Thought I'd better do an update so no one out there thinks I've disappeared/stopped blogging for good/gotten disbarred already/gotten so many clients in my first week I have no time to blog. I was horridly busy last week and, with all that going on, the little "writing gene" has a tendency to go dormant. So, that's why there've been no updates since Wednesday.

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One thing I did start a draft post about: in the guise of letting GG, Eve & TSC Girl know that, as they enter a pretty darn hellish week (Wednesday is R-Day for TSC [New Jersey finally gave them a date, six days before the actual date of release], Friday for GG & Eve), to keep a sense of perspective, which was brought home to me this week.

I hadn't talked to my closest friend from law school, who is really one of two people I keep in contact with (and both of them on a very sporadic basis), in some time. Anyway, we finally managed to synchronize our calendars and talked on Thursday night. She mentioned it had been a stressful time for her, as she'd had some friends pass. I asked what was up with that, and she said that a college friend had died. "And then you knew that [law school classmate who graduated with us in May] died Friday, didn't you?"

Actually, I didn't. I asked what had caused it, and she said he'd d had cancer. Hadn't I noticed he was bald last year?

Well, that I did, but on the other hand, in today's world, baldness is oftentimes much more a fashion statement than anything else. In retrospect, I recall now that I think of it that I think I saw him occasionally using a cane to get around, but other than that, he looked like a healthy, ruddy, 34-year-old, father of two; at least to me.

Anyway, it kind of hit me. He and I really just chatted at the law school when we'd run into each other in the Forum or waiting for class to start or whatever, but he was always a guy I had a sense of was going places. My friend told me that he had told folks at the law school he wanted to work a few years before he died so he could save up some money for his kids.

Instead, he died one week after the bar exam results were released.

I checked to see if he had registered for the bar exam, which he did, but his name was not on the pass list. I think I recall seeing him there, in which case, he must have had a terrible summer battling his illness to have not passed the bar, because he graduated cum laude. Or else he was ill enough he chose to defer the bar in hopes of taking it another time.

In any case, to make it through law school cum laude knowing you had an illness that would probably kill you sooner rather than later is quite an accomplishment. Remember life is short, and the bar exam does not equal life.

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Speaking of life, here's a recap of mine the past week, so you have some clue why I haven't been around. Monday, of course, was swearing in; Tuesday, election day; Wednesday, Democratic annual dinner. All three of these things are BIG events that are emotionally draining by themselves, but together they were a heckuva whammy. And, at the end of them, I needed to get back to the store beause I suspected I'd be terribly behind.

As it turned out, I was right. By Thursday, mid-morning, knowing I'll be gone NEXT week the first two days to Ohio State, I realized my goal was not to get caught up, but try to limit the carnage. I think I did an okay job of it.

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I need to say a word or two about Pat Robertson. Ah, yes, Pat Robertson.

By the way, Pat, Dover, Pennsylvania is still standing, so far as I can tell.

Let's start by reminding those of you just joining this program of some of Pat's "greatest hits." as compiled by CNN. For instance: "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women, it's about a socialist anti-family political movement and encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Or, how about when he said about the State Department, which is located in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington, DC: "Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up like Newt Gingrich wants to do."

I assume that Newt's plans, kooky though they frequently are, did not include detonation of a nuclear bomb.

You'll recall Robertson recently said that if the President of Venezuela "thinks we're trying to assassinate him I think we really ought to go ahead and do it, it's whole lot cheaper than starting a war."

Oh, yes, then there was the comment that the threat of liberal judges is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

Yeah, so long as you're not IN one of the buildings, ON one of the airplanes, or standing on the ground. Or have any sense of decency at all.

Look, I don't have a whole lot of love in my heart for right-wing conservative judges and don't think they're doing the Republic any favors, but I would never compare them to terrorists flying into buildings.

Here's something I found disturbing from the CNN story: Robertson is STILL consulted by the White House for advice, such as the Harriet Miers appointment.

OK, does this bother anyone else? I mean, Dubya, if you must have your leaking-CIA-informants'-names deputy chief of staff, your glib-but-clueless SecDef, and your slick-in-oil-money...well, just about everyone...that's fine. But you don't REALLY endorse comparing liberal judges to terrorists, do you? Especially when the comparison comes out favorably?

I think I might rest a little more comfortably if I knew the person who is steering the ship of state wasn't talking to someone who's advocating nuking the State Department, making taking out liberal judges a higher priority than the War on Terror, and accusing feminists of witchcraft.

Witchcraft, Dubya! Didn't we get over that in, like, 1692?

If we can't have the truth on Iraq, if we can't balance the budget, if we can't do something about the incredible number of societal problems we have, couldn't we at least have the assurance that you'll stop talking to this guy?

You know, Pat, I started thinking yesterday that it would be funny if in the next few weeks, God would just get really irked and bring some form of devastation down on your city, which is in Virginia Beach, VA. Then, I realized it might feel so good to do that, God might get carried away and decide to take out Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Jerry Fallwell and Liberty University. Which would be bad, in my view, since Laura also lives in Lynchburg (at Randolph Macon Womens' College, whose students the courtly southern gentleman Falwell has dubbed "the whores on the hill.")

Beyond which, Pat, there's plenty of innocent residents who live in both Virginia Beach and Lynchburg, just like there are in Dover, Pennsylvania. And besides which, could we all remember that all the Dover, PA folks did was threw their school board out?

Aren't there cities in the world which have had people do worse things? (This is an argument I make smewhat tentatively, insofar as I am an incumbent school board member myself.) Isn't there more sin, both net and gross in, say, New York City? (Oh, wait, you happily nodded when Jerry Falwell said 9/11 was God's revenge.) San Francisco has a ton of sodomites, Pat, and it's been sixteen years since they've had an earthquake.

I'm sorry, Pat, but the God I believe in doesn't just go around taking out whole towns because of the sins of some folks. (He also doesn't take a stand in local school board elections.) I'm looking forward to your meeting him someday. I think the conversation should be quite interesting.

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Ohio State @ Northwestern, noon today. And when it's over....

it's Michigan week!