BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR CON ARTIST

Facebook has decided to tell everyone on your friend list when it is your birthday. Google has decided that monkey see monkey do.

Aren't there ANY grownups at Facebook and Google?

A birth date is one of the personal identifying pieces of information that banks and others use to verify your identity. If someone has your birth date, they can more easily break into your bank account and other personal data.

I am an attorney. Sometimes the losing party is VERY ANGRY at me. Facebook has just made it easier for them to get revenge using their computer. Luckily, I seem to remember that I did not give Facebook my actual birthday. Other attorneys probably did not consider whether Facebook should actually have their real date of birth.

Children are using Facebook. Con artists and child molesters use fake Facebook identities to troll for victims. Giving these people the birthdays of children is a scary idea.

People who say things are a bad idea are not necessarily being negative. Sometimes, there are really good reasons why a seemingly brilliant idea is actually a stupid idea.

A CALIFORNIA DIVORCE IS TOO COMPLEX

California is proud that it has one of the first no fault divorce laws. It is really too bad that the process for getting a divorce has become so complex that even attorneys make major mistakes.

For instance, there is a form called Declaration of Disclosure, which has a box to check whether this is the final declaration or the preliminary declaration. Most people, including the Santa Clara County Family Law Clinic run by the court, check the final and preliminary disclosure boxes both. Generally, the courts call that the final disclosure as you can not check both boxes. Unfortunately, the law only requires that the preliminary declarations of disclosures be exchanged, so the people can not actually get divorced because they checked the wrong box. Dumb beyond belief.

This is not the fault of the courts or the family law clinic. It is the fact that the divorce law forms have just added forms rather than reform forms. And the fact that the Judicial Council does not have enough money to fix all of the forms.

Of course, courts could make a quick fix by saying that, when both boxes are checked, it is a preliminary disclosure, and when there is a final disclosure without a preliminary disclosure, it will be deemed a preliminary disclosure.

A better fix would be to modify the disclosure form so that it states, "I have informed my spouse, in writing, by listing all of the community, quasi community property, and separate property, that I possessed on the date of separation. I understand that if I failed to disclose any property, that property may be awarded, in its entirety, to my spouse."

You all need to quit voting for term limits. The main reason the law does not get fixed is that the people have to leave the legislature just as they have finally learned their job. It is as if you told Steve Jobs that he could only run Apple for 12 years. Dumb beyond belief.

ABJECT PAIN THANKS TO DEA

I am sitting here in such pain that I am in tears. I know I can NOT get legal pain medication that allows me to work.

The DEA has successfully frightened doctors into believing that anyone who asks for pain medication is an addict. Addicts must be better at confincing doctors than I am, because all I get is lectures.

Less than 5% of the population are addicts and the other 95% must grin and bear it

I am hoping there is a hell so DEA policy makers can feel how I currently feel as their personal hell.

Meanwhile drug dealers get richer as those in pain get so desperate they buy on the Black Market.

RACIST PHOTOS IN US TABLOIDS

I have been wondering about the tabloid photos of our first lady. The photos are almost always unflattering and dark.

Then an investigative reporter released Romney's offshore accounts. A Romney investment has invested in the National Enquirer.

I guess I no longer have to wonder how Nancy Reagan could shop until she dropped, but First Lady Obama can not even buy a nice outfit to meet the British royal family.

If Romney has any influence over the National Equirer, he should stop what I think is their racist reporting,

PUNISHED FOR BRING CORRECT

It is amazing how often people are punished for being correct about something. Telling the truth or being correct about a warning of impending disaster can get you punished, usually by social ostracism.

Scientists who discovered that the earth went around the sun were imprisoned by a church which believed that the earth was the center of the universe.

Women and minorities have this problem more than white males. The word uppity was used to describe a minority who had the temerity to be correct.

I wonder if the Republican Tea Party people are punishing our President because he nearly fixed the economy in spite of their strong attempts to cause further economic pain. They believe that a depression would allow them to take over. They are strongly backed by the 1%.

ROBIN HOOD AND RYAN HOOD

Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor.

Ryan Hood plans to steal from the poor and give to the rich.

Ask yourself what your grandmother will do when she runs out of Medicare vouchers.

Poor Romeny doesn't want us to learn the he only started paying taxes when he decided to run for president. Look up the percentage of taxes the self employed pay for Social Security. Of course, small business people pay regular income taxes in addition to SS taxes.

GREAT DRAGON JOKE

An older dragon is showing a photo album to a young dragon. The older dragon says, "This is your great Uncle Smaug, and this is Puff, but we don't talk about Puff much since his arrest."

This joke is from a new comic on GoComics webpage.

I am having a mini vacation, since it is August. I will try to see some of my favorite San Francisco Bay Area things. I again recommend the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and new museum, the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, the Oakland Museum, the Tech, the Exploratorium, all the stuff at Golden Gate Park, the ocean, Muir Woods, Big Basin, Skyline Drive, Gilroy Gardens.

And of course, you should get your costume together for the Renaissance Fare near Gilroy coming in September. You can get an inexpensive sword in Chinatown in San Francisco.

Now is also the time to look in Salvation Army and Goodwill Stores for costumes for Halloween. These are also great places for boots to go with your swordperson's costume for RenFaire (the short form of Renaissance Faire for us horrible spellers). The proper footwear is SO important for the total effect. For women, the Chinese Mary Jane slippers work well. (Black flat ballet shoes with a strap across the ankle.) Please remember that you need to be able to WALK in your costume shoes. Faire is no fun if your feet hurt.

For those of you going to Burning Man, have a fabulous time and I am SO jealous. Too bad I HATE heat and blowing sand.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This saying means that not going on vacation makes you LESS SMART because all machines, including your brain, need down time.

ASSAD AND GENERAL SHERMAN

In the US civil war, the North sent General Sherman marching through the State of Georgia burning as he went. The burning of Atlanta is a central scene in the movie Gone With The Wind.

Southerns have not yet forgotten that many beautiful buildings were burned. The animosity may have contributed to the long life of the Klu Klux Klan.

Assad is not just killing Syrian people. He is destroying their homes and businesses. The resentment towards Assad will linger for years. His tribe and his religion will suffer from the disdain of those who just wanted to be treated equally. 

US v RUSSIA

One of the reasons I LOVE the US is demonstrated in two news stories.

In Russia, a three woman punk band played a satiric song on the steps of a famous church. The women were arrested for insulting a religion. They are now on trial after sitting in jail for months. The prosecutors (Putin) is asking for three years in prison for singing a song.

In LA, Joan Rivers chained herself to a shopping cart, screaming that the store would not sell her book due to racy content. (Racy is a word used to mean there is explicit sex.) Even the police were laughing. Joan was not arrested.

When I first started blogging, people would sometimes ask if I thought I could get into trouble. My answer was that I had freedom of speech.

The reason we need freedom of speech is because powerful people do not like being criticized. In order to have freedom of speech work, it has to cover ALL speech, music, movies, books, newspapers, TV, etc. In the US, free speech is not allowed if it causes IMMEDIATE danger to others, like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. Panicked people can trample other people. Explicit sex is not allowed unless there is socially redeeming content.

Since Joan Rivers thoughts are considered to be socially redeeming, you may draw the conclusion that any coherent thought may be socially redeeming.

In choosing, the courts favor free speech. This is again because one of the best ways to counter an abuse of power is to sing, talk, write, paint, etc. about the misuse of power.

If you want your country to be as good to live in as the US, you MUST have free speech.

CalPERS STEALS FROM THE DISABLED AND GIVES TO THEIR SPOUSE

CalPERS has decided that disability pensions are community property, which requires that they be divided 50 / 50 with an ex-spouse. This is contrary to both statute and case law, which hold that disability pensions are income replacement, not community property.

Disability pensions for California state employees are not all that generous. My client had a disability income of $3000 a month for getting an on the job illness (stroke) brought on by the stress of his law enforcement job. Even though his ex-wife has agreed that he should get all of his CalPERS disability benefits, CalPERS refuses to obey the Superior Court Order.

Please understand that the wife can still get spousal and child support by using the disability income in the support calculations.

So why does a normally well run state agency decide to disobey state law? CalPERS, like all state agencies, depends on their attorneys to give them correct advice. Sometimes attorneys give advice based on politics rather than on the law. Sometimes attorneys think it is fun to see what they can get other people to do. Sometimes attorneys are lazy. In this case, I think the community property section of CalPERS was empire building.

I am not worried about my client, at least long term. After all, he has an excellent attorney. %>) But CalPERS has written ALL of its QDROs to treat disability income as community property. Worse, the CalPERS appeal division is so overwhelmed that it can not even send out hearing notices correctly. Appeals take a LONG time and then face an uphill court battle as an appeal can only be brought on a writ of mandamus.

Meanwhile, disabled people sign away their own money every day..

DISABILITY AND GRIEF

Being disabled means that you can not do things that other people do as a normal part of their daily lives. Each time a disabled person has a new thing that they can not do, there is grief, because a disability is a loss.

Lately, I have confirmed that I can not cook a big meal without way too much pain. I actually had known this from when I attempted a three person Christmas dinner. Cooking is an art that can not be properly done while the cook is in pain. Drat!

Every time I have a new thing or confront an old thing that I can not do, I grieve. I can now watch myself go through the five stages of grief. I get angry, I bargain with myself and others, I blame persons and things, I deny that anything is wrong, and finally, one more time, I accept.

I am getting faster at recognizing that I am grieving. I just can not always stop the anger, blame, bargaining, denial, and get right to the acceptance. 

DID RACISM COST US MEN GYMNASTICS MEDAL?

I watched the men's gymnastic team competition last night. (I always watch the next day so I can skip the ads.) Both the night of the medal competition and the night of the qualifying, I noticed that the US team was ignoring the only Black member of the team. It was especially apparent the night of the team competition.

The British team was also ignoring its minority member, but one of the British coaches was making sure that the minority member knew that the coach was really supportive. The coaches for the US team mostly also ignored the Black member of the team.

This kind of exclusion is NOT good for team moral.

Additionally, the night of the team competition, the male NBC commentator for men's gymnastics, a former gymnast, made disparaging remarks about the Chinese performance. Several times, after a particularly strong disparaging remark from the man, the female gymnast pointed out how well the Chinese were doing. The man's disparaging remarks did not correlate to the performance being presented. As it became clear that the Chinese were going to win, the disparaging remarks became less frequent. But it looked to me as if the disparaging remarks were because the performer was Chinese, not because the performer was actually doing a bad job.