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January 29, 2015
Weenie-ness in white collar America: Is it getting worse?
I just talked on the phone to the Most Obsequious Senate Committee Staffer Ever (male, likely a young lawyer, but that's not the point) over at the Senate Judiciary Committee where they are doing Day 2 of the Attorney General nomination (Loretta Lynch) hearings. I'd like to write way more about this later. Short version is the staffer was overly-deferential (not just polite or formal) to me and in the way he spoke of other staffers and "the Chairman" (Chuck Grassley). I thought he was going to break into a chorus or two of "Camptown Races", maybe even dance a little. I am seeing this "peasant" behavior a lot. Has Weenie-ness--and I suppose by this I'm talking mainly about white males and a certain continuing emasculation--in White Collar America increased, or is it about the same as, say, 20 years ago? Are we going at breakneck speed from Polite to Pathetic? And why are people connected to the legal profession in particular so spectacularly and embarrassingly groveling?
Thursday is Get Off Your Knees Day.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2015
Thinning Law Cattle: The Lawyer 'Occupational Transfer Rate' is as High as an Elephant's Eye.
Here is good news for clients if you believe, as this blog does, that even in pre-recession days--say, 8 years ago--there were far, far too many lawyers who disliked what they did. And that hurt, and still hurts, clients. The Lawyerist reports that if you examine Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, you may be able to conclude that a whopping 25% of currently practicing lawyers will be gone/bail out/have left the building in about 7 years. Is this cool or what?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2015
Dang. Someone get this Boehner fella' a cup of black coffee.
As readers of this blog over the past 10 years know, I'm a swing voter, not a heavy Democrat, worked on the Hill a total of 4 years for two fine and mega-bright men, a Wisconsin senator (D) and later on an Ohio congressman (R). I do have some strong GOP leanings on some issues. And I've had such leanings on a few select fundamental issues ever since a shop foreman at a Cincinnati Keebler-owned cookie factory the summer before my freshman year at Duke told me not "to work so damn hard" on my 8 hour shift building tall stacks of cookies on skids for shipments all over the Midwest lest I make my fellow entry level young union workers doing the same job "look bad." The foreman asked that I complete 38 full skids a day--and not 42. And, no, no, Keebler for the record didn't make line workers dress up as elves; however, a lot of the younger male Caucasian workers were definitely funny-looking, funny as hell and full of beans. They got married around 19 and always seemed to have wives or girlfriends named Opal or Taffy. Anyway, pardon me for sounding catty here. But did our old Cincinnati buddy House Speaker John Boehner--who after Joe Biden is second in the presidential succession line--inhale more Schnapps Tuesday night than usual before the State of the Union address? I swear there are times when I see him on television the guy is ripped straight to the tits. The out-of-synch facial expressions. That walking wounded look. And then again the fuzzy portrait alternates on equal time with the media images in which he appears as the focused and likable guy that he likely is. There are many, many things to admire about the current Speaker if you take the time to learn about him and the obstacles he's overcome--even if you don't like his personality, his politics or his leadership style in the House. But what is going on here?
Posted by JD Hull at 02:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2015
Sand, passion, talent: Rory Kennedy's Viet Nam documentary nominated for Academy Award.
Renaissance woman Rory Kennedy's documentary I saw and wrote about in September was nominated for an Oscar last week. Rory is the youngest child of slain New York senator Robert Kennedy--easily the most interesting and unique Kennedy male so far (his father Joe included) and the existential hero of millions of baby boomers--who was killed in LA in 1968. She was born a few months after Bobby Kennedy's assassination. At age 46, she is now 4 years older than her dad was at his death. He was 42. Like her Dad, Rory's got sand, passion, sensitivity and talent. Nicely done.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2015
Emergency Memo to Jimmy Page re: Your Girlfriend Selection Process.
Note to Jimmy Page re: his current 25-year-old girlfriend. Jimmy, you're a genius who has worked harder than anyone I know. You're tall, dark, thin, handsome and worth over $150 million. You've swived more women than Billie Jean King. You can date anyone you want until you are about 90. So think Clooney. Date a very kind way-beautiful multi-talented to-die-for woman of any age from any nation with great legs and non-harpie facial expressions about 15 pounds lighter who has her own money. Really, dude. WTF.
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Posted by JD Hull at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2015
I was born John Daniel Hull IV but I now want to be called...
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt (b. May 27, 2006)
Mega-talented actors and Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie have a very beautiful daughter named Shiloh, who is 8 years old. For the last two years, Shiloh has asked her parents to call her "John". Which I support from a human rights perspective. Plus hey that's my real first name, too. Fine selection, sweetie. Anyway, Shiloh recently wore a kick-ass little boy's suit to a screening. Which is also fine with me. Her parents have indicated that Shiloh/John may indeed identify with the male gender--or, at a minimum, be gender neutral--and will support her in any course she takes. Bravo Pitt and Jolie for setting this example. What's not to like here?
This may be the right time to let you all know that I think of myself as a black woman activist. That's right, a crusading Afro-American female with a passion for civil and human rights. It's been going on for some time now. This identification may be due to my Washington, D.C. roots (I was born just blocks away from the neighborhoods where Duke Ellington grew up and the poet Langston Hughes lived for many years) or maybe the fact I covered the community civil rights beat for my college's daily newspaper. Or that two of the three law review articles I wrote in law school concerned, respectively, the subjects of housing discrimination and federal voting rights. But no matter how it happened, I do need to come clean. This is my moment. From this point forward, I would like you to call me the following: Shanona Janae Angela Davis Harriet Tubman Hull.
Thanks for your understanding. More to come.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2015
The Charlie Hebdo Massacre.
What happened yesterday in Paris was of course horrible: the murder of 12 people, mainly journalists, at the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Today and the next few are a time for grieving. For the polar ends of media coverage style to date, see today's NYT editorial The Charlie Hebdo Massacre in Paris, which I think gets a few things right. And see Ma Life!!, the blog of Eric Salch. Eventually, however, I hope to try write something longer on the "Je suis Charlie" movement, the gist of which in rough summary form in Facebook (when news breaks, I do summaries, rough drafts and notes on Facebook, apparently) has already made a few people angry. I'm not alone in wondering whether the current "Je suis Charlie" slogan and movement up to now may, in part, be missing the point. Part of what's bothering me is that (1) "free speech" instincts are not intuitive or something we are all born with (i.e., we can't hold the world to that standard yet), and (2) nearly every American, Brit and Parisian this week who secretly gloats about having free speech is in fact a chickenshit who won't exercise free speech rights when it counts. Think about how many times you've used your speech rights at work and in the community. And then think about times you should have--and you did not--because you were "playing it smart".
Posted by JD Hull at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2015
Famous Puppet Death Scenes.
Last 2 days to see highly acclaimed Famous Puppet Death Scenes in at the Wolly Mammoth, 641 D Street, NW, Washington, D.C. This show surely did not come to ultra-conservative San Diego. Is this cool or what? Pinch me.
Posted by JD Hull at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
Real heroes.
A dog, not a boy, is the hero of this story. Animals have as much heart and soul as some kid on a bike. I don't watch much television but I do have Facebook going on all day--often when I am work--even though I still distrust the often-shallow and culturally illiterate Wild West Show that is the Internet. I've never been an early adopter of anything digital except to get work done when co-workers are in different time zones. And I certainly haven't figured out why I'm on Facebook yet. Anyway, here's a Facebook post I did this morning about this article: He didn't die alone: Boy carries neglected dog for half mile, stays by his side which appeared in something called the Examiner based in Denver:
Animals have souls. The animals in my home. The one in this story. The many we see every day. I will quickly regret writing this--99% sure I'll delete it--but this story had tears streaming down my face before I was halfway though reading it. Me: Tough if erudite and well-traveled irreverent fearless aggressive formerly hard-drinking trial lawyer with enough sand, energy and moxie to alter the outcome of 6 Superbowls. Color me a fraud and a sap. The boy in the story? I'm not impressed or moved by him in the least. Any human being should and would do the same. No big deal, kid. So what? Congrats that you can take up space on my planet.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)