I've always been partial to athletes who were absolutely hated by the beat writers covering them. Well done, Eddie Murray, for a memorable career, and for having the dignity and grace not to stick a bat down the throats of the scumbags of the fourth estate. Especially when you were with the Mets.

This might actually be a fun two years, if liberals are so willing. Bush's economic proposals are as tone-deaf as his father's; he actually believes that the reason the country is hurting is that Wall Street has to pay taxes on dividends !! He's just renominated Owen and Pickering to the federal circuit courts, only three weeks after the resignation of Trent Lott put an ugly spotlight on the piss-poor civil rights record of modern conservatism. The Administration "policy" about handling North Korea is almost deliberately incompetent, unable to distinguish between negotiations and "appeasement"; ironically, the reemergence of the PROK likely means that even if Bush starts a war with Iraq, the intended boost to his polling numbers will be as short-lived as they were for his dad. His reelect numbers are starting to plummet. And for the first time since 9/11, the Democrats are starting to fight back. Class Warfare, indeed. To the Barricades !!!!

Memo to Giants' fans: QUIT WHINING !!! Bad calls are a part of life, so get over it. Your whole raison d'etre seems to be based on the assumption that the refs would have called pass interference, then your kicking team would have made a field goal that it had botched on two separate occasions in the previous four minutes. Well, ask yourself this: how were the Giants' robbed if they couldn't hold a 24-point second half lead? Jeez, you guys are worse than those Cardinals' fans who still moan about Don Denkinger costing them the '85 Series.

The campaign to make Mother Theresa a saint hits a roadblock, in this well-reasoned piece by Jeanne d'Arc that peels away the hype, and suggests a more-deserving candidate, Archbishop Romero.

Rough day at work. I haven't been able to shake whatever sickness I have, and feel depleted and lethargic. I took on an appearance today at a confirmation hearing for a Chapter 13 debtor, but was not given a complete file, so I had to live through the embarassment of finding out the facts of my case in open court, in front of the judge, trustee, and opposing counsel. Still, I got the plan confirmed. Then I went to work on preparing another case for trial, but had repeated arguments with the chief trial lawyer, who was second-guessing everything I was doing. Finally, I just had enough, and went home. If it were up to me, I'd just tell her to go to hell, and let her handle the case the rest of the way, but it's my principal source of income right now.

I can gripe about this Administration's policy concerning North Korea 'til the proverbial cows come home, but Joshua Marshall has provided an encyclopedic analysis of the crisis. It's the reason blogs exist.

Interesting post by labor lawyer Sam Heldman on unjudicial behaviour by a certain Ninth Circuit judge, Alex Kozinski. I'm sure many of you have received links to various opinions by a certain Texas District Court judge, Samuel B. Kent. His opinions are often hilarious, nasty and cutting, very well written, and contemptuous of the fools who appear before him in his court. He is, in my opinion, the worst person on the Federal Bench. Similarly, Kozinsky is a rabid ideologue and bigot, whose opinions are in the same tradition (btw, his wife, Marci Tiffany, was the former US Trustee for the Central District of California, a political appointee by the first Bush, and a diletante whose obnoxiousness was tempered only by her aversion to hard work. For that, all local bankruptcy lawyers should feel some debt of gratitude). He is also very funny, which, unfortunately, is not his job.

In Los Angeles County, if you don't like the judge you've been assigned, you have at least one opportunity to recuse the judge, and you may do so for any reason, however petty. Although there are supposedly standards by which a Federal judge is supposed to recuse himself, it is an exceedingly rare process, and it's entirely up to the judge to decide whether he has a financial interest that may be affected (the appeals court might ultimately have a differing view, but such oversight is worthless when the parties have limited financial resources to challenge a bad ruling). At a time when the Federal Judiciary has become another political branch, and its judges have lifetime appointments, as well as unlimited power to settle scores and impose their beliefs on the parties that appear before them, such a policy invites the sort of judicial corruption exemplified by Alex Kozinski, Manuel Real, Lawrence Silberman, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia.

If a party to a Federal suit could recuse a judge at the beginning of a lawsuit, whether it's at trial or on appeal, it might discourage a judge from abusing his power in that matter. I have the impression that most judges, at least, aren't doing it for the paycheck. They love holding court, and gaining a reputation for being a local a-hole that parties either do not want to appear before, or wish to appear before them only because their views are so predictable, is one no judge truly wants.

Vacation over. Back to work.

The cruise did not end well. The gala event of every cruise, the final day of the "snowball" Bingo tournament, was a fiasco, as the P&O policy of allowing rugrats into the gambling room backfired terribly. Dozens of elderly players (and myself) were compelled to stand at the back of the room because some jackass parents thought it would be cute to bogart the seats with their obnoxious brat children. A ship the size of the Star Princess simply does not generate vacations as enjoyable as smaller cruise ships; it's way too big, and there are too many people on board. Also, my grandmother got sick, and I came down with something resembling a flu, except I already had my flu shot; I guess it's a stillborn flu. The only good news was the surprise win last night of Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and the fact that four cubans entered the country successfully.

Strange day. Today we had our last stop of the trip, in Cabo San Lucas. Unlike the other ports, the ship was there for only six hours, which is almost nothing to me since half of that time I'm still asleep. By the time I was motivated enough to get out of bed and go ashore, I could do little more than walk around the city in a daze. Again, I stopped at a sports bar for a couple of hours and watched ESPN News, thereby getting all facets of the Parcells-to-America's Team story while developing a nice late morning buzz. As I was walking back to the tender that would take me back to the ship, I was accosted by a lady who wanted to sell me a doll for $5. I thought it would be nice to buy for my secretaries' kids, so I asked for two, and was able to bargain the price down to $8. Then I checked my wallet, and found out I had nothing. The expression on that woman's face; I wanted to cry.

The first day of the New Year was spent in Mazatlan, a "resort" town of about a million people that consists largely of luxury hotels and slums. I spent the day at a couple of sports bars in the "Golden Zone", a shopping area that seems largely designed to attract American tourists. One of the bars, The No Name Cafe, is apparently owned by a Chicago Cubs fan, and serves incredible shrimp dishes. And yes, they had all the games this afternoon. Cheap drinks, great food, I'm in heaven.

Ah, New Years Eve--champagne, streamers and horns, and casual sex with gorgeous young strangers in red cocktail dresses. If only....