livefromblogdahd

2009-10-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

CNN) -- A Pennsylvania soccer mom was chatting with a friend via webcam when she was shot to death by her husband, who then went upstairs and shot himself, police said Friday.

Pistol-packing soccer mom Meleanie Hain was shot dead while chatting with a friend on a webcam, police said.

Meleanie Hain, 31, made national headlines last year as the mother who carried a loaded, holstered handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game.

She was found dead in her Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home along with her husband, Scott Hain, 33, on Wednesday evening, Lebanon police said.

Hain was in her kitchen talking with a friend via webcam just before her death, police said. Watch why Hain caused controversy »

The friend, who police will not name, was looking away from the computer screen when he heard a shot and a scream, police said. He turned back to the monitor, he told police, and no longer saw Meleanie Hain but instead saw Scott Hain firing several rounds from a handgun toward where his wife had been.

Police said that the woman's body had already fallen to the floor by the time the friend turned back to the screen.

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Soccer mom, husband shot dead

Scott Hain then went upstairs to a bedroom, where he shot himself in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun, police said.

Meleanie Hain was shot several times with a 9 mm handgun, police said. Her fully loaded 9 mm handgun was found in her backpack hanging on the back of the front door.

The couple's three children were home at the time of the killings, police Capt. Daniel Wright said. They were unharmed and took refuge at a neighbor's house before police arrived, he said.

Investigators have confiscated the webcam and computer, but cannot review what the friend says he saw because the online conversation was not recorded.

The death of the couple came four months after Meleanie Hain told her attorney she was separating from her husband, her attorney, Matthew B. Weisberg, told CNN Thursday. However, police said the couple still appeared to be living together.

Meleanie Hain drew media attention on September 11, 2008, when she carried a Glock strapped to her belt to her daughter's soccer game.

Nine days later her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo, who claimed she showed poor judgment by wearing the weapon to a child's game. County Judge Robert Eby later reinstated the permit.

2009-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

This article explains exactly why gun rights advocates completely miss the boat on the topic of self-defense.

Statistics, often cited indicate that for ever person killed by a stranger, dozens and dozens of people are killed by people they know. The myth of stranger violence and concealed-carry laws explodes into flames against the reality.

This article says it all.

2009-08-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

Starbucks and the "short" cappucino

2009-07-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Starbucks apparently has a "short" cappucino that mirrors the real thing. For those of you unaware of the reality, Starbucks doesn't actually make a cappucino. What they make is a latte. If there is significantly more milk than espresso in the drink, it reduces the amount of actual coffee flavor, which is the primary purpose of the cappucino.

Having spoken with a manager of Starbucks, he admitted that indeed, their equipment simply doesn't make it properly. The temperature is too high and overcooks the milk. In order to do it properly, they have to work with their equipment. It doesn't do it automatically the way they do it at Peets.

My answer was to always order the drink, but ask for it "extra-dry". Even then you will often by subjected to a giant, heavy cup of milk.

If you pick up a cappucino, as I have stated previously, and it is HEAVY from the solid milk, instead of light from foam, you have been offically "milked" as I call it. There isn't any excuse for it. It's simply a typical American bastardization of a very good thing from another place.

There are things we do better than the Italians. Pizza, for example. Coffee? Shoes? Nope.

2009-06-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

NO wonder the peace process is sluggish.

2009-06-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

Having strong opinions without the brains to back them up makes you look not very smart.

2009-05-29T10:06:00.001-07:00

Karate, body conditioning and the Makiwara

2009-05-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

A recent debate on the website bullshido.com piqued my interest in a traditional Okinawan practice. Karate practitioners in very hard styles of karate will pound their fists into boards, condition their shins and arms with wood or other surfaces, in an attempt to harden the bones. This supposedly makes the karate practitioner more effective in combat.

The subject is a matter of controversy and there isn't really a lot of scientific evidence

Escrima and alcohol do not mix....

2009-04-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

FOR THOSE WHO TAKE LIFE TOO SERIOUSLY -

2009-02-11T14:45:00.000-08:00

1. Save the whales. Collect the whole set.

2. A day without sunshine is like night.

3. On the other hand, you have different fingers.

4. I just got lost in thought. It wasn't familiar territory.

5. 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6. 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

7. I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe.

8. Honk if you love peace and quiet.

9. Remember, half the people you know are below average.

10. He who laughs last thinks slowest.

11. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

12. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the
cheese.

13. I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.

14. Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.

15. Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your week.

16. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

17. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

18. Get a new car for your spouse. It'll be a great trade!

19. Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.

20. Always try to be modest, and be proud of it!

21. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

22. How many of you believe in psychokinesis? Raise my hand...

23. OK, so what's the speed of dark?

24. How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

25. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously
overlooked something.

26. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

27. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

28. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

29. If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

30. How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?

31. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

32. What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

33. I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out

34. I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

35. Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

36. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what
happened.

37. Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall
off.

38. Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak

Thank you Mr. Obama

2008-11-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

This is the first post in a long time, and now that the election is over I can breathe a sigh of relief, comfortable in the knowledge that Sarah Palin has no chance of being President. I still can't decide which is really more significant, the election of Obama, or the nomination of Sarah Palin. One positive, a sign that our nation has matured and is clearly moving away from the know-nothing wing of the Republican party, and the other, a warning bell ringing in the night that yes, it really is possible for someone who isn't even remotely qualified to be President could actually be in that office.

For those of you claiming George Bush was that person, I must defend Mr. Bush, as strange as that sounds, and firmly argue that Bush is a much more intelligent and educated person that Palin, who is not only able to tell the most bald-faced lies with utter precision, but is clearly dumber than a box of rocks.

But rather than dwell on the negative, I will say that the acceptance speech of Obama brought tears to my eyes. Even McCain's speech was moving, if misguided.

Now comes the hard part.

2008-05-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

A latte is NOT a cappucino

2008-05-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write about something earth-shaking today, other than gas prices, the Iraq war, and no pun intended, the quakes in China. This deep and important issue is the cappuccino.

My morning caffeine rush is in some part the best part of the day. I can't wait for the day to be over so I can wake up and go get it again. The cappuccino is a part of that. Actually it IS that.

Layered with velvety, slightly sweet foam under which the rich and somewhat bitter espresso resides, hopefully a double shot, the cappuccino is over too quickly. You don't sit and sip it like coffee.

Most drinkers are usually done in a few minutes and on their way, which is why in Italy, the drinker enjoys it standing up, swallows a croissant, and moves right along.

My dilemma is that most barristos and barristas don't know how to make one. The other day, this *$*WJL$*F@ told her compadre, when he asked how to make one "it's basically a latte with foam". I was enraged. I wanted to throw hot coffee on her face. Incidentally, you can rely upon Peet's coffee to make a good one, or the Flying Goat in Sonoma. Always order it in a small cup, if you can. A real cappuccino is always small. The Flying Goat automatically gives you one if you ask for a cappuccino. I love them. They love me.
==============

Cappuccino originated as a beverage in 19th century Vienna cafés, where the coffee menus were innovative: the customers could choose among up to 20 variations of coffees; mostly variations of black coffee and milk or cream. Innovative names like "Kapuziner," "Franziskaner," "Pharisäer," and so forth were invented.

The 'kapuziner' ('cappuccino' in Italian) was so named from the color of the Capuchin friars' habit, which is light/darkish brown and at that time a frequently used term. The Italian 'version' of the Austrian beverage had come south in the first decades of the 20th century and grew in popularity as the large espresso machines in cafés and restaurants were improved during and after WW2. By the 1950's, the Italian cappuccino had found its form. The name 'cappuccino' is inspired by the color of the beverage (the blend of coffee and milk), which is a brownish-red, and has nothing to do with the 'cap' of foam, which was a later addition to the drink, nor the description of a white hood or white rope as part of the costume: this is incorrect. The name of the friars themselves (and the monkey also named after them) comes from the Italian word for hood, "cappuccio" [kap'put:ʃo], which is also often used colloquially for the beverage (the '-ino' suffix denotes a diminutive in Italian). The Capuchin friars' habit again was inspired by St Francisco from Assisi's original costume—with a pointed hood and this color—as it is preserved in the basilica in Assisi.

Ingredients

Besides a shot of espresso, the most important element in preparing a cappuccino is the texture and temperature of the milk. When a barista steams the milk for a cappuccino, he or she creates microfoam by introducing very tiny bubbles of air into the milk, giving the milk a velvety texture and sweetness. The traditional cappuccino consists of an espresso, on which the barista pours the hot foamed milk, resulting in a 1 cm-thick milk foam on top. Variations of the mixtures are usually called cappuccino chiaro (light cappuccino, also known as a wet cappuccino) with more milk than normal, and cappuccino scuro (dark cappuccino, also known as a dry cappuccino) with less milk than normal.

Attaining the correct ratio of foam requires close attention be paid while steaming the milk, thus making the cappuccino one of the most difficult espresso-based beverages to make properly. Moreover, a skilled barista may obtain artistic shapes while pouring the milk on the top of the espresso coffee.

http://www.answers.com/topic/cappuccino

Some women have no shame...

2008-03-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

Prostitute resigns after sleeping with politician.

A subprime primer

2008-02-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

If you are needing a brief lesson on the mortgage meltdown, here is one part of the puzzle.

GOOD THING HE HAD A GUN!!!

2008-02-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

Re: the murders in Illinois
The slaughter continues and the only thing you can do is yawn and snort in utter contempt for a nation who holds candlelight vigils and sits around crying, and then gets on to the hard work of protecting the right to bear arms. The cycle continues, and will continue as long as we Americans refuse to stand up to an army of balding, middle-aged men who insist we suffer under the tyranny of insane government.

The first thing gun nuts will do is mention that Illinois does not allow concealed carry and that would have saved everyone. THis is a popular fantasy. The gun nuts want us to believe that we should all be carrying around firearms in order to protect us from random acts of insane people who are, guess what, carrying concealed firearms.

Never mind the efficacy of defending yourself from a surprise attack while sitting in a classroom, which virtually no one has the training, nor the inclination to train for (and it probably wouldn't work anyway, although this fantasy lives on the minds of the gun nuts) the real question is, why should I have to be ready and armed to defend myself when I'm sitting in class? Does anyone really have an answer to that question?

Furthermore, has a person with a concealed firearm EVER stopped a mass shooting anywhere in the US? Nope. Not one. Ever.

Personally, I am sincerely hoping that sooner or later someone will pop into an NRA convention and start blasting away, just to test out their theory.

Monkey Steals the Peach

2008-01-20T21:12:00.001-08:00

And you thought your fight with your wife was bad...

2008-01-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

This article is a reminder not to date a woman with too strong a grip..

oman jailed for testicle attack A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

'Pulled hard'

Sentencing Monti, Judge Charles James said it was "a very serious injury" and that Monti was not acting in self-defence.

The court heard that Mr Jones had ended his long-term but "open relationship" with Monti towards the end of May last year.

The pair remained on good terms and on 30 May she picked him up from a party in Crosby and went back for drinks with friends at Mr Jones's house.

An argument ensued and Mr Jones said there was a struggle between them.

In his statement, Mr Jones said she grabbed his genitals and "pulled hard".

Rectal exam...

2008-01-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_us/unwanted_exam;_ylt=AnDztqX_qyDwllydem_3z08Z.3QA

Man: NY hospital forced rectal exam

25 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination.

Brian Persaud, 38, says in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was "assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned."

His lawyer, Gerrard M. Marrone, said he and Persaud later learned the exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage in the accident.

Marrone said his client got eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow.

Then, Marrone said, emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that." He said Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and performed the rectal exam.

Persaud woke up handcuffed to a bed and with an oxygen tube down his throat, the lawyer said, and spent three days in a detention center.

A request by the hospital to dismiss Persaud's lawsuit was denied by Justice Alice Schlesinger, who ordered a trial to start March

================

The reason why this case will probably fail is that people with head injuries commonly fight. However, if he did indeed say "don't do that" there may be some traction here...

I PASSED!!!!!!

2007-11-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

July 2007 California Bar Examination
Application Number:
8328
File Number:
99495
Name:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The name above appears on the pass list for the July 2007 California Bar Examination.

Evidence that I have good ideas

2007-10-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

I'm tooting my own horn today, although it really is not a happy ocassion. Sometime in April I was driving through Lodi on my way home from Fresno and an idea popped into my head. My best ideas always come from a need which I have myself. Thinking back to all the shitty neighbors I have had, and how it would have been nice to avoid them, I thought of an idea; how about a website where you could find out if you neighbors are assholes?

Thus "rankmyneighbor.com" was born. I bought the URL and shopped it around to a few people who had some experience in designing web pages. The response was, for the most part, tepid. The attitude was, generally speaking, consdescending but at the same time encouraging. Very few people said "Oh, that's a bad idea" but most people didn't stand up and say "hmmmm....I could get rich off this..."

So here, today on Yahoo, is my idea. On Yahoo. Front page news.http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/76813/tattling-on-rotten-neighbors

I won't say it doesn't hurt. But hopefully, in the future, this will give my ideas a little more credibility. Who knows?

Since I had that idea in April, and this crappy website (and it is crappy. all people do is complain. They are also going go get sued for defamation) went live in August, the timing is pretty suspicious. But I have no way of knowing who talked to who, and even if I did we never seriously made anyone sign the non-disclosure agreement because they were all our friends. More than likely someone just came up with it on their own, or someone keeps close tabs on who buys URL's and then figures out the idea that way.

In either case, back to the drawing board.

The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch

2007-09-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

In computer science circles, Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch is known as a virtual-reality expert, co-founder of the university's Entertainment Technology Center and director of the Alice Software Project, which exposes students from middle school through college to programming.

Professor Randy Pausch and his three children in a recent shot.

(Credit: Randy Pausch )

But he is fast becoming familiar to a broader audience as a man with little time to live and much wisdom to impart. Pausch, a 46-year-old father of three, has pancreatic cancer and, most likely, just a few months left.

=====================

You can see the entire last lecture here.

Stop the mortgage bail out!

2007-09-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's finally happening like I predicted years ago: now that reality has sunk in and the numerous people who shoe-horned themselves into houses they couldn't afford are about to pay the price, the federal government is talking about stepping in to save the day. For democrats, I suppose it makes some sense. Perpetually the champions of the downtrodden, the democrats can position themselves as standing up for the little guy while at the same time they are standing up for the big guys who bankroll them. After all, if our tax dollars go to pay the mortgage of the family down the straight who allowed themselves to be panicked into a home they couldn't afford, who really ends up with the money?

The Republicans, likewise can position themselves as champions of business, bailing out the poor, unsophisticated millionaires who bought products which, as it turns out, contained these mortgages. I mean, who could have predicted that what goes up must come down? Certainly not the NAR, who as it turns out are behind Bush's latest proposal.

That means that the only people left holding the bag are 1. the taxpayers and 2. people who have been waiting on the sidelines because they knew the market would come down. This means the market will remain artificially inflated, or subsidized, and the break that many of us anticipated may be further off, or may not even come.

For the Republicans, this is the biggest problem. After all, their values included taking responsibility for ones choices. How exactly does this bail-out fit in with that?

The last bail-out in American history was the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 80's. The government paid 145 billion dollars.

According to this article, the current crisis is nothing like that, and as of yet, we have only spent a measly 25 billion dollars on the subprime meltdown. Moreover "all experts" seem to think this is a short-term problem. '

However, reading this article from sfgate which states

"U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., suggested that just less than $200 billion could rescue these poor "homeowners." But a bail out will amount to at least five times that when the Alt A market fails."

or here

"Christopher Cagan, director of research at First American CoreLogic, says rising mortgage payments on adjustable rate loans will force 1.1 million homeowners into foreclosure over the next 6 years. He estimates the cost of paying off the debt for those borrowers would be $120 billion.
"

Thus, it would appear many people are contemplating a bigger bail-out. I include myself in this fine company. To quote a source I don't recall "we don't even know where the bodies are buried."

The Jena six hypocrisy

2007-09-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

I've never been a big fan of Al Sharpton who has a long history of being a windbag race-baiter looking to fan the flames of anger rather than the cool eye of a leader intent to help our nation heal the rift that exists between us. I'm also disgusted by the way in which the only real information I was able to find on this case came from, of all people, Michelle Malkin. But then again even a broken clock is right twice a day.

As it turns out, the kid in jail was on probation. Certainly you are all aware that what we have here is a crime of violence committed three months after the symbolic act of hanging a noose on the "white" tree. Six kids attacked one kid, and his face was apparently swollen. While this may not rise to the level of attempted murder, it is a crime of violence. The victims are thus six people who decided to attack one person.

Don't ask me how it is possible that such people could become victims, but America's dearth of black leadership has existed for quite a while, and the likes of Al Sharpton, who it seems should be at least as discredited as Don Imus, continues to get airplay.

Here are the relevant passages:

--------------

There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the “Jena Six” rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s. But the reality is Thursday’s protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.

The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he’d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail. Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn’t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.

Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?

That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.

There was no “schoolyard fight” as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree. Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack. A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six” case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six” in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.

Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.

It’s almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison. Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?

It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

-From the Kansas City Star

For the clients

2007-09-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Lawyer's Client Manifesto
1. You have wants. You have needs. Focus on the needs first. Wants are bonus.

2. If you are seeing a lawyer because your dispute is "not about the money, but about the principle of the thing" don't be surprised if your lawyer runs away. You can never be satisfied. Also, it's really about the money.

3. Your case/matter is the most important thing happening to you right now. It is not the most important thing happening to your lawyer right now. It may not even be in his top ten.

4. If you think your lawyer is trying to kill your deal, remember this: though there may only be a "one percent" chance your deal will go bad, your lawyer sees that "one percent" over and over again. She's looking out for you. She cares about you and your business. She also doesn't want her malpractice premiums to go up.

5. You want to buy results, not time. Most lawyers sell time, not results. Make sure you both understand the difference before your first bill arrives. You will certainly understand the difference after.

6. If you want to find a lawyer who sells results, look hard. There are a few of them out there. They are the ones who can still smile because they get to see their children before 9:00 at night.

7. Big firm lawyers are not more efficient. Or smarter. Or cheaper. They are certainly not cheaper.

8. Make sure your lawyer understands your business. If your lawyer doesn't understand your business, find out if he's going to learn about it on his time, or yours.

9. You are your lawyer's boss. You are not her only boss. She has hundreds of other bosses too. Each one of them thinks their matter is more important than yours.

10. How messy is your lawyer's desk? When they bill you for thirty minutes of "file review," how much of that time was spent looking for your file?

11. When you call a lawyer for the first time, how long does it take for him to return your calls? After you hire that lawyer, expect it to take at least three times as long. Same goes for e-mails.

12. Does your lawyer have reputation for being a "bulldog?" That probably means they are an asshole. To everyone.

13. Look for a lawyer with a technology IQ no more than fifty points less than yours. If you live in e-mail and your lawyer doesn't, learn to like your mail carrier.

14. If you hate your lawyer, fire him. He probably deserves it, and you aren't getting his best work anyway.

15. You wouldn't automatically marry the first person you date, so don't automatically hire the first lawyer you see. A great lawyer-client relationship can last a lifetime. Your lawyer can be your advisor, counselor, confidant, and friend. Find one you like, stick with him or her, and spread the word. Oh, and stop telling lawyer jokes. They aren't really that funny. ;-)

Please check the above link for the original source: "gapingvoid"

[Manifesto submission guidelines are here.] [Manifesto archive is here.]