freedom fighters, unite

Note to self: Acquire cause du jour.

Note from self: Cause du jour acquired. See The Principality of Sealand.

coup (take two)

I was thinking about the Thai coup and decided to dig through old pictures that I took while spending a short time volunteering on an elephant reserve that is run by the Thai military. Sounds a bit weird, I know, but the military is sometimes used for grunt labor like that, and this reserve was created by the king, who in many ways has the military at his disposal.

Anyway, the theme that came through the pictires I had: not so scary. Really, I think the PM should just go on back to Thailand, look the generals straight in the eyes, and say "oh come on." That will likely clear the way for him to be reinstated. How do I know this? Allow me to submit exhibit A:



You bet. That's elephant shrubbery. And also my wife, with the Venus de Milo's head superimposed on her own. But pay attention to the elephant shrubbery. Not very threatening, is it?

Now, exhibit B:

Yes, as a matter of fact that is the commanding officer of the camp. With a scarf. And pretty flowers behind him. Again, not so scary, is he?

Still not convinced? Fine, I'll submit exhibit C:

Now I know your initial reaction. "But isn't that an assault rifle? Those things can be scary." Yeah, but not when being held by a 16 year old soldier. Then again, maybe that makes it even scarier. OK. One scary photo, but that's still the minority.

So my advice to PM Thaksin? Go on back to Thailand. It's mostly just flowers and shrubbery.

*****

Clearly the above entry was just an excuse to show you pictures of me and the Thai military. I'm not ashamed of that. I am, however, ashamed of the fact that I still have two more pictures that I wanted to show but wasn't able to work in. So here you are anyway:

That one there is me doing my JFK impression and standing with a couple soldiers. I wanted to pay them five bucks to let me fire their assault rifles, but the wife said no.



That's me with some big general whose name I didn't know, but who must be a bigshot because he flew in on a helicopter. He also must be losing his touch, however, because he didn't even notice that I was pulling off a killer Alexander Hamilton impersonation right behind him the whole time.

And that's it. Hope this was more enjoyable than when your grandma asks you to look at photos from her trip to Palm Springs.

coup coup

When my wife and I were living in Thailand, I read a book by a lady who lived there for several years while her husband was in the US foreign service. She talked about how there were something like four military coups when she was there and though that was back in either the 60s or 70s (which were much more tumultuous for Thailand), I still always wondered in the back of my mind whether there would be one when we were there.

Well now it's come. I just saw on CNN that as I type these words, tanks appear to be surrounding the office of the prime minister, who happens to be at the UN headquarters in New York right now. Everything's up in the air and no one knows yet if it really is a coup, but darn it, I wish I was there. It's like when there's a family reunion and all your older cousins get to go out and have fun, but you have to stay with the adults. My cousins get to go out and have a coup, while I have to stay with the adults at law school. I never get to play with the big kids.

plaintiff 3, defendant 2

I was in Little League for a number of years, and at the end of every game each team would huddle, do a short cheer involving rhyming and numbers (3, 6, 9, 12, who do we like besides ourselves...), then line up and file past the other team, with each side saying good game, good game as we walked past the other team. Which brings me to the point of this posting...

The state Supreme Court recently held a session in the law school courtroom, which I got to observe. The fun part, however, was in the end. That's when all five justices came down from the bench (they were the bench warmers, one might say) and shook the hands of each attorney. I couldn't be sure, but I'm almost positive at least one of the justices kept muttering good game.

crocodile hunter, hunted

I was a little suprised at the tinge of sadness I had upon hearing of the death of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. Apparently I had some connection to the guy that I never realized was there.

The good part about his death, however, is the incredibly manly way in which he went. When I die, I hope my obituary can read "died of a stingray barb to the heart." Of course I don't want to actually die that way, I just want my obituary to say that I did.