Meet And Greet Monday: Do You Have A Green Blog? Or Do You Write Occasionally On Green Topics?

My bloggy friend Small Footprints has another fun idea!

Do you have an Eco-friendly blog or site? Do you occasionally write about the environment or ways to live green? If you answered yes to any, you're invited to link up. Here are the rules:

1. If you have a green-living blog and/or write about the environment, sustainability, etc., please use the "linky" below to list your site.
2. If you only occasionally write about green living, please use tags such as "green", "Eco", "Environment", etc. and then link to that collection of posts so that visitors will be directed to pertinent articles.
3. Visit at least one other site (and while not required, it would be nice if you told them that you found them here).
4. The linky will stay active until Thursday at 6:00 pm (est).
5. I will randomly choose one of the sites and feature it next week."

More at Meet And Greet Monday.

This is a great idea! It's fun to participate, and it provides a list of more than a dozen green blogs, each with some pretty interesting reading.
Now, my blog is more of a scrapbook of whatever interests me than strictly a green blog, but I do write on green topics now and then. By tagging green posts with the tag "green", I construct a virtual green blog.
You can do the same - why not try? - and be sure to submit your green blog (actual or virtual) to Meet And Greet Monday.

Free CLE Newsletter - Feb 20, 2012

This, the latest issue of 4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter!, is mostly for my lawyer buddies, but non-lawyers may like some of the free on-demand stuff too.

4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! Feb 20, 2012 Why Not Earn A Credit Over Lunch?   Reciprocity Note: if an event is not accredited in your state, you might be able to get credit through reciprocity or by applying to your credit-granting authority. Try BaranLaw's CLE Reciprocity Page Webinar CLE In most jurisdictions, webinars qualify for the same credit as live, in-person CLE, while letting you participate from your home or office. Pre-registration is smart, because sometimes the webinar host has a participation limit. Feb 27/Web - General Counsel: Principled Advisor to Management and the Directors. By American Bar Association. Free to ABA members. Feb 28/Web - A Better Way to Do Business: The Competitive Advantages of Online Client Collaboration for Law Firms. By Lexis-Nexis.    Feb 29: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 - Part II. By Blue Cross/Blue Shield.    On-Demand CLE Why not spend part of a lunch hour earning free credit - or merely enjoying these programs for the love of learning? Disability Insurance Claims. By Dell & Schaefer.     Guilt By Association: You Didn't Design, Make or Sell It, But You Could Be Liable Anyway. By Trial.com.    Legal Considerations When Assisting a Client Form a Business. By Lexvid. OpenSource Due Diligence in M&A and Financing. By Black Duck.    In-Person CLE Unless stated otherwise, credit has been applied for in the state in which the program is located. Feb 22/San Francisco - Consumer Bankruptcy Practice. By AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP). Feb 22/Stillwater, MN - Criminal Expungement: Process and Law. By Washington County Law Library.   Feb 23/Las Vegas - Effects on Custody After Fleeing Domestic Violence. By Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.    Feb 24/Chicago - Effectively Deposing Your Opponent's Financial Expert. By McGovern & Greene LLP.  Feb 29/Cleveland - Criminal Justice Forum IV - How to Reduce Crime by Releasing Prisoners. By Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Mar 6/Boston - Family Law 102. By VLP.      Mar 7/San Francisco - Social Security Eligibility Hearings. By ALRP. Mar 8/NYC - Child and spousal support - inMotion Training. By inMotion.    Mar 13/Salem, OR - Legal Aid/Pro Bono Cases with Attorney Fee Clauses. By Marion County Bar Association.    Apr 25/Atlanta - Veterans Pro Bono Training. By Morris, Manning & Martin LLP and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. Previous training filled up months in advance, so apply now to ensure seating. Provider Profile: Dell & Schaefer This week we introduce a new provider of free CLE: the Dell & Schaefer law firm. Do you remember the helpful lawyer mentor, seen in movies and on TV, always available to share crusty old wisdom with fresh new associates? Today, it can be hard to find your Rumpole of the Old Bailey, especially if you're in solo practice, but Dell & Schaefer are the modern equivalent: experienced lawyers providing their expertise to all comers, via web video. You can register for their Disability Insurance Claims course any time day or night and, unlike Rumpole, the video never gets tired of being played over and over! It would be a better world if more law firms did something like this; 4freeCLE will be happy to publicize any who do! Kudos to Dell & Schaefer! Was This Forwarded To You? Get Your Own Subscription For Free!  This is a free newsletter, delivered weekly.  Sign up for future issues for free!

Birth Control WTF?

If you had proposed a year ago that the Republican Party would hitch its fortunes to the banning of birth control, I would have said you were a looney.
It's not that I didn't know the anti-Pill faction didn't exist. Many leaders of the Anti-Choice movement condemn The Pill as an abortifacient (...I don't want to link to them 'cuz it helps their search rank, but look it up ... it's there!) but I couldn't believe that a national political party hoping to take the White House would give air time to a bunch of freaks so at odds with the vast majority of Americans.
I was wrong! Little Ricky Santorum ... a man so corrupt and nutty that he was thrown out of office by a double-digit margin ... is now the leading contender for the GOP nomination; unless Lord Rawmoney can buy a lot more friends, the party of Gingrich will be headed by someone who thinks contraception is wrong and states should feel free to criminalize it.
I have a few Republican friends and even some family members, and I feel their pain. This outcome is the natural result of their Party's growing ideological fanaticism; it must be like watching your dog go crazy and start biting people. Isn't it time for the remaining few decent Republicans do pull an Old Yeller, and put their Party out of its misery?

Cut WSBA By 25%? Washington Lawyers Must Vote No!

Chopping 25% Is Not Smart

Suddenly, we Washington State lawyers are faced with a vote on whether to cut WSBA's dues by 25%. That's just nuts!
For $39.95 a month, we get not just the licensing side, but a free listing on the online lawyers' directory, free use of the ethics hotline, Casemaker, LOMAP, the Lawyers' Assistance Program, and a whole lot of stuff that the proposed cut threatens to take away. The proposed cut is just not good business sense!Maybe the people who signed the referendum got confused because WSBA is both a licensing body and a professional association. We can't get out of the licensing function; that's for the State Supreme Court to decide, and it's not going to happen. WSBA has no power to abandon or cut back on its regulatory functions!
Therefore, all of the cuts come out of the member benefits side. And the member benefits side is at most 26% of the part of the budget paid for by dues, a 25% cut in dues almost eliminates member benefits. How do you like that?
Certainly WSBA should operate at maximum efficiency, and keep squeezing the pennies. However, suddenly chopping out 25% is too much, too fast.
The people who collected signatures for the referendum got organized and surprised the rest of us (...did anyone ask YOU? no-one asked ME!). We have at most 2 months to think this one over. Therefore, I urge my fellow WA Attorney's to "Like" Attorneys United to Preserve WSBA, spread the word to friends rapidly, and above all VOTE!
Facts about the License fee Referendum

Catmoflauge Cat

Impromptu ("Imp") Underfoot McCord, mistress of concealment!

The Martyrbation of Saints Gingrich and Santorum

Saints Gingrich and Santorum, Martyrbators

Urban Dictionary defines Martyrbation as "The pleasure of complaining about being persecuted, when practiced by people who aren't actually being persecuted."

Saints Gingrich and Santorum, Martyrbators, are complaining that Catholic schools and hospitals are not getting special treatment for their ideas on contraception. Universities and hospitals take in huge piles of taxpayer money for infrastructure, tuition, and so forth. They also get gigantic tax breaks for offering health plans to their employees. In return for all these benefits, they should have to treat their employees the same as everyone else, and that includes covering contraception.

Martyrbation is not necessarily a bad thing, so long as you do it in private. It's only when you do it in public that you can't expect people not to point at you and laugh.

The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive

One of the most interesting new developments in economics is the growth of microfinancing. Instead of begging bankers for capital, people with great ideas (...or who think they have great ideas ...) can go directly to ordinary people like you and me, and solicit contributions to be paid back in one form or another if the financing is complete. Kickstarter.com is a leader in the field and among its thousands of projects is raising the capital to finance reprints of one of the best in contemporary literature. Most of what follows is taken from that capital drive:

"Rich Burlew has been making the stick figure fantasy-comedy comic strip The Order of the Stick since 2003. Since then, it has grown into one of the most read webcomics in the competitive stick figure fantasy-comedy genre. He began publishing it in book form in 2005, and would like to continue to do so. Maybe you could help?

What's In It For Me?

Good question. Just like with public-radio pledge drives, there are rewards for different pledge amounts. These aren't tote bags or sweatshirts; they're the actual creative work that your pledge supports. But that's only part of the story.

If you're not familiar with Kickstarter or how it will work, here's a brief overview (or you can read the official one, here). For the next 30 days, you'll be able to make pledges to help support this project, ranging from $1 to whatever you can afford without your spouse/parent/financial advisor slapping you. For your pledge, you can select one of the reward packages—listed to the right—of equal or lesser value to your pledge. You can always pledge more than the minimum to get a reward if you want (and for some packages, you'll need to do so if it must be shipped internationally). Your credit card or other account will not actually be charged at the time you make your pledge, and you can change your mind right up to the final deadline.
If the final deadline comes and we've reached our goal, then everyone gets charged the amount they pledged at once and we get to work printing and mailing books and magnets and whatnot. But if for some reason we don't meet our goal, then the whole thing is called off. No one gets charged, no fees are applied, everyone just keeps their money. So there's no risk of putting up money and then the reprint project never getting off the ground."

Now, the Order of the Stick is entertainment that probably won't change the world, but we all need entertainment ... and this stuff is just about completely free of corporatized hackery - it's owned by the artist. You can like it or ignore it! Its financing model is exciting because it is completely scalable - you can try it for your own projects with zero risk except for your own time. Ponder where this might lead, or where you might go with it!

This is really something that makes you go "Hunh!"

• The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive 
• The Order of the Stick Webcomic
• Kickstarter.com

Restarting Fitness For Net Energy Gain

Before we bought our house, we'd gotten into the habit of exercising almost daily. There was a gym (AllStar Fitness) very close to where Kris works, so we'd get up at O-God-Thirty and walk over there fore whatever class they were having. We got a nice mix of spinning, weightlifting (...under some cool name like "BodySculpting", but whatever!), and yoga. We were looking pretty good and feeling great! Also we made some good friends ... there's nothing like sweating and hurting just a little together!
The only real downside to buying a house is that we had to completely change our exercise routine. We tried to stay at the same place, but it just didn't work out; it made no sense to drive out of our way even though the classes were just as good. We soon found many excuses to take off a day or two, and then all of them.
Nature took its course: weight up, tone down, creaking increasing!
Recently, we restarted by joining the West Seattle YMCA. It's on the way to Kris' work and has classes early enough that she can get to work on time. It seems to be a nice bunch of people and the price is right. In fact, the price is so right that we can afford to chip in a little extra for scholarships; it just feels good to be a contributing member of our community!
We're starting slow and easy with yoga classes. Getting injured because we cranked up the weights too soon after a year or more off didn't seem smart. From the very first class, we felt better: looser, more energetic. We'll add some of the more intense stuff as we get back to trim, but at least we've started; as they say, half of life is just showing up!
I'm writing about this because this week's Change The World Wednesday Challenge is

"This week unplug your exercise routine by using no power. No treadmills, ellipticals, gyms, TV, music, or anything powered to assist in exercise. Make your workout Eco-friendly ... and, as always, let us know all about it."

This lead me to see that one minor benefit of our preferred exercises is that they are energy-efficient. Yoga, spinning and weights take no energy except our own - and I just don't like treadmills! I don't know whether it's because of the risk to being flung off when you put your foot where the belt meets the frame (yes, I've done this!), or  just because an endless treadmill is too much like a metaphor for life. I've stepped off the office treadmill, so why step back on at the gym?

Painting as A Pastime, by William Churchill

This delightful little treasure is worth acquiring if only for its 18 color plates of Churchill's watercolors, but it is the 32 pages of personal reflections of the value of the art as a means of relaxing from a stressful life that turn this into a small masterpiece in the area of self-help.
Those who have not read Churchill may not have realized that his masterful command of the English language makes his works very easy to read; this work shows him making thoughtful points so effortlessly that you don't realize how much practical wisdom you are swiftly absorbing. Churchill's life at the center of his century's great crises was at times very stressful, and in dominating his era, he developed a practical method of relaxation that may be helpful to the many of us who are interested only in mastering our own lives.
This is a very short read, and it will waste none of your time. His methods may or may not work for you, but you will be enriched for having learned them!
I completely enjoyed this book!