal agenda against a defendant. Such profoundly unethical conduct, if proven to be true, strikes at the heart of the prosecutor's role as a guardian of systemic integrity.”

But the appellate court saved the best for last, all but instructing prosecutors to cut a deal with the fugitive director:

“We exhort all participants in this extended drama to place the integrity of the criminal justice system above the desire to punish any one individual, whether for his offense or for his flight. As Justice Murphy wrote in dissent in Eisler, supra, 338 U.S. at pages 194 and 195, “Our country takes pride in requiring of its institutions the examination and correction of alleged injustice whenever it occurs. We should not permit an affront of this sort to distract us from the performance of our constitutional duties.” We encourage all participating parties to do their utmost to ensure that this matter now draws to a close in a manner that fully addresses the issues of due process and fundamental fairness raised by the events of long ago.”

Therefore, while Polanski did not obtain the outright dismissal he sought, the 70 page appellate decision was clearly a victory for the fugitive director. Los Angeles prosecutors have been ordered to investigate the alleged misconduct of one of their own, and if found to be true, to ask the trial judge to dismiss the case.

In any event, the court of appeal has instructed "all participants" (read as judge and prosecutors) to place the interests of the intgrity of the justice system over punishing Polanski for his crime--or even his flight from justice 32 years ago.

Polanski v. Superior Court (2009) __Cal.App.4th__, 2009 WL 4894667

A Year of Emotions

Have no fear. I have not died. Life just kind of got in the way of blogging (read: I've been spending all my free time playing Modern Warfare 2). I figured with the year dwindling down, I should do one last post before 2009 is over. Don't worry, it won't be a top 10 list. As with every other year, it was an emotional rollercoaster in the world of sports. Being a Toronto sports fan, we've definitely seen more lows than highs. Here are some of the emotions I felt along with the events that caused them.

Hunger

• Leafs? No
• Raptors? No
• Blue Jays? No
• Argos? Who cares...but no

I AM HUNGRY FOR PLAYOFFS!!1

Sorrow

• Doc's departure - I don't think I've felt this sad since Felix Potvin was traded
  
• Sundin hangs em up - It was expected but it didn't make it any easier
• Federer losing to Del Potro - Could have made it 6 straight US Opens. Definitely had his chances to put the match away. I hope he has some great years left in the tank
• Dustin McGowan - Okay so we still don't know if he'll be back or not but when you hear whispers of a player never playing again...chances are he will not be the same if he does
• R.I.P. Teeder - The Leafs lost a legend but the heavens gained a hero
  

Joy

• Ian White - And his continued strong play. He is nearing folk-hero status
• Phil Kessel - I don't care what he cost. I don't remember the last time the Leafs have had a winger this dynamic since...ever!
• The emergence of Adam Lind and Aaron Hill - I thought both would be good but I had no idea they would be this good! All they're missing is some sort of dynamic duo nickname.
• Kid Kadri - I wasn't sure about the pick at first but watching him at the World Juniors is definitely a joy. The kid is as gritty as they come. The throat-slash was the icing on the cake. Also, this.
• Doc vs AJ - The emotion at that event was just phenomenal.
  
• Burkie's Doghouse - Bacon wrapped hot dog...you can get it in a footlong. That is all.
  

Fear

• Waiving Rios - I still give a fuck! Rios still has all the tools to be a star in the league. If he puts it all together next year...Somebody buy me a voodoo doll!
• Bosh's future - I'm going to go on and say that Bosh won't sign an extension with us. If that holds true, this future Raptors team will be a joke to watch.
• Losing 8 straight - Bring on the Taylor Hall jokes...which sounded so very real at the time
• Monster's Heart - So they say it's not a serious procedure and it isn't uncommon to have it twice...but that's still the motherfuckin heart you're dealing with!!!
  

Rage

• Shogun snubbed - Shogun loses a unanimous victory to Machida for the light-heavyweight belt. Everybody else who has eyes thinks differently.
• Vernon's performance - As much as I wanted to believe in him (I had him on my fantasy team at some point!) he was just so frustrating to watch at the plate
• Vesa Toskala - This pretty much sums it up
• 13th Man - I would totally be pissed about it if I was a Riders fan
• Tiger Woods - You had Elin freakin' Nordegren! What more do you want?
  

Confusion

• Greasegate - Allegations of GSP greasing against Penn were totally bogus. Did they not see how badly BJ got his ass whooped? Greasing doesn't help boxing, take downs or elbows to the face
• Jays hot start - Probably the greatest cocktease of all time but it was fun while it lasted
• Komisarek and Beauchemin in October - Uhhh....I thought you guys were better than this?
• Patrice Bergeron? - Seriously?
  

Hope

• Drabek - You've got some big shoes to fill
• In the race - Leafs are in that group fighting for 8th. The playoffs are in sight!
• Team Canada - Winning gold on Canadian soil sounds awfully nice
• 5th straight - As of today, the Raps have won five straight and is one game under .500!
• PLAYOFFS!!1 - In 2010. Book it.
  

Goodbye 2009!

Lizzie and the Zombies

I finished listening to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies today. I've been listening to the audio book as I work.

I think this is the ideal way to read the classics. First you don't have to read them, second you get all the goodness of the classics, third you have zombies. What more could you want in your literature education?

For those of you who don't know the book, it's Pride and Prejudice the classic novel, with zombies inserted. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy are both accomplished zombie hunters. And every now and again the zombies pop up in the book and a bit of zombie slaying goes on. But aside from that the plot and much of the original text is unchanged.

So it was good fun. I'm sure some people will feel that this makes a mockery of Austin and her work. But I'm inclined to feel like it's just a tribute. Or perhaps making something good even better. To be perfectly honest, I was more interested in how Darcy and Lizzy would get together and what would happen to Jane and Bingley then I was enjoying the zombie fights. But the zombie fights were cool. As were Lizzy's duel with ninjas. Sweet.

They're going to make a film of it with Natalie Portman. I hope they get Danny Boyle to direct it. He'd be awesome.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that Pride and Prejudice is a much better romance book to be reading than, say, Twilight. As far as I can tell (and I have read a bit of the original) it's funny, well written, and neither Lizzy nor Mr Darcy are perfect in any way. That's three things Twilight doesn't have.

But perhaps best of all is when you add the zombies, because there is little that can't be improved by the addition of zombies (except perhaps I am Legend).

Church Going

You can tell it's a public holiday tomorrow, I went to the cinema tonight and it was full of Christians there for some post-Church filmic fun.

How did I know they were Christians? It was their Holy Spirit aura, their non-offensive hair cuts, and their "Two Salty" t-shirts. That, and I know 1 in every 10 Christians in Hornsby.

Three Times Once a Year

I do enjoy Christmas. It was good this year. I think I enjoy it more again now that I've moved past the stage of needing to get awesome presents. And I've moved past the stage of it needing to be the most exciting day of the year. These days Christmas is a good chance to hang out with friends and family and get a bit of loot on the side.

And it was a pretty good year for loot.

Perhaps the most exciting present this year was that I'm getting new shoes. New shoes shouldn't be that exciting, but this is my current daily foot wear:



So you can understand why I'm excited that I'll soon be trotting around in a new pair. Preferably shoes with magical powers.

I also got money, t-shirts, a cd, a subscription to Time magazine, and a bunch of DVDs (which I bought with the money I got).

But probably the highlight was getting to see a bunch of people I love.

Christmas Eve was dinner with the Fam, Grandpa, Valentina and Auntie Lys. Christmas Day we went to Cremorne Point for a picnic with a many people who aren't my blood family but but are some of my favourite people in the world. Boxing Day was in the Gong with all the cousins from Dad's side of the family. It's pretty special packing all these important people into three days of Christmas.

Perhaps it was most special though remembering that Jesus is with us. I know that's the sort of thing I should be saying, but it is special. God came to us, to live like us and with us. And not only that, he grew up to be someone amazing and to do something universe changing, all out of love. In my book that's gotta be worth celebrating by hanging out with the people you love and getting new shoes.



Photo evidence that Christmas is fun. (Thank you iPhone)

MERRY CHRISTMAS BLOGONAUT READERS

We will be back after the Holidays. Enjoy yours—no matter which religious holiday that you celebrate!

Emmanuel

I've been thinking a little bit about how Christmas is often a time of year that many people get lonely, yet it's exactly the time of year that reminds us that God has not left us alone.

Nothing is Any Good if Other People Like It

I was sitting on a roof today, painting, minding my own business, when I thought to myself, "What's the time?". I was hungry for lunch. I pulled out my phone and it was off. "Odd," I thought, "I had plenty of battery left." I pressed the power button. My phone vibrated, it was a text message from my friend Chris. It said "Are you free this afternoon? Please say yes".

Then the text message faded before my eyes. And with that, my trusty old Nokia was dead.

Totally dead.

Dead as Mozart.

I realised without a phone, life gets difficult to organise.

So I went up to the shops tonight to get a new phone. I was tossing up between a new contract or buying the cheapest crappy phone outright. I decided to go with whatever option would give me the most cash right then. I had presents to buy.

As it turns out I could have got a phone outright for $39. But I could get on a new plan and pay nothing right now. So I signed up to a $1400+, 24-month plan, to save $39 tonight. If that's not good economics, I don't know what is.

The phone I got is an iPhone. It's pretty depressing. I was hoping to avoid the iPhone, but it seems it's pull is unavoidable. Steve Jobs seduced me like a busty, adulterous, Jewess, calling to me in the twilight.

My main issue is that everyone has an iPhone. I want to be unique. I want a cool phone that no-one else has. I want my old, crappy phone back which could do nothing except make calls and text but had the retro cool of an old man on a school bus*.

But who am I kidding? I'm a slave to pragmatism. The iPhone was the cheapest, good phone option. At least, cheapest, good phone that didn't mean I'd have to learn a whole new way of using a phone. So now I have an iPhone, and you can all judge me because I'm a conformist, just like you. That's right, you, you're probably reading this on your iPhone right now.

Anyway, I am now enjoying playing with it. And really enjoying updating my contacts in Google and having them automatically updated on my phone, that's way cool. I'm sure I'll get over my depression soon if this Google-Apple marriage keeps the magic going.

However if I'm friends with you, and we have known each other for less than 12 years, or you've changed numbers in the past 12 years, chances are I don't have your phone number. Many phone numbers didn't make the jump from old, dead phone, to new, hip phone. So I'd love it if you could email me your phone number an I'll update you in Google, which will update my phone and I'll praise God for synchronisation.

Actually while you're at it, send me the number of any friends we have in common. Or any friends we should have in common. Or any busty, Jewesses you think I might like to meet.

Now I should go to bed. I have to wake up early in the morning and regret selling my soul to Optus once again.

*That's a fun, friendly, old man, not a creepy, dirty, old man. My phone was never creepy.

Battle Studies

I did some Christmas shopping. Managed to buy myself John Mayer's new album. There are three people not getting Christmas presents now, but sometimes we all need to make sacrifices don't we? Bloody whingers.

I love John Mayer.

I'm just about to set fire to everything I see
I want you so bad I'll go back on the things I believe - Edge of Desire

Land Ho

I'm home from the camp of sailing goodness.

I'm not really much of sailor. I went sailing once as a young lad* and remember there was a bed on board the boat. And that's my entire sailing experience.

As you also know I was a little ill equipped for sailing adventures before leaving having no hat that attached to my clothes, no woollen jumper and no rashie. However Valentina did kindly offer me this hat, and I visited K-Mart before leaving for camp and bought myself a rashie which I intend on using approximately zero more times in my life.

I was also a little perplexed how I was going to get to camp as I had a wedding to go to on Saturday morning (which was lovely thank-you-very-much, but I missed lunch, damn it) meaning that I would miss the first few hours of camp, and all the lifts to camp.

But Ryan kindly drove me to camp so we could bond as the kilometres drifted past as we lazily made our way an hour up the Central Coast. Then he drove home alone. He's a good friend Ryan. As is Lesley who lent out her car again for the trip.

So I arrived at camp feeling happy to have solved a few of my issues and a little apprehensive as to what camp with a bunch of unknowns would be like and what my lack of sailing skills would do to my camp enjoyment.

But as it happens both turned out fine. The people on the camp were lovely, campers and leaders, and I didn't die while sailing once.

Admittedly I only sailed twice, and both were on the most stable boat of the fleet. I spent another day on the rescue boat filming for the camp video guy. It was a windy day so I just spent most of the time filming capsized boats and injured campers.

The second time I went sailing all the boats had a race around the lake. My boat was chock full with 11 people, competing with other boats who had around 5 or less people (except one which was the same as ours with 12 people although they were almost entirely year 7 kids who we all know about are about a 3rd of the bulk of a normal sized human). On my boat, Noah's Ark, there was Tom (the captain), Tom (the speaker) and 9 of the girls. It was like sailing with people smugglers. In an attempt to lighten our boat for the race we devised a cunning scheme, to throw the children overboard, and the speaker too, and then send our boat off to race with a lightweight crew off five.

So just before the race began, we slipped quietly into the water like Navy SEALs. Sadly the other people smuggler boat noticed and threw many of their children overboard too. Soon there were more bodies in the water than boats.

Still the plan seemed to be working. Noah's Ark was in second place for the first lap. Soon race officials turned up though and told us that we'd have to join our boat as it came around for the second and final lap due to safety requirements. When Noah's Ark came around all 6 of us who were in the water hauled ourselves back into the boat in less than a minute, Noah's Ark kept going and we managed to maintain second place. It was a magnificent piece of seamanship, a rapid boarding of which even Somalian pirates would be proud.

We ended up coming in second but being disqualified because we had dumped our crew. I'm told that in official racing rules a boat must finish a race with the same number of crew that it crosses the start line with. We finished with an extra six. Had the race officials not told us to join our boat I think we could have mounted a good argument for holding on to second place. But The Man doesn't like innovation and so we were kicked out because we broke convention.

If all sailing races involved jumping overboard on a 36°C day and just hanging around in the water, I reckon I could do the sailing gig. But sadly, I think most racing teams aren't looking for people to join their crew just to jump overboard at the start line.

Perhaps my favourite activity was helping people get out of the water into the rescue boat and Noah's Ark. I think I liked it because it was a role that made you feel a little like you were rescuing people. You'd either pull them up by monkey grip or by gabbing them by the strap on the back of their life jacket and hauling them into the boat. The latter option was the most preferable because it felt more like rescue work probably due to the utilitarian nature of the boat entry and it's reliance entirely on my hauling power. Seeing as I spent the rest of the time sitting on the boat being rather useless it was good to be needed a little bit.

Apart from all my aquatic adventures, the camp was still good fun. The campers were friendly and well behaved as were the leaders. My talks seemed to go well. References to my talks regularly popped up during other parts of the camp, so I at least knew that people were paying attention. One popular line was "I'm angry enough to die", though my particular favourite were the multiple references to my "lady friends", perhaps only because I feel it's important to propagate the myth that I'm a player.

Aside from that there were a number of people who indicated they wanted to become Christians, so you can't complain about that. (Well I'm sure many people could, but no good Evangelical can, and that's what I am.)

I did notice once again that relationship building in free time on camps is not in my skill set. Free time tends to mean that I go and read my book or have a sleep. I think it's the introvert in me coming out. Being faced with unstructured hanging out where you need to go and just relate to people you don't know all that well, kinda scares me. Books and sleeping on the other hand are personal favourites of mine.

All up, I did have a good camp. I used to dream about being a camp speaker, back in the old days. I used to think camp speaking was like the pinnacle of preaching, because you were good enough to get asked to do five talks in a row and you were a little bit of a celebrity to 50 young people for a week. Having achieved this particular, low-end dream, it's not really like that. But it is certainly a privilege, very enjoyable, and I love the chance to hang out with a whole bunch of excellent young people. Plus I love getting free food for a week.

I reckon I'll keep doing camps as long as I keep getting asked though I'm not sure if I'll sail again any time soon, though I'll practice my hauling skills just in case.

*I need to stop using the phrase "young lad" around teenagers because they think I'm talking about when I was younger and I had a rat's tail, a bum bag, short shorts, and Nike cap put badly on my head.

Photo by: Januz Leszczynski

The End of an Era

I thought I was ready. I thought I said good bye. I thought this would be easy since I already knew it was coming. Truth is that nothing could have prepared me for the news that went down today. Doc was traded to the Phillies. Okay, so it might not be official yet but all that's left are the formalities. While I've seen a bunch of rumours about who we're getting back, I could care less. Today is a day of mourning. The true GBOAT won't be taking the mound in a Jays jersey next April.

Roy Halladay was drafted in the first round, 17th overall in the 1995 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. I was ten at the time so I have no idea what his early scouting reports read but I imagine it had the words "work horse", "inning eater", "lights out" and "fuckin awesome!" in there. I remember watching his second career start in a meaningless last game of the season. The one where he was one out shy of a no-hitter! Right there and then, I knew we had something special. I just had no idea how good he would be.

While he's had a rough patch early in his career, he has come back from it and prospered. He went from having the highest single-season ERA to being one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Here is a player, a generational talent if you will, that I have seen evolve before my very eyes and you know what? He was ours! We didn't have to lure him with a big fat paycheck, we didn't have to throw a boatload of prospects to acquire him, he was home-grown and we were damn proud of it.

Doc came to work day-in and day-out. He was a quiet leader who led by example. Despite his dominance, he always wanted to get better and he hated making mistakes. How many times have you seen him bark at himself when giving up a late game solo shot despite being up six? This is the type of guy you're getting, Phillies fans.

I went to Doc's last home start against Seattle. It was vintage Halladay; 9 ks, 7 hits, complete game shut out. With two outs in the 9th the crowd was on their feet. Doc got the last out via groundball and the place erupted. We knew it was possibly the last time we would see him in a Jays jersey. We stood and cheered as he made his way to the dug out. He looked up at the fans, tipped his cap and disappeared into the tunnel.

We miss you, Doc.

VICTIM’S ATTORNEY: DISMISS ROMAN POLANSKI CASE

AP hearing video link, above.

Courtesy of the New York Times, we have learned additional details about last week’s Los Angeles hearing before a California appeals court: The now 46 year old victim addressed the court—which is considering Polanski’s bid to compel the trial court to consider his long-distance motion to dismiss the charges—and through her attorney has demanded dismissal of the charges.

As observed by the Times:

“Roman Polanski is getting help from his victim in a bid to have sex misconduct charges against him dismissed.

“The attorney for Samantha Geimer, who long ago publicly identified herself, argued for an end to the 32-year-old case on Thursday, saying she has repeatedly said she wants it dropped.”

The times reported:

“Geimer's attorney, Lawrence Silver, argued for dismissal on grounds of a recently adopted law allowing victims to have a say in cases.

“Justice Fred Woods responded that when the law was passed, ''No one could have anticipated the facts of this case.''

“Silver added, ''No one in this room would say the proceedings were fair. Thirty-two years is enough.''”

This request for dismissal by the now adult victim adds an additional dimension to an already interesting and unique set of circumstances: The very rare instance (at least in non-domestic violence cases) where the criminally accused is aided in his defense by the alleged victim.

How the prosecution can put on a 32 year old statutory rape case without the cooperation of the alleged victim is not known.

Earlier this year, Polanski's attorneys made similar arguments for dismissal in a Los Angeles court, and Judge Peter Espinoza said "substantial misconduct" did occur.

But in May, Espinoza refused to dismiss the case, saying Polanski must first surrender on the charges—leading to last week’s appeal hearing.

Video: Polanski victim requests dismissal (AP)

Hat

I'm about to head out on a camp for a week. It's a sailing camp. I was waiting to get an email to tell me what I needed to bring. Turns out I got it two weeks ago. Oops. And now there are things I need which I don't have, like a rashy that goes to my elbows, and a woolen jumper, and a hat that attaches to my clothes. I don't even know what sort of hat attaches to clothes. A hat is clothes as far as I'm concerned, so I guess as long as I classify my hat as clothing it'll always be attached to my clothes.

Anyway, I need to sort this out. And go to a wedding. And go on camp. Sometimes my lack of preparation hinders my performance as a world class person.

Where's my PA?

POLANSKI CASE HEARD BY CALIFORNIA COURT AS DIRECTOR CHILLS IN TONEY VILLA

As Oscar winning—and fugitive—director Roman Polanski hangs at his chalet (under house arrest) in ultra-exclusive Gstaad (think Prince Charles, Rodger Moore, and international royalty of all sorts)—a California court of appeal is mulling over Polanski’s bid to return his motion to dismiss the case to Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Peter Espinoza for an up-or-down determination on whether Espinoza should dismiss all charges against the director due to alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge Espinoza decided earlier this year that while Polanski had presented compelling evidence that 32 years ago and before the director fled to Europe from his Los Angeles home that his original trial judge (now deceased) improperly communicated with a member of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in aid of ambushing Polanski at his stenciling hearing, the judge was powerless to decide the case since Polanski is a fugitive—albeit a sable lined fugitive.

This hearing took place yesterday, in a Los Angeles courtroom at the California Court of Appeal.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

“An attorney for Roman Polanski urged a California appeals court panel Thursday to throw out the filmmaker's 1977 child sex case, citing what he called an "astonishing record of misconduct" by the district attorney's office and the judge who originally handled the case.

”Chad S. Hummel argued that Judge Laurence J. Rittenband improperly discussed with a prosecutor how to punish Polanski and threatened to lock up the director for a longer period if his attorney challenged the judge's decision to return Polanski to prison.”"

""It sends chills up your spine what this judge was doing," Hummel told the three appellate court justices in downtown Los Angeles.”"

The court of appeal is not expected to decide the issue of whether Polanski's case should be dumped, but only whether Judge Espinoza erred when he found earlier this year that a long line of prior appeal cases prevent a fugitive defendant from challenging their criminal cases until they surrender.

Up until now the universally applied rule is that fugitive criminal defendants have no standing to appeal their convictions, which appeals have been routinely dismissed in such circumstances.

By law the court of appeal’s decision must issue within 90 days.

Meanwhile, Polanski (as with other high-profile fugitives only recently arrested after decades of flight—think Susan Olsen)—now faces a much harsher sentencing environment and political mood toward most crimes. Especially crimes of “indiscretion” involving teen girls, no matter how “experienced” the girl was at the time, or how forgiving the victim has become in her adult years.

Stay tuned folks. It’s goanna get interesting.

ABOVE THE LAW BOG’S EDGY APPEAL THREATENED BY BEAN COUNTERS

We stumbled upon this ABA Journal article presaging a possi
ble shake-up at the ground-breaking Above the Law blog.

ATL owes its caché and readership to David Lat--who has a golden history of creating , and nurturing a loyal blog readership (e.g., Beneath their Robes, Wonkette--forgive me, the three most successful niche blogs in the history of the non-Bosnian world).

That said, David Lat is above all a creative force who delivers page views by the zillions when left to his edgy best.

If anything, it has been the corporate interference of the present ownership group that has suppressed Lat’s (and therefore its portfolio of blog’s) edgy appeal.

We have no doubt that whatever David Lat is at once a brand and a creative force, and that wherever he winds up he will be on the cutting edge.

But bean counters have no place in a business model founded on edgy creativity.

And that is the ‘bottom line’.

Above the Law Gets New Management; Readers Wonder about Lat, Mystal (ABA J.)

500 POUND DEFROCKED VEGAS JUDGE HIT WITH $50,000 LIBEL JUDGMENT

Long time readers of this blog will surely remember Las Vegas Judge Elizabeth Halverson—who was removed from the bench following a long soap opera consisting of allegations that she made her bailiff rub her feet, and other petty abuses of power (in addition to dining with jurors and falling asleep on the bench).

To browse the many highly amusing Halverson related posts on this blog, see here. (Scroll down.)

And now this from Above the Law:

"A one-time legal assistant to ousted District Judge Elizabeth Halverson won a $50,000 judgment Tuesday in the defamation case she filed against Halverson in 2007. District Judge David Wall on Tuesday ordered Halverson to pay the money and to return files to the assistant, Ileen Spoor….

"Wall denied Spoor’s claim for $100,000 in punitive damages. Halverson did not attend the proceedings."

For our prior coverage of the Spoor vs. Halverson libel suit, see here (think Alien vs. Predator).

The Post is Brought to you by the Number 2

Two...two wins in a row at home. Ah-ha-ha!

Count 'em, ladies and gents. Today's win makes two in a row and seven in our last ten. Let's keep it rolling, boys. Tomorrow will be a big test against the Bruins. Let's see how we respond after the spanking they gave us on Saturday.

Two wins for me!

I don't get to go to a ton of games but I've been to enough that I have lost count. Whether it was at the Gardens of at the ACC, there was one underlying theme. I went home winless. Prior to this preseason, I have never seen a Leafs win live before. The closest I've ever gotten was a 1-1 tie against New Jersey back when Reichel was still here. Now I finally broke my streak this pre-season in a shoot out win against the Pens and witnessed my first official win live tonight! That's right, baby! I can go to games guilt-free!

Two Big Signings

It took some time but Beauchemin and Komisarek are finally starting to pick up their game. Both of these signings were supposed to give us one of the more intimidating defences to play against. While both players didn't pay immediate dividends, Burke's and Wilson's patience in them are starting to pay off. Komisarek (for the most part) has stopped taking dumb, unnecessary penalties and Beauchemin is starting to look very sound defensively and also provides a canon on the powerplay.


Number 2

No, that wasn't a highlight from last year, that was a hit Schenn threw on Jon Sim just a couple of hours ago. Like Komisarek and Beauchemin, Schenn is finally starting to look comfortable. He's finishing his checks, he's not chasing the puck and he's not letting his man slip by him as much as he did earlier in the season. Ron Wilson has noticed and as a result, Schenn's minutes have started to steadily increase. He played 19:25 tonight compared to the 10 minutes a game he was getting just a couple of weeks ago. Welcome back, OLAS.

Two goals against

I don't know if it's his health, a fluke or Francois Allaire but Toskala has only allowed two goals in each of his last two starts. Sure, the Leafs have played better defensively but this is still Vesa Toskala. I can't really explain it but I don't want this to end. I BELIEVE IN VESA TOSKALA??/

Two annoying fans

I sat behind two very annoying fans. I knew it was going to be a long night when during the warm-up, one of them asked the other who was in net for the Isles and he responded with "I think Garth Snow."

Other annoying things they did
-They kept trying to heckle Roloson (from the 300s) by screaming "Rolllllll-sooooon"...you know there's another O in there somewhere
-Kept referring to Grabovski as Grabovs. I've heard Grabbo and Grabs but Grabovs? That just sounds weird
-They spat out incorrect facts. Roloson faced 61 shots and stopped 58 the last game. He didn't stop 62
-They added "son" to the end of every sentence and described things as "ill"


Two times the fun

They played "the song" twice! Once before the game and once after. I need that for my ipod. Haters gon' hate!

Soul in the City Promo

So I worked on a video a little while ago for Soul Survivor to promote next year's Soul in the City. It's finally made to the Tube. And this is it:



This is one of three versions of the same video I made. The other two should be on the Soul Survivor Channel. They're pretty much the same but with Geldo saying different things in the middle, and a little bit of different footage over the top.

If you're wondering, I shot about a third of the footage, and I edited the video and made it look pretty (in youthy kinda way).

If this video doesn't go viral and get 30,000 people to Soul in the City, I don't know what will.

Lying

At Bible Study lately I've been running a series of studies on The Sermon on the Mount. I've been really enjoying it.

I love the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus just kicks arse. It's like he says, "You think you're good? Your good ain't good enough. I'll show you what good is." There's a lifetime of work just in the Beatitudes. If you take Jesus seriously and the Sermon on the Mount doesn't change your life then you probably don't take Jesus seriously.

Anyway, this week was on loving your enemies, last week was on this passage:

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. - Matt 5:33-37

Before I prepared the study on this passage I didn't expect it to be that big a deal for me. I figured, "I'm pretty good at commitment. I do what I say I'm going to do." But alas my pride was misplaced.

As it turned out I went with the line of living with integrity. Letting your words be truthful. There are no layers of truth. You can't make something more truthful by swearing on the Bible, and less truthful by swearing on your shoe. Truth is truth is truth, and Jesus calls us to be people of truth all the time.

If I were to just give a cursory assessment of my life I'd reckon I was a pretty truthful guy. I never tell big lies. When I say things it's almost always truthful, or at least a part of it. And there-in lies the problem. While it's rare that I tell outright lies, I do regularly not tell people the whole truth. I don't want people to think badly of me. And I don't want to let people down. So when people ask me questions and I think they won't find the answer satisfactory I will regularly tell a version of the truth which I think is most palatable.

For instance say someone asks me to write an article for the the church bulletin (as would happen in the past) and I say "Yes". So I go away, think about it a little bit, open a word document, write two sentences, don't like them, can't think of anything else, and then move on to something else.

A few days later they need the article. So they say "Tom do you have the article ready for me?"

The truth is "No" or "No, I haven't written it yet."

But I say "No, but it's getting there. I've been writing it and thinking about it, I just need to get it properly finished. When do you need it by?"

So it's technically true. But I've given them a false impression and then distracted them by being really proactive and asking for a deadline. Hopefully they go away thinking "Gosh, Tom is a hard worker, and it he's really reliable, he'll get it done when I need it." When really they should be thinking "Tom is such a slacker."

And when they asked me to write the silly thing I should have asked for the deadline then so that I could just slack off till it's due because that's what I would have done anyway. And when they ask for it, I can say "No, but you don't need it till tomorrow do you?"

Sometimes I'll tell some misleading version of the truth to make me feel ok about not lying and them feel ok because I'm a good guy, when I really should just be saying "Sorry, I'm crap."

Anyway, I've been working hard since I did the Bible Study to tell the whole truth. I haven't succeeded all the time but I've been better at it. And I'm certainly aware that I'm crapper than I think I am.

Sorry.

In the Chute

I've been away at In the Chute a conference with The Geneva Push these past few days. It was good.

If you want to know what happened at the conference Mikey Lynch has blogged the whole thing. I shall not bother with the recap, because it all seems to be there and by the look of the time stamps it was all blogged live.

I think the idea was that we all did a lot of networking with other godly, young men. I met one guy who I had sustained conversation with. But show me a room full of people standing around talking, and I'm not going to network with anyone, the introvert will win every time.

Last night after the night session I was faced with exactly that. Then I remembered that there is a cinema just down the road from the conference centre. So with glee (the emotion not the show) in my step, I went down to the cinema to watch a film. Sadly I was twenty minutes late. So I just went for a walk and listened to Damien Rice, it was special.

Hermitting aside, I did enjoy the conference. It was led by good, godly men, and I was encouraged and equipped to build the kingdom. That's a pretty happy outcome.

Where the Wild Things Are

On Sunday Lesley and I went to see Where the Wild Things Are.

I was rather excited about this movie. Mainly because I get excited about Spike Jonze. And I figured Spike Jonze making a film about wild things for kids. That's pretty good.

The film had been delayed for about a year I think. The rumour was that the film was too scary for kids so Warner Bros. wanted the film to be reworked. I don't know if that's true, but a scary kids movie is a good idea.

The thing was though, this isn't really a kid's film. While the book maybe for kids, this film is very grown up. The themes are grown up, the concepts are pretty grown up, the photography is pretty grown up and the direction is pretty grown up. There are often periods of silence. The humour is scarce and when it's there it's pretty adult. This is a kid's film for adults. The film seems to re-examine childhood to portray it not as this great adventure, but as a time of loneliness, rage and fear. A time characterised by the impotence of being small and ignored. The adventure that Max goes through is not really the great, escapist adventure of Mary Poppins or The Wizard of Oz, but a realisation that even when Max escapes, his fantasy world is even more dysfunctional than his real world. Even the utopia where he is king is invaded by insecurity. In both the book and the film the solution is not to escape the world, but to face the relationships that are hard, but are actually underpinned by love.

In the film Max, the main character, runs away from his home, where he feels ignored and unloved by his family, and escapes to world full of wild creatures. These creatures are full of life, dangerous, fun. Max first meets these big, hairy creatures when Carol (played by James Gandolfini from The Sopranos) is smashing up their houses in a rage after he is left by his girlfriend KW. Max barrels in and sides with Carol only to find that he nearly gets himself eaten for taking the wrong side. Only by lying and saying he's a king does he save his life. He then sets out to transform the group to make an ideal community for himself. But things don't work the way Max would like. The wild things are too dysfunctional, too controlled by jealousies and fear to create the community the Max dreams of and things fall apart.

The film is rather depressing in its bleak representation of community. It's a community with little love and what love there is is compromised by fear. The whole time, even when Max is at his happiest, there is the underlying tension that's bred by Max's lies and the danger of wild animals whose natural dispositions seem not towards creation but destruction.

This isn't really a kids film.

But I did like the film very much. I loved having giant, furry animals to tell an adult's story. I loved the design, the photography. The wild things looked flawless, the music was superb. And I liked that this was a film of hope. And a film about engagement. A film that pushes us to see that problems don't get solved by retreating from the world but entering into relationships. We can't build forts to keep the out people we don't like, we build homes where we live in a real pile, with all the messiness and connection that brings with it.

The Leafs 2009 Skills Competition

I grew up loving the sport of hockey but sadly, road hockey outside my house is about as competitive of a level as I got to. Heck, I might be the only person born in Saskatoon that doesn't know how to skate! This is why I love skills competitions. It's simply a treat for me to admire the skill level of these athletes up close. Here's a recap of the 2009 Leafs Skills Competition.

Schenn and Finger right before the puck control relay

It all started with the puck control relay. The blue team of Schenn, Finger and Beauchemin beat out the white team of Exelby, White and Kaberle due to Exelby stumbling. This is why you're a healthy scratch, XLB!

The blue team got another point as Komisarek beat out Orr in the individual puck control relay. Seriously, who picks these players? Why is Colton Orr in this event?

The White team giving Primeau a shower

The next event is the fastest skater. My personal pick going into the event was Phil Kessel who ended up having the worst time.

As each skater skated by the benches the opposing team would shower them with their water bottles. I don't know if they were filled with water or yellow Gatorade but there's a golden shower joke in there somewhere. Here's a list of the participants and their times

Jason Blake - 14.09
Phil Kessel - 14.85
Mikhail Grabovski - 14.32 (this was timed with the manual stop watch because the clock messed up and had him at 9 seconds)
Christian Hanson - 14.46
Nikolai Kulemin - 14.05
Wayne Primeau - 14.72

I had no idea Kulemin was that quick.

Hagman winding up for the shot

Next up is my favourite event; the hardest shot. My personal pick for this event was Francois Beauchemin edging out Poni.

Here are a list of the participants and what they clocked

Jeff Finger - 85.6 // 89.7
Tomas Kaberle - 95.1 // 95.7
Alexei Ponikarovsky - 95 // 90.4 but the shot didn't hit the net
Lee Stempniak - 89.7 // 93.3
Francois Beauchemin - 102.2 // 99.8
Niklas Hagman - 95.9 // 84.9
Mike Komisarek - 97.4 // 101.5
Nikolai Kulemin - 93 // 98.4

Looks like my picks are 1 for 2 so far. Poni didn't fare as well as I thought he would though. Also, if Kaberle can blast it at 95+, he should definitely be shooting the puck more often!

The moustache is in full force

Next event was the accuracy competition. My personal pick for this one was Tomas Kaberle going for another 4 for 4 like he did a couple years back. Unfortunately, he was a passer and didn't even get to shoot!

Here are the participants and the results

Niklas Hagman - 2 for 8
Matt Stajan - 2 for 8
Lee Stempniak - 4 for 8
Phil Kessel - 2 for 8
Rickard Wallin - 4 for 5
Christian Hanson - 3 for 7

Rickard Wallin? Seriously? I thought he got deported back to Sweden or something. Kessel rang a couple off the post but most shots were around the middle of the net...you know, right where a goalie's chest would be! No wonder we can't score!

The panel of judges with Monika. My restraining order wouldn't let me get any closer.

They then had a "creative" shoot out challenge. Each player had 2 shots each and the judges (those puck bunnies and Carlton) would score the attempts based on creativity. I believe the shooters were Kessel, Blake, Grabovski and Hagman. Blake was the only player to score and he didn't do the spin-o-rama. What's up with that?

Grabvoski playing keep away with a kid during a break in the action

Next was the 3 on 1 event. This event featured 3 skaters against 1 defenceman and a goalie. The team had a minute to score as many goals as they could. Engelage was in net against the blue team and MacDonald was in net against the White team. Unfortunately, I didn't jot down the participants for this event so if memory serves me right it was

Kessel - Stajan - Ponikarovsky vs White. They scored 1 goal.
Blake - Grabovski - Kulemin vs Komisarek. They scored 2 or 3.
Primeau - Mayers - Hanson vs Exelby. They scored 1.
Hagman, Stempniak, Orr vs Schenn. They scored 1 or 2.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The IR squad of Gunnarsson, Gustavsson and Mitchell.

The last event was the Breakaway. Every shooter got a shot. Only Kaberle, Orr, Stajan and Beauchemin advanced past the first round...on Joey Macdonald and Andrew Engelage! You think our shoot out can use some help? #WeMissYouMats

Francois Beauchemin ended up winning it with the lone goal in the second round via wrist shot.

Hagman, Blake and Kaberle

The White team ended up beating the Blue team by a score that nobody cared about. I was surprised to see Engelage in net instead of Toskala. He wasn't with the injured guys either. Did he get released? Somebody please tell me he did...

This was my first Skills Competition and I had a good time even though my friend was late and I had to wait outside for a good half hour...I could have gotten a Burkie's Dog! The atmosphere was totally different from a game. I guess this is what happens when you replace suits with jerseys. Surprisingly, I didn't spot too many jersey fouls but I did see 2 Pogge jerseys (1 Leaf, 1 Marlie) and a Stralman jersey. I hope nobody bought Tlusty jerseys!

I'm not sure how many tickets were available but the Leafs did a good job making this an event affordable for the kids. Even as I waited outside for my friends this man came up to me and offered me a couple of tickets for free! Speaking of free, people will take anything for free...including styrofoam accuracy targets that says Rogers of them. WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT ONE OF THOSE???

If anybody is interested, here are the rest of the photos I took

Conf

I'm off on a 3 Day Conference now. It should be full of conservative Bible teaching and good, manly, Christian bonding. I expect only to have this retreat of reformed orthodoxy broken when I pop back to Hornsby this evening to run Bible study on the Sermon on the Mount. Good times.

Scrambled Thoughts

More than Advertised
I hope to have a full post on Kessel some time in the near future so I won't go into too much detail here but being born in 85, I don't remember seeing a winger on the Leafs with such offensive flair since...ever. Kessel is the winger Sundin never had. A lightning quick release, speed in the neutral zone and the ability to finish plays. Somebody Pinch Me. This Phil Kessel guy is too good to be a Leafs winger.

Broken-Hearted

The Monster just went in for his second heart ablation in about as many months. He should be back in a week to 10 days time. While reasons for concern are low, it's the heart we're dealing with here so extra caution should always be taken. We want Gustavsson to be our #1 for the next ten years. There's no reason to rush him back.

Accountability

The Raptors will have none of it. Here are some quotes from the team yesterday

"Every time something happens it's always, 'It's okay, it's all right.' It's not all right. Problems go by without attacking them or challenging them or bringing them to the forefront and getting them solved. We can't keep keep putting them to the back of the bus and just saying, 'That's okay.' It's not all right."

-Jarett Jack

"You've got to address (the defensive issues) and you've got to show people on tape. It's not personal. If you want to win, you're going to have to make some sacrifices."

-Antoine Wright

Does Jay Triano deserve some blame? Yes. But he doesn't deserve all of it. It's a team game and frankly, he isn't the one on the floor getting beat by his man. Whether it be the NBA or NCAA, every player on this team has played on another team before. Did they not teach you how to close out on perimeter shooting? Did they not teach you how to defend the pick and roll? Did they not teach you how to box out for a rebound? Because these are a lot of the fundamental errors I see that leads to buckets by the opposing team.

It's easy to point the finger at the coach and play the blame game and unfortunately for Triano, I don't see him lasting too much longer on this team as he's already lost the respect in the locker room. Sadly, I think it will take more than a coaching change to pull this team together. Even with the worst coaching possible, no team should allow 146 points in regulation...

Marco's Shipping Up To Boston

Dear Scoots,

From stealing second off a walk to your incredible .789 lead-off OPS, I loved every bit of your play. You were great for us last year and you definitely will be missed. With that said, please give me back my spare key and get the fuck out.

World Leaders in the Workplace

I spent the last few days at work ushering for a man who just happens to be the exiled leader of a small, oppressed country and a leader of a major world religion. I cannot say more than that just in case you figure out who it was.

Anyway this guy, who we'll call Willy, gave three days of lectures. 2 days were about his religion, and one day was about the future of the world. I was rather excited about seeing Willy because he's regarded as one of the great world leaders for peace and love. Like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr and the like. I was hoping to learn more about Willy's religion and perhaps get inspired a little to spread a bit more peace and love around.

Sadly, Willy was kinda dull. He was a cute, old man, who had an adorable laugh. But for the first two days he seemed to just sit on stage and waffle in his broken English about whatever came to mind. It wasn't offensive at all, but it was like going to visit a nice old man for tea with 5,000 other people. I don't think he'd prepared any thing to say, he just said stuff.

For three quarters of the time he spoke in his native language, doing commentary about commentaries on his faith. It was excruciatingly boring. I would race to open the door for patrons whenever they looked like they were going to leave the arena just to give me something to do.

While Willy was talking I looked around the arena at his devotees and 10% of them in the afternoon sessions would have been asleep, and 50% looked totally bored.

Today Willy gave a public lecture which was a bit more interesting because he spoke in English the whole time and answered questions from the audience. When he answered questions he'd answer it from the view point of a believer and a non-believer.

For instance he was asked "Why do good things happen to bad people?"

His answer was "From a theistic viewpoint, God knows. From a Buddhist view point, karma. From a non-believer's view point, it's a mystery. Next question."

It felt a little odd for me that he could be so flexible with truth. As far as I can tell it's totally impossible for all three viewpoints to be right at the same time. I reckon it's a little insulting to all viewpoints to present them as just as equally valid as each other. It seems rather patronising, like "Ok, you believe that, it's good for you, so good for you. You just find your answers and I'll find mine and we'll all be happy." Which is just totally dismissive as if your view doesn't matter at all. As a Christian, I'd rather Willy said "Christianity is wrong and my view point is right and this is why." Because then at lease he's engaging with the faith, rather than just dismissing it to the realm of harmless self-fulfilment.

Anyway Willy's main point in the end seemed to be "If possible, help others, and at the very least, harm no-one." Which is very nice. And if all Willie's followers stuck to that the world would be a nicer, or at very least, a much more harmless place.

When he said that people went "Mmm" and then stood up and gave Willy a standing ovation (it was also the end), as if Willy had just given some new, amazing wisdom. I can't help but think, if that's the best these people have heard, they need to do more reading. It sounds rather weak to me. "Do good, or at very least, don't be bad" sounds like Google's "Don't be evil." Maybe I'm being a little spoiled, but Jesus said much more radically world changing things that that, Gandhi did too. I reckon most of my friends and family have too.

It also surprised me that you can get 5,000 people to come and hear one of the least dynamic world leaders around. I reckon Willy was probably more boring to listen to than Rudd (though a lot cuter than Rudd, no one wants to pinch Rudd's cheeks). When a Christian speaker comes they have to be pretty good at communicating to draw a crowd of 5,000 people. But Christian speakers have to draw a crowd with their communication abilities, Willy I think draws a crowd with his office and the fact that many believe Willy is the reincarnation of the Willy before him, who is the Willy before him, and so on going back many Willies into the past. Willy gets love not because of anything he's done, but by an identity given to him without his choosing, the Christian speaker on the other hand gets love purely on the basis of the quality of their work. Ironic, perhaps?

Anyway, all that said, I'm happy to have seen Willy. I can't see him being a bad influence on the world. He's certainly spreading peace and love around, Like the lBeatle but with less drugs and swooning girls. And if he keeps putting people to sleep, that'll be good for their health too. He also has a great laugh. I'd be happy to have him as an adoptive Grandpa any day. Along with Gandalf. Then I could have three great Grandpas. That'd be pretty awesome.

Free Pizza

It almost makes me forget about wasting two and a half hours watching that shit-show known as The Raptors.

Biff

After work today I headed over to the Matt and Beck's to visit their just-left-school Bible Study group, and then watch the boxing. I think really I was there to watch the boxing and the Bible Study was a support act. I tend to watch all the boxing I watch with Matt. I did enjoy seeing some of the guys from the old church again.

So after Bible Study Matt, Tim, Sam, Henry and I headed down to the Pub to watch the fight between Danny Green and Roy Jones Jnr.

We found a spot standing in the the doorway of the Sports Bar. It was pretty full.

As the fight started I got excited about seeing a good 12 rounds of boxing. I turned to Sam about a minute into the fight and said "They won't do anything much in the first round, they'll just feel each other out." Because I'm grown up and knowledgeable about things like boxing.

And then a minute later Green had won on a TKO. I was rather stunned. It was a amazing. I was expecting Jones to win and Green to put up a good fight. But Green just went in and demolished him. It was rather surreal. I felt a bit sorry for Jones.

We had been planning on going in to Acer to watch the fight. But as Matt said, it's a good thing we didn't. As good as it would have been to see that, I reckon you would have wanted the under card to have been pretty good make up for the short 2 minutes and 2 seconds of the title fight.

But I'm pretty happy I watched that fight. I like boxing.