Video: Eligible bachelor of the day!

I posted this on http://abovethelaw.com/2008/06/chief_judge_kozinski_and_the_i.php already, as “guest” but thought I’d get it out there under my regular identity.

I’m afraid that I’m going to have to digress into family history for a bit. I’m a CPA. My dad’s retired, but was a Civil Engineer. I’ve got an uncle, who I grew up spending a lot of time with, who was a plumber. He’s a bit rough around the edges, and has a badly-set broken nose from his time in the Marines, but I love him dearly.

My uncle keeps up a steady stream of forwarded emails. Some are funny, some aren’t. Some are a bit edgy, some feature nudity. Some I would show my girlfriend, some I wouldn’t forward to anyone. Some I’ve read, many I’ve just downloaded and archived. Most have just a word or two from my uncle, and a bunch of text or pictures from the great internet cloud.

This same uncle was recently diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of leukemia. Although things seem to be heading in the right direction for the moment, there were significant indications a few months back that I might never see him again alive.

It wouldn’t surprise me a lot to discover the cow-girl pictures in an saved email that I had not even read. There might be a note attached, saying something flippant about the cowgirls that he and my dad knew before they moved away from Colorado — or there might not. Either way, if someone suggested that I should censor anything from my email archives that could be embarassing — including anything tasteless or risque from my uncle — I would have to reply that it would be over my dead body that this would happen.

Some day, if and when they were ready for it, I could tell my cousins’ kids, “your grandad had a peculiar sense of humor” and have an example at hand. Some day, I might remember the man who taught me about snakes, and deer hunting, and living large, and page through these mementos myself. Only an idiot would say that was because I’m aroused by women painted as cows, or that I would have created such images myself.

I have neither seen, nor heard, of anything that would make this other than a purely political hit job — waving the bloody shirt. The individual who publicized this has an obvious axe to grind, and the LAT would say or do anything to smear anyone more conservative than Castro, Mao, or Lenin.

And for anyone who wants to purge my life of rougher elements, and try to ensure that my uncle is remembered only as a simpering prissy git, please kindly f*** yourselves.

cthulhu on June 13, 2008 at 12:22 AM

AprilOrit on June 13, 2008 at 12:48 AM

It’s archived on my harddrive. I’m a CPA.

cthulhu on June 13, 2008 at 1:36 AM

Kaptain Amerika on June 13, 2008 at 12:45 AM

And the self-selected role of the Marine in question at the time of the puppy incident was public ambassador of Civilization to the land between the rivers. Public ambassador because it ended up on YouTube, Civ to Iraq, because that’s his force’s Mission.

(1) The actions belong to an identifiable role (the Mission that brought him to Iraq); (2) It’s a public role (per YouTube); and the behavior was inappropriate (because it shamed the Marines).

Since the cases are widely distinct, I have no problem with the dichotomy of outcomes.

cthulhu on June 13, 2008 at 2:36 AM