Okay, first things first, because I'm getting lots of email, voicemail, and IMs about this:

Yes, a tornado hit Fenton. Yes, it hit our house. And, yes, we're all alive and unhurt. And, no, our house was not damaged and Sher did NOT go into labor.

Our house was on the very edge of the tornado. I was actually outside when it hit: I'd run outside as quickly as I could to move our barbecue grill next to the side of the house so it didn't become a missile if something serious did hit, and as I was getting ready to go inside the wind picked up. I looked up and saw rain whipping horizontally in two different directions at once and small pieces of debris above me moving in a big circle.

Before you go, "IDIOT!", I didn't know at the time that there was an actual tornado headed our way. The power had gone out a few minutes before, and the last we'd heard there was a tornado in the northern end of the county (we live on the very southern end), which was why the tornado sirens were going off. We'd already gone to the basement and out flashlight was dying, so I went upstairs to find more. That's when I noticed the grill starting to sway a bit with the wind and decided to prevent it from launching.

Anyway, when I saw the rotation and the wind, I hightailed it back inside and into the basement where we waited it out. After just a couple of minutes the storm seemed to subside so I went out and saw our neighbors already trying to cut up and move the trees that had fallen across the road. It wasn't until we cleared the trees and had a chance to look around the neighborhood that we realized the extent of the damage. The very edge of the tornado apparently brushed the houses on our block. The house behind us had its windows blown out, the house behind that had chunks of siding torn out and big trees completely uprooted, and the house behind that had the entire roof and part of the walls blown off. The house across the street from that one had a car blown completely through the garage.

Currently, the power and telephones are completely out in Fenton. The best estimate for power to be restored is Monday night, so we're staying at my sister-in-law's house in Linden at the moment.

So, basically, the storm inconvenienced us. But we're not complaining because we got extremely lucky.

Anyway, my thanks to everyone who has emailed, called, and IMed me to make sure we're all okay. We are, and apparently there were no serious injuries in the city (although there was a lot of damage), so everyone say a prayer and thank the deity of your choice for a small miracle.

So this morning, I wake up. Not unusual, since I do that most mornings. But this morning was different.

First of all, the radio station to which our alarm is normally tuned (WFUM, the local NPR affiliate, thank you very much) is apparently off the air because all we get is static. Second, I'm choking to death.


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I promised I'd be better about the blog, so here I am. Like anyone cares. Well, obviously, you do because you're reading this. But it's not like I'm breaking earth-shattering news here or writing great works that leave everyone hanging on the edge of their seat, wanting more.

Or . . . am I?


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Wow! How long has it been since I posted something on my blog? June-something? Well, it's been crazy. Crazy for me and crazy for the rest of the planet, I guess you could say. So, for those who give a rodent's posterior about anything that might be going on with me, here's the latest:


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Long time, no blog. That whole pesky "life" thing, you know? Annoying.

Okay, so here's what's going on, with added bits of randomness thrown in just to spice it up:


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So here's the deal: I'm fed up "to here" with the tactics that right-wingers seem to think are acceptable in getting their way. Cases in point:


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It's been a long time since I wrote anything in this blog. The craziness of life has pretty much sapped all of my free time: between the website design work, the law practice, what seems to be a perpetual need to do housework, and the infatiguable four-year-old it seems I have no time to sit down and breathe, let alone write anything anyone would be remotely interested in reading. But this morning I've got a break, so here are some semi-random, semi-coherent thoughts on life, the practice of law, website spammers, and maybe a little more:


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I know, I know . . . I've been neglecting the blog. Well, to be honest, that's largely because I've been helping in the effort to get rid of all of the trackback and comment spam that's been blasting this site (and almost every other site that carries blogs), and I thought it would be counterproductive to just add more threads to keep track of until we had it under control. I think that point has been reached, however (for a while, at least), so I'm back.

I know that I usually yammer on about politic and law and sometimes science education, but today I'd like to be a little more light-hearted (although there is a lot to talk about, from the Senate Democrats' apparent lack of blackbone to the Republicans making at least a show of demanding George II disclose his contacts with Jack Abramoff): the theatre.


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Well, the Alito hearings have opened today. The first day will bring nothing worth talking about; the Senators will all stake out their predictable positions--the Republicans claiming that anything negative said about the guy is someow an affront to the "dignity" of the process, and the Democrats warning Alito that if he doesn't answer his questions with candor that they'll vote against him (which most will probably do anyway)--and Alito will try to present himself as a reasonable moderate who is shocked--SHOCKED--that anyone could oppose him.

So, in that vein, let's review what we know about Scalito:


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Well, the holidays are over. Oops; I mean "the exclusively Christian celebration" for those who are convinced there's a "War on Christmas" going on. So, here's a recap.


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I've been neglecting my blog for the last couple of weeks, largely because I've landed a high-paying job at a respected law firm doing civil liberties cases, been busy writing my novel, and spending time with my friends.


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I've been ranting about this for weeks: I know that "intelligent design" is a feeble attempt at disguised creationism. You know that "intelligent design" is a feeble attempt at disguised creationism. The proponents of "intelligent design" know that it's a feeble attempt at disguised creationism. And yet, the creationists seem to think that federal judges are too dumb to figure it out.

And once again, they've been proven wrong.


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I am an idiot.

You didn't need me to tell you that; basically anyone on the planet who has spent more then ten minutes with me could tell you as much. "Oh, Steven? Yeah, that guy's an idiot," is what they would say.

And last night, I pretty much proved them right.


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Things just keep getting worse and worse for Geoffrey Fieger. After what appears to be a botched attempt to blackmail Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, he is being investigated for violations of Michigan ethics rules for attorneys, and now the feds want in on the act: they are now claiming that he laundered money and made illegal contributions to the John Edwards presidential campaign in 2004.


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Wow. When I decide to have a bad day, I really go all out. Seriously. I have a crappier day by 8 a.m. than most people have all day.


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I've been neglecting my blog for the last few days because of the hectic pace of my lifestyle this week, but there are a couple of things that I want to comment on.

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I was going to make this a happy blog post, talking about being sworn in to the Bar and some neat technology stuff, but I just found out some bad news that has me rather upset. It seems that General Motors, the biggest employer by far here in my home state of Michigan, is going to shut down nine plants in North America and can 30,000 people. And Michigan is definitely included: the Lansing Craft Center is slated for closure.

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The Fieger-Cox scandal just keeps getting more and more sordid. The Oakland County prosecutor, who would have jurisdiction, has said that he is not going to charge Fieger with attempting to blackmail Attorney General Mike Cox into ending his investigation of Fieger's alleged illegal campaign donations. The prosecutor says he is "100% sure" that Fieger did attempt to blackmail Cox, but he doesn't have enough evidence.

The best piece of evidence in this case is some video tape.

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Yesterday, I posted answers to the most common questions I get about my alma mater, Thomas M. Cooley Law School. My friend and colleague, Alex O'Brien (a very cool guy, I might add, who is going to be an excellent attorney in case you want to gobble him up for your firm), recently penned a piece for the Cooley school newspaper, The Pillar, and he gave me permission to put it here. It fits in nicely with what I had to say yesterday, although it's geared more toward first-term Cooley students than those considering law school. He calls it, "Signs of the Drowing Man":


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A few months back, I graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Cooley is the largest law school in the country, in no small part due to its open admissions policy and flexible scheduling options. (It's one of only two or three law schools in the country where you can attend full-time while working more than 20 hours a week. This is something that requires special permission from the American Bar Association, and Cooley was the first to get it.) Because of its size and its somewhat unusual approach to legal education (giving virtually everyone a chance to prove his/her ability to practice law, as opposed to being an elitist institution), Cooley is the frequent subject of discussion among law students and potential law students.


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