Tyler Whitney should get himself a Hollywood agent.

In the two weeks since I first blogged about the young gay conservative activist from Michigan, his name has become the single most popular search term leading people to this site. He far outpaces previous leaders Aaron Carter, Daniel Radcliffe, Jeremy Sumpter, Dave Moffatt, and Hunter Parrish. The presence of his name here boosted blog traffic in this direction by an order of hundreds of new visitors per day for more than a week.

Although a few other web sites linked to my article (a featured link on the front page of Newsbusters.org alone led to 530 hits over two days), by far the most visits were through Google or other search engines. People were actively seeking news and information about Tyler Whitney.

At one point, "The Outing of Tyler Whitney" accounted for more than 1,600 of the previous 4,000 visits here (according to SiteMeter, although Google Analytics put the number in the same ballpark). Even now Tyler's seekers number about 1,300 (out of 4,000 "current" visits), more than quadruple the number of visitors interested in the formerly overwhelming favorite "Shirtless and Circumcised" and more than six times as many the number wanting to read my review of The Witches of Eastwick at Signature Theatre.

So, my hat is off to Tyler Whitney -- who, by the way, celebrates his 19th birthday today. Be sure to send him your best wishes, and thank him for driving traffic my way.

What does Dave Matthews think of his band’s success? Remember, the DMB is second only to the Stones in ticket sales. “It boggles my mind,” says Matthews in a Billboard/Reuters story published in the Sunday Washington Post, which waxes nostalgic about the band’s beginings in Carter Beauford’s mother’s basement. In the end, though, Dave appears to be an old fashioned family man. “Just come to work as often as there’s work and then go home and try to raise my kids right,” the singer says about his job.

By David Swanson

A former member of U.S. military intelligence has decided to reveal what she knows about warrantless spying on Americans and about the fixing of intelligence in the leadup to the invasion of Iraq.

Happy birthday to our friends north of the 48th parallel!

Today marks the 140th anniversary of the British North America Act, which joined together the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada (divided into Ontario and Quebec) under the single name "Canada."

The British North America Act served as Canada's "constitution" until 1982, when the passage of the Canada Act by the British Parliament resulted in the patriation of the country's basic law, severing all legislative ties to Westminster and vesting full sovereignty in the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, with Queen Elizabeth II continuing to serve as head of state. (As Queen of Canada, she gave her assent to the Constitution Act in April 1982, which ratified the earlier legislation by the British Parliament and making Canada fully autonomous.)

It is really only since the early 1980s that Canada Day has been celebrated with any vigor. (The holiday was known as "Dominion Day" for 114 years but had been marked only by sporadic observances during that time, starting to take off after the centennial commemoration in 1967.)

Technically, Canada Day this year will be celebrated on Monday, July 2, which is also the anniversary of the day the Continental Congress voted for independence from Great Britain in 1776. This must, however, simply be considered a coincidence.

Courtesy of our friends at YouTube, here is a rendition of the Canadian national anthem (bilingue, naturellement), from a promotional video sponsored by the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. (The video images do not signify; I just like the clear voice of the anonymous singer.)

For those who prefer a more off-beat rendering of "O Canada," here is a video that includes, in addition to street hockey and woodlands, a key role for the iconically Canadian Tim Hortons restaurant. As Homer Simpson would say, "Mmmmm, doughnuts." (In terms of the instrumental music, I think Jimi Hendrix might have done it better.)

Let me make a confession: I am Canadian by ancestry, eh. I have (regrettably), however, never visited the fatherland. Notwithstanding increased hurdles put in place by the U.S. government for cross-border trips, I hope to rectify this lacuna of my life someday soon.

For good measure, here are the official lyrics to "O Canada" in French and English:

Official (English)

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land
Glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee;
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Officielle (Français)

Ô Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits;
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Sing out this Sunday (and Monday, for good measure) in tribute to the "True North strong and free."

I’ve enjoyed doing these monthly reviews. It gives me an excuse to look through statistics, like I don’t do that enough. Plus, I set goals for the blog and myself.

Traffic and income

This month, we topped two great goals together. First, Legal Andrew saw 12,300 visitors in June. That’s about a 50% increase since April and May! Needless to say, I’m definitely excited. Although now it’s going to be tough to keep growing. But with your great participation, we’ll find a way.

Second, blog earnings reached a new high in June - $560. Here are the three main contributors:

• AdSense - $144.86
• Text Link Ads - $129.84
• PayPerPost - $195.47

If there was a secret behind these earnings, I’d love to share it with you. But I’m still trying to figure everything out myself. AdSense is really because of increased traffic. Text Link Ads went up due to some post links that sold. And PayPerPost is always a solid money-earner, especially if you snag some high-paying opportunities.

Posts to read

The most popular posts during June were all published this month. And two of them are actually about law!

1. Lunch , Break , and Hour Laws You Should Know
2. 11 Reasons to Fire Your Lawyer
3. Head Shave 101 - My Head is Bald!

Here are some posts you might’ve missed this month. Check them out:

• Sidebar - Fun Google Easter Eggs
• My Killer GTD Setup, in Progress
• Lawyer Lies to be Juror, Blog Threatens Verdict

Subscribe for easy reading

To make sure you don’t miss a post, there are several easy ways to subscribe to Legal Andrew:

Contact me

If you need anything or just want to chat, feel free to contact me. You can post a comment to any post here on the blog, or you can drop me a line. Also, feel free to IM me. The About page shows which networks I’m on.

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The new cat’s name: Zora or Djuna? Also a possibility: Ariel.

It went up at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London on May 22 of this year and will remain open through Sunday, July 15, 2007.

It's drawn rave reviews from most critics who've seen it.

From the Dulwich description: "These remarkable works are usually housed in the Vasari Corridor, a kilometre of corridor linking the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. Access is notoriously difficult; this is therefore an incredibly rare opportunity to experience a slice — never before seen in this country — of what must be one of the most remarkable sights in the art world."

The Economist called it "the world's greatest collection of self-portraits... closed to all save the most persistent or well-connected because of a chronic shortage of funds."

The self-portrait up top is by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504); the lower is by Johann Zoffany (1733-1810).

Both are among the 50 in the Dulwich show.

I received the July/August issue of Home Education Magazine yesterday just started reading it. There is a great article by Larry and Susan Kaseman, who write the "Taking Charge" column, called "Strengthening Families Through Homeschooling." It's not available online yet, but the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library subscribes to the magazine. It's a really great article--here's the tag line from it

Need I say more?

(Ok, though late in some happy respects, the post is a tad cleaned up now.)

Following the attack on the terminal in Glasgow today, which authorities believe is linked to the two attempted car bombings on Friday, security alert in the U.K. has been elevated to "critical," their highest level

According to The Washington Post, the U.K. has good reason to expect another attack. With the Wimbledon tournament and the tribute to Princess Diana around the corner, terrorists will have ideal opportunities to cause serious atrocity. However, it appears we in the United States will not be seeing any raise in our own color-coded terrorist alert level.

In response, U.S. authorities announced they were increasing security at Washington area and other airports but left the national threat level unchanged.

But can't the same be said in the U.S. right now? The 4th of July is four days away after all. Wouldn't pulling off attacks on both of the two primary nations engaged in the Iraq War be a pretty significant show of power?

I'm not saying I'm convinced there's going to be any attempts here this 4th. I'm far from it, though that doesn't mean that I doubt all possibility that an attack could occur. I'm just surprised that we aren't raising the alert. Not necessarily unhappy, but still surprised. Having obscure colors fluctuating back and forth always seemed too counter productive if productive at all. They keep people on edge in such a way that strikes me as more to the terrorist's favor than our own. I get the impression that a lot of people are unhappy with it, I've yet to have a single conversation with anybody that actually had something really good to say about it. That it's better than nothing seems to be the strongest argument to pass my ears and that was back when it was just starting to be used.

So is their any significance to this call not to raise it? Has all the criticism finally sunk in? Is the color code fading out of use? What do you think?

Today was moving day for our 26 chicks. They are about 6 weeks old right now, and way too big to stay in the brooder anymore. For comparison, this picture is from the day we received them. And this is from yesterday. Look how big they are compared to the waterer! Last day in the brooder. And this is their new home. They're in one of the chicken tractors. We had to put old window screens

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-06-30-0142.html Apparently the shooter at Virginia Tech. did go for his mandated outpatient counseling at the University Counseling Center but the head of the panel is not someone with any mental health background so he clearly does not know what to make of counseling records, saying it’s not clear what the “interactions” were–hmm, counseling IS interaction, [...]

For a simple breakfast, this is the place. Dinner and dessert at the Blue Moon Diner deserve their own posts. Coffee, two eggs, toast and hashbrowns only sets you back $6. This right-sized breakfast won't leave you feeling like you want to pass out on the couch, but if you do, they offer all the rest of the usual breakfast fare helpful in curing hangovers. The food can be enjoyed at an indoor table, outside along the sidewalk, or at the counter. Sometimes they play vinyl; they always have good music. And the cash register is always watched over by a green-lit Elvis.

And for dessert there's always the Grillswith.

I never knew you could play the cello with that much ferocity… with a straight face, that is… This video’s instrumental, but the players’ “seriousness” makes up for it.

Apocalyptica - “Somewhere Around Nothing”

Oh, the angst! The pain! The post-teenage drama all electric cello players have to deal with!

Well, I’ve been found out.  Everyone at work knows about this website, apparently.  Doh.  Oh well, what can you do?

Today was the first Saturday in the last four that I did not end up having to go into the office.  I spent the day at Central Park lounging around.  It was awesome.  I’m still debating between doing it again tomorrow or stopping by the office to put a few hours in.  I just bought my bus ticket to go back to Virginia Beach on July 5…really excited about that!  But that means I’ll be missing a few days of work, which is why I’m considering going in tomorrow.

I have nothing to say today, really.  Just wanted you to know I still exist.

I haven’t had a haircut since something like April. I want to go see Heidi, but her schedule doesn’t mesh well with mine, so I’ve been putting off making an appointment.

A review of past hairstyles:

Here I am in 2001 or somewhere thereabouts. I had short hair for the shortest time of any hairstyle. I loved how easy it was; never frizzy, took about five minutes to style. My husband hated it and pointed out what I’d been hearing a lot: women loved it; men hated it. ‘Nuff said.

With this hair, my sisters and I had a Christmas photo taken. We each had a copy. The sister who is 13 years older than I am had the photo on her desk at work. Her boss picked it up and asked if I was the oldest sister. I started growing it out the very next day.

Here’s the hair, circa 2003. Sad to say, I think I look pretty much just like this right now. I guess I should be glad that I don’t look much older four years later, a period that included two job changes, teaching a teenager to drive and making a cross-country move. This is what happens to my hair with a long-term lack of attention.

While the photos of me with a giant perm and mall bangs would have you clutching your stomach and rolling on the floor, they haven’t been scanned (and God willing, never will be) and therefore won’t be shared with you, dear Internet.

Here I am with my sisters in 2005. This is not an accurate representation of the three of us. I am wearing flats. They are wearing heels. And I know what you’re thinking; you have a blonde sister?! Here’s the deal; she lives in Florida. Everyone has blond hair in Florida. Go ahead. Tell me who’s the oldest! It better not be me.

Here’s another shot from the same day with my mom. Do I look like her?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2004 we took a ski trip with our buddy Dave. When you’re skiing, it’s entirely appropriate to a) not wear any makeup whatsoever and b) sport little girl hairdos. Here I am, with rock star Dave, in Marcia Brady-inspired long pigtails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In early 2006 I cut my hair semi-short again — not, you know, alternative lifestyle short, but short.

I like this hair, uh, on me, not the dog. His is unruly and curly. Mine was short enough to wear straight (ha! no pun intended) successfully. The thing about having longer hair is that I can wear it up, but I’m not that creative with that so it’s not much worth it.

So, yeah. I need a haircut.

Ok. I admit it. I have a problem. Today I went to the SPCA to fill out a foster application to become a foster parent for sick/traumatized cats. When Mark adopted Gray we convinced them to give me a raincheck for the get-one-free part of the buy-one-get-one-free equation, so I took the raincheck “just in case.” And I came home with Zora. She’s a 1yr old torti. Although I now own 3 cats, I will probably still foster if they need me to and I’m planning to apply for a job at the shelter. All very We Were the Mulvaneys.

So far Zora gets along fine with Basil, but of course it always takes Hilda while to warm up to strangers.

"Memory believes before knowing remembers." – William Faulkner Hamilton, New York My 30th birthday arrived this past Thursday. My last few birthdays have been fairly relaxed affairs: usually the 28th winds up being a very mellow day marked by evening gatherings with family and friends. For #30 I figured the routine could use a bit of a shakeup, and - after a few weeks of deliberating - I hit

Since it may be a sequel of sorts to the video I posted earlier, here's an apparent Ann Coulter meltdown when speaking to Joe Scarborough. I don't know what Scarborough had said earlier, but I have to say that the guy is a conservative commentator apart from the likes of O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck. From what little I've seen of him, I have a certain respect for him. If his questioning got

I decided to get back into vegetable gardening this year. I've had gardens in the past, some more successful than others. Usually, though, I end up just planting tomatoes and cantaloupe, some herbs, and maybe one other veggie. I was prompted to do this when we were considering getting a share in a local CSA. I showed my husband the pamphlet, and while the whole thing looked great and the farmer

Today I have worked a bit on chores around the house. With all of the rain, our yard turns into a mini-jungle in what seems like a matter of days. I also did some reading about building a compost heap, since my previous composting method (throwing food in the backyard and letting nature take its course) has resulted in an increased number of mice and rats in the yard. Cynthia, who is not much of

after all the fun out and about, we came home and built a fairy house.



we included a bathtub of lavender.



and a toilet. but of course.



oh so auspicious, we found a cicada shell right on the spot, and placed it on the throne.



then tashi saw a face peeking up from the soil nearby. she dug up this soldier. we're not much into toy soldiers, but this one seems pretty vintage. he's made of some sort of metal. we hope it's not lead. we're thinking he probably did battle in ww1. i'm going to do some searching around to see if i can't learn more about this guy. tashi named him adam.




maybe he's a fairy now.

Happy Birthday to Frédéric Bastiat, born June 30, 1801. (And note that the Mises Store is now carrying the original British translation of Bastiat's great libertarian masterpiece The Law for only $6.) ((Or you can read it online for free.))

saturday blog break.

it's been a good day. started with the farmer's market. moved on to the bridge for an arts & crafts fair. lots of cool, local, indie stuff. i purchased two prints from the bees knees, erika vess, which aught to give our sorta frumpy living room a bright a lift. and i totally fell in love with a skirt by nicole lee, soleil rouge, but i think i'll have to put that one on my 40th birthday list.

afterwards, dan, tashi and i went to milano for gelato. i love the lemon gelato with real mint leaves, pictured above. we sat inside the main street market, a trendy gourmet food mall (once auto dealership) with exposed ceilings and specialty shops. it's like a tiny slice of the chelsea market in manhattan.

tiny, i say.

This won't be a full-blown, professional-style review. Actually, it's more like a recommendation. The kids and I just finished listening to an enjoyable book called The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. From the author's website: What if the gods of Olympus were alive in the 21st Century? What if they still fell in love with mortals and had children who might become great heroes -- like Theseus,

Virginia's new statewide voter-registration database is in trouble.

To be truthful, the system (called "VERIS") has been troubled from the start. Despite admonitions from registrars and local election officials who were field-testing VERIS that it was not ready to deploy, the State Board of Elections went live with VERIS in February, abandoning the perfectly useful, workable, and practical system called VVRS that had been used by Virginia for years.

Other states, such as Indiana, had no statewide database of registered voters, which is why the Help America Vote Act of 2002, or HAVA, mandated that every state develop one. VERIS is based on the system created for Indiana by UNISYS, which is one of the roots of the many problems that have occurred with it in Virginia.

Last night, NBC 29's Henry Graff reported a story about VERIS that led that Charlottesville TV station's newscasts at 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00 p.m., as well as the CW29 news at 10:00 p.m.

On the station's web site, Graff writes:

The problem: you show up to cast your ballot, but the polling place has no record of you. It's something local voting officials say could happen because of a flaw in the system.

"Just a couple of keystrokes could make the difference between your name being on the voter registration rolls and not being on them," explained Rick Sincere, member of the Charlottesville Electoral Board.

The system is called VERIS, The Virginia Elections and Registration Information System. The software program was created by UNISYS and in February, the entire Commonwealth began using it to register voters.

But local registrars like Sheri Iachetta say the system was not ready to be used. "It was telling me that some of my city streets were in the county and it wasn't letting me register people who live specifically in the city," shared Iachetta, Charlottesville voter registrar.

But that's not where the problems end. Officials say the system has dropped registered voters from the system all together.

Graff notes in his report that the Electoral Board for the City of Charlottesville sent a letter of concern to the State Board of Elections. Here is the text of that letter (which is just briefly quoted in the NBC29 story):

We are writing to express our concerns that the new statewide voter registration system, known as VERIS, suffers from so many bugs and glitches that it may threaten the integrity of the elections scheduled for 2007.

Fortunately, Charlottesville is one of the localities that will not be holding a June primary election, and we have moved our City Council and School Board elections to November. This means, however, that any Election Day problems we may experience with VERIS will not become apparent until November.

We know, for instance, that in the Town of Vienna, some 15 percent of registered voters failed to appear on the pollbooks prepared from VERIS data for the town council elections on May 2.

We hear frequent and similar reports from across the Commonwealth of voters whose names should be in the system, but are lost and irretrievable. The level of frustration among General Registrars and their staffs is palpable.

The problems in VERIS were identified during the testing phase, but the system went “live” and replaced VVRS (the older voter registration system) even when the State Board of Elections, Registrars, and Electoral Boards were aware that VERIS was not ready for full implementation.

We are worried that problems with VERIS will cause burdensome delays at the polls on Election Day or, far worse, actually disenfranchise some qualified voters.

We have shared our concerns with local elected officials and with the City Attorney in Charlottesville. We will be paying close attention to the experience of other localities during the June 12 primary election. (In fact, we have called a meeting of the Electoral Board in Charlottesville that day so that we can monitor reports about the performance of VERIS from around the Commonwealth.)

We would like assurance from the State Board of Elections that the serious, known problems with VERIS are being addressed. We want to be able to assure voters, candidates, election officials, and the public at large that the election this November will have the same level of fairness, transparency, integrity, and efficiency that previous Virginia elections have enjoyed for decades.

Copies of that letter were sent to Governor Tim Kaine, the state Secretary for Administration Viola Baskerville, Charlottesville Mayor David Brown, all the members of the Charlottesville City Council, and City Attorney Craig Brown.

These concerns have not been raised solely by Charlottesville election officials. The Voter Registrars Association of Virginia (VRAV) has informed the SBE of the problems its members have observed with VERIS, and individual registrars and electoral board members from across the state have done the same.

The SBE's response is simply to paper over the problem and to disregard what it knows to be the truth: That it was told before the February 2007 deployment of VERIS that the system was riddled with flaws and not ready to go live. Ignoring the numerous warnings, the SBE went live with VERIS anyway.

NBC29's state capitol correspondent Loretta Boniti sought a response from the State Board of Elections, interviewing Acting Secretary Valarie Jones. Her report, called "State Says No Need to Worry about VERIS System," also appeared on Friday's news broadcasts.

Since former Secretary Jean Jensen left the State Board of Elections earlier this year, the agency has been essentially rudderless. Governor Kaine has not nominated a successor to head the SBE, though there are rumors that he has narrowed the field of potential candidates to three (Acting Secretary Jones not among them). Let us hope that he acts soon so that the problems of VERIS can be addressed forthrightly and effectively and not whitewashed by the too-typical CYA attitude of government bureaucracies.

Eve M. Kahn, in the June 14, 2007 New York Times Home & Garden section's "Currents" feature, wrote about a 1957 Frank Lloyd Wright house (above) near Pittsburgh that has just opened for tours and overnight stays.

Her story follows.

A Night in the Home of the Master

After a close brush with demolition and an arduous move from a Chicago suburb to a Pennsylvania forest, a 1957 house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright opens today for tours and overnight stays. Three years ago, Danic Homes, an Illinois developer, agreed to donate the house, below, to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a nonprofit group that arranged for it to be dismantled. Then all the pieces — including mahogany siding and paneling, 1950s kitchen appliances and Danish teak furniture — were packed into trailers. “It was a major jigsaw puzzle,” said Thomas Papinchak, a builder who said he spent “close to seven figures” buying and reassembling the components at Polymath Park, a 125-acre resort he owns in Acme, Pa., near Pittsburgh, which was already home to two 1960s houses designed by Peter Berndtson, a Wright apprentice. The Duncan House, named after its original owners, sleeps six and costs $385 per night for three people, then $50 per night for each additional person. For information: www.polymathpark.com.

From Rare Device, you can order a trio of antique medicine bottles “fired with layers of botanical transfers”. It’s classic black-n-white. Simple and modern. Now, since the bottles are antique, and prints vary, they won’t be the same - but you’re guaranteed two things: 1) a small, medium and large vase, and 2) that nobody else on the planet will have anything like your vases. Like the French say, c’est génial!