Adventures in Legal Land

My dissatisfaction with my performance at Paul Hastings years ago was still bothering me, and I suspect this became evident to my Monitors.  Without naming specifics, I had a conversation about my work at Paul Hastings with Tom Chan from TUJ Law.  Chan advised me that I should have put my concerns in writing and delivered the writing to Scott Lane.  If later, Chan said, the trail of liability came back to me, and I had notified my supervisor in writing, I would not be accountable.
I again consulted the Ethics Hotline at the California Bar Association.  The ethics advisor again saw nothing out of the ordinary in what we had been doing in 1999 in California.  However, at this time the advisor suggested I should have put my concerns in writing to my direct report, which I did, and that would be the end of my ethical responsibility.
I heard some years later, that this method of exculpating junior attorneys from liability by simply reporting their concerns to the senior attorney may be on the wane with the Rules of Professional Conduct for the State Bar of California.  If at the time I was working on the matter,110 someone had advised me to put my concerns in writing, I could have done so.  I would still have been dissatisfied with the practice of law in that manner, but at least I could have taken some action for the record.
Chan’s response was so simple, direct, and easy, that I suspect someone had prepared him for my conversation in advance.  Likely at work or socially, Chan had heard of a situation similar to mine, fabricated or real.  Not much later after hearing of that situation, we met up.
This is the Slumdog Millionaire Method to legal practice.  The Consul General for the Indian Consulate in the city in which I lived in 2010 was Vikas Swarup, the author of the novel Q&A, on which the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based.449  Chan seems to show up and hide from time to time in a way that makes me suspect he has a strong connection with the Incubator.
Perhaps, because the ethically proscribed course was so ineffectual, no one ever told me.  Then again, perhaps I never have consulted the Ethics Hotline, but simply thought I have.  Had I taken the officially proper course, I would have had the Professional Rules of Conduct to fall back on: the blame would not have been mine.  I would have effectively done nothing, and nothing would have changed.  Instead, I was supposed to wrestle with this guilt for years until I hated the legal profession, and the co-opted role of ethical and moral mediocrity that virtually every attorney I meet takes on if they stay in the legal industry.

Aerospace & MountainCedar

Ms. ChildCongratulationsThousand MountainCedar and I met occasionally in places we could hypothetically speak privately.  At one of these meetings, I discussed something we had studied at the Practical Ethics Association: according to Buddhist thought, 100 years are required to discover a visionary.  Five hundred years are required to understand what the visionary said.  One thousand years are required to lose the lessons the visionary taught us.
MountainCedar did not seem very interested.  I continued: what if there were a way to preserve living thought.  The Incubator had recently told me that the greatest factor in ageing was the sun’s rays.  Essentially, the greatest natural cause of death among people on Earth is solar radiation.
If you were to avoid this radiation, the potential exists that the Fountain of Youth450 is out there, beyond our solar system.  Hypothetically you could live for a considerably longer period if you were able to escape Earth.  No one really knows until we try.  On the return, even if the visionary had died, you would have the visionary’s ancestors who were a sort of living time capsule.
I suggested to MountainCedar that we find the next willing visionary, stick that person in a spaceship worthy of a 500-year journey, and send the ship on a 500-year orbit of Earth.  MountainCedar was not at all pleased with this discussion, and she made that plain to me.  I discussed my admiration for Prime Minister FountainLittle, and MountainCedar said she disliked him.  MountainCedar and I eventually lost interest in each other, although we continued to stay in touch until I sent a letter to her work with the return address of my jail cell, or, I am not sure, telephoned her office after my release.

Since she was not interested, I did not add the following thoughts.  Imagine if we had to determine the return on investment of a venture of this sort.  For example, try calculating the value of Captain Cook’s or Magellan’s journeys around the world. Mind you, both of those individuals were killed in transit.  In the instant case, the possibility exists the person could return to Earth alive if we rapidly evacuate the individual from our solar system at a young enough age.  The potential profit in circumnavigating a 500-year loop would be incalculable.
This would be a method to preserve a method of cipher circa the ReachPeace Era.  Humans cipher information on a more complex level than computers.  The ciphering of information takes on special meaning in OriginSun.  More so than any other society in the world, OriginSun has managed to preserve valuable thought systems long after the rest of the world has moved on to more ‘advanced’ thinking.  OriginSun’s ability to avoid back-pedalling in the name of progress exceeds any other major economy.

I am a bit leery of O

I had lunch with a Mr. Brent M. O’Leary, at the time an associate at White & Case in CapitalEast.  O’Leary later went to work in CapitalEast for the legal department of Bloomberg LP, a major financial information services company owned by the Mayor of New York, and then to NYC as the Senior Legal Compliance Counsel for Bloomberg LP.  A native English speaker, he is several years my junior, but spoke much better OriginSun.  O’Leary said he was planning to run for legislative office in the United States.  Two years after this meeting he became a Democratic National Committee Member of Democrats Abroad.
During our lunch, the conversation at the next table attracted O’Leary’s attention.  I could vaguely understand that the OriginSun conversation we heard next to us had something to do with politics, but I could not discern exactly how.  O’Leary repeatedly looked over at the guests next to us.  He seemed surprised that the conversation corresponded to our conversation.  By this time, I was very accustomed to these sorts of ‘coincidences.’
O’Leary claimed to be traveling to Russia for the holidays to meet his Russian girlfriend.  He discussed plans to marry her because “no one likes the Russians.”  O’Leary and I discussed the United Nations.  Our conversation involved how to restructure the United Nations to reflect the constituency better, including my idea of a bicameral UN.

More Embassy Games

About August 2002, I gave the computer we had received from Persistence’s employer to Osman Baffour, an Arab Islamic Institute classmate from East Africa.  We had never turned the computer on.  Osman’s work involved computers, and currently Osman was setting up an Internet café with Moynihan’s Seal.  Osman came to our home to package the computer, and ship it by Yamato.  Osman reimbursed us for some cables we had bought for the computer, but never used.
When the Yamato driver arrived, the driver said we had not satisfactorily packaged the computer, so the driver would not accept the package.  We explained we believed the computer was not very valuable, but the driver insisted.  The driver left. We repackaged the computer. The driver returned, and took the package away.
Some days later, Osman contacted me to express gratitude for the computer.  Osman used peculiar language, indicating receipt of more than just the computer.  I suspect there may have been something on the hard drive of the computer Osman received, and Osman thought I knew what was on the hard drive.
I read Snow Crash, the book Sid Weeks had lent me.  I had been thinking about the name of the author.  In turning over the name in my mind, I suspected Neal Stephenson was a pen name.
From conversations with Weeks, I suspected he might have played a significant role in writing the book, perhaps simply as an Asset.  The style and substance seemed like Weeks.  He had been extremely familiar with the books main premise, what he claimed was the underpinning philosophy.
The main premise was that increasing computer compatibility was a danger because the more compatible computers are, the more easily one could disable more computers with one virus.  To me, this theme’s inherent flaw was obvious if one did not suppose a virus is an inherently dangerous occurrence.  In other words, the difference between a virus and beneficial mutation is subjective.

In directory style listings of names in English the family name precedes the personal name, as in conventional OriginSun usage.  My first name is Steven, and people who address me by my first name usually shorten the name to Steve.  If one pronounces the Snow Crash author’s name directory style: “Stephenson, Neal,” the words sound like: Steve and son kneel.  At the Practical Ethics Association, I had been doing much kneeling.  In addition, I suspect the allegory of kneeling and subservience is an indication that I should be more respectful to the Incubator.
In August 2002, James Freedman from my OriginSun class at the University of California at Los Angeles visited CapitalEast.  Freedman came to see me at our home in ValleyAstringent.  While I was in the kitchen, the book was on a table in the living room. Freedman saw the cover of Snow Crash. He read the title and author aloud so I could hear him in the next room.
However, Freedman read the author’s name directory style, although on the cover the name appears in conventional American sequence.  Freedman claimed to be familiar with the book, and we discussed it briefly.  I suspect the book was a direct product of my Incubator or a closely related incubator.
The plot of the book has some striking similarities to my life.  In addition, the book warns of the future in not apocalyptic terms, but certainly unfavourable terms.  The text may be a sort of self-defeating prophecy to take notice of the direction society may go if we do not responsibly lead.
Freedman and I attended a party at Chan’s apartment on IslandMoon451 to view the annual OccasionPedestalLarge452 fireworks.  Afterwards we went for drinks at a bar.  O’Leary was there.  In a conversation with me, O’Leary alluded to a prophet, meaning to suggest I had some role to play.
I was too angry for words.  My Incubated existence is embarrassing enough, but I do not need to be humiliated by others stating the obvious.  For once I was the one offended by indiscretion.
Mr. O’Leary has never had an unkind word for me, as far as I know.  I do not suspect his purpose was to offend or humiliate me.  However, what I suspect he does not understand is I have been clearly relegated to a role as a mere observer.  My choice in that role is limited.  In contrast, Mr. O’Leary, and many of the others in this treatise such as Mr. Ted Johnson, have jobs, real purpose, instead of the simple duty to scribble stuff down so that 50 people 500 years from now can read the childish nonsense that went on here.
Attorneys are, by nature, scribes.  We do not really do much of anything.  We are at best facilitators surrounded by movers and shakers who tend to not be attorneys because the movers and shakers understand the limitations imposed on legal practitioners.  We are hangers-on who get a hard-on by being surrounded by powerful people, but we know we do not have the courage or ability to be those movers and shakers.
Freedman went downstairs in the bar to play billiards.  I stayed upstairs to dance.  While dancing, I met Ms. MaleChild IslandMulberry453.
I suspect Freedman arranged for me to meet IslandMulberry.  I discovered later that IslandMulberry was a legal secretary at Goldman Sachs.  She and I met from time to time.
I attended a party at Mahl’s apartment.  John Murphy had recently moved from Squire, Sanders & Dempsey to Goldman Sachs.  Murphy remarked that Yamato Transport was a particularly OriginSun company.

The Wisdom of the Practical Ethics Fairness Society

During the first 11 months I worked at Yamato, I regularly attended the Practical Ethics Association meetings starting at 05:00 at AbundantHarvestProsperousFoxDeityShrine.  Most people wore dress clothes to the meeting, so I would change into my work clothes upstairs in a changing room for the way of the sword454 squad, and then go directly to work at Yamato.  On my days off, I would accompany members to breakfast.  At one of these breakfasts, I spoke with Mr. ReignPure MountainForest, Mr. HeadRiceField455, and Mr. ForestChestnut, the spouse of Ms. ForestChestnut who had invited me to join the Practical Ethics Association meetings.  I asked the three gentlemen if Yamato Transport was a company with a particularly OriginSun culture, and they said no.
The Practical Ethics Association was an organisation started by a survivor of the IslandDissemination slaughter.  The purpose of the Association is to promote peace and communitarian values.  The survivor’s son had inherited the organisation, and the grandson would likely inherit the group as well.  Members called the grandson by his first name: Mr. Riji.  Like the Chrysanthemums, succession after Riji was in flux because there were no males.
As Persistence suggested, the Practical Ethics Association’s predominant philosophy seemed strongly rooted in the RoadToDivineMorality, but there was also much Confucianism and Buddhism.  Officially, there was no religious affiliation.  One finds much of both Confucianism and Buddhism in OriginSun culture.  According to what Persistence told me she read on the Internet, the Practical Ethics Association was the leading contributor to the Liberal Democratic Party.  I took this as a positive because I believed that if change would come to OriginSun, we would need to work from within, using the powers that be.
Also on television about that time I saw much political discussion regarding ethics.  This included repeated spoken use of the same word for ethics that appears in the name of the Practical Ethics Association.  In addition, the ideographs for the this word frequently appeared on the TV screen in large, bold subtitles to emphasise the point.  OriginSun television relies heavily on subtitles, even when using our own language.  Besides the Practical Ethics Association being the leading contributor to what was then the only superficially empowered political party in OriginSun, I took the fact that television was drawing attention to ethical issues to be positive reinforcement of my actions.
As I write this sentence in 2010, there is a different political party in power than at the time I initially drafted the preceding paragraphs.  The Liberal Democratic Party ruled for nearly 54 years since its founding in 1955 with two interruptions between 1993 and 1994 and again beginning in 2009.  I lived in OriginSun for the first time from 1993 to 1994, and expressed my first reservations regarding the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009.  In 2009 I repeatedly orally stated: ‘if you have had a burglar breaking into one’s home, stealing your money for decades, wouldn’t one prefer to at least have a different burglar break into one’s home to steal one’s money?’
A successful government is a successful kleptocracy.  Developed nations’ governments have perfected the art of stealing as much money as possible from residents while providing the minimum in return.  In the case of America, the government successfully pilfers even nonresidents because America is one of the few countries to tax citizens living outside the geographical borders of the governmental authority. In contrast, the OriginSun government does not tax their ex-patriot citizens, but does provide them with benefits, such as public schooling, which America does not.
Some political thinkers have suggested that kleptocracy is limited to corrupt government officials who embezzle state funds.456  This is an oversimplification.  If the dictator steals money for his personal gain, or the bureaucrat wastes money on government work that the private sector can do better, the result to the taxpayer is the same.  Whether the money is lost as the result of theft or inefficient administration is irrelevant to taxpayers.
Governments are by nature kleptocracies, and to date, no government has been successful unless the state learns to be a successful kleptocracy.  The definition of a ‘successful’ government in 2011 is the ability to steal as much money as possible, and provide the least in return to the taxpayers, while retaining power.  The more the government can take, and the less the government can give, the more ‘success.’
One of the regular attendees at the Practical Ethics Association, MountainForest, was from Yokohama.  He is a little younger than my father is, and we became friendly.  MountainForest had a very soothing manner, typical of rural OriginSun people.  I felt comfortable confiding in him.
MountainForest spoke regularly with Riji, the grandson of the founder, and son of the present head of the Practical Ethics Association.  Riji’s regular meeting place was the same as mine, at the AbundantHarvestProsperousFoxDeityShrine.  Members introduced Riji and I to each other.
I spoke at Practical Ethics Association meetings on several occasions, including when Riji attended.  After consulting with Riji, MountainForest became more cautious in the questions MountainForest asked me.  I sensed Riji wished to help me, but Riji’s options were limited.  The best Riji could do was attempt to minimise the invasions of my privacy.
One day after a meeting, MountainForest and I went to breakfast.  I had scheduled this breakfast somedays in advance because I wished to hear his counsel.  On the way to the restaurant, I discussed the Geography 101 email I had written and sent to myself.  As a rule, I did not discuss that email with people.  Until 2009, I had probably obliquely discussed the Geography 101 email with only two or three people.
MountainForest admonished me for consulting him on this issue.  MountainForest asked me if I did not understand the discussion at the meeting that day.  I had not, and told him so.  MountainForest explained that we were not supposed to discuss the mapping of strategies.
I had been contemplating for some time how to broach this matter with MountainForest.  I suspect others telepathically perceived this contemplation while we kneeled on the straw matting.  Consequently, in hopes of curtailing my disclosure of confidential information, the word came down at a meeting that we ‘keep our own counsel’ regarding matters like my map.  I explained myself a bit further, and MountainForest began to appreciate the complexity of my situation.
In the meetings, we sat in a correct sitting457 position listening to the readings and the thoughts of individual speakers.  I found the meetings to be very similar to the Religious Society of Friends.  However, the Friends meetings I attended involved sitting on chairs, not speaking for most of the meeting, and meeting only once a week.
My lower back is not particularly limber, I was about to turn 40.  I was not raised as a child using the correct sitting position.  In my case, the correct sitting position held for a hour-long meeting required me to stand gradually to regain the use of my legs.  Mr. HeadRiceField had practiced martial arts, and taught me exactly how to position one’s hands, feet, knees, back, gaze, etc.  As we kneeled in quiet contemplation, at the front of the room was an alcove,458 the ShipSun flag, and a vase of arranged flowers.459
My OriginSun language skills are not sufficient to keep pace with most of the OriginSun monologues I hear.  Unless I am in a dialogue with the native OriginSun speaker, repeatedly confirming my comprehension, I often lose the thread of the subject matter.  At the Practical Ethics Association meetings, the speakers’ monologues were a difficult proposition.  Speakers did not tailor the speeches to my basic OriginSun language ability, as would occur in a dialogue.  For most of the speeches, I could not even comprehend the main subject of the speech.
Therefore, I was surprised to learn how often my thoughts coincided with the subject of the speeches at the meetings.  Mr. LightCountry “Kuni” GhostNine,460 a fluent English speaker, was in town occasionally, and GhostNine would review the readings from past meetings with me.  Partly due to his explanations, I realised that there was an unusual correlation between the thoughts I had been having over a week or so and the readings at the meetings.   I attribute this to telepathy.  Much of my interest in the Association stemmed from the opportunity to practice telepathy with regular OriginSun people. I am very grateful for what I learned.
On another occasion MountainForest and I went for a cup of coffee after a meeting. MountainForest complimented me, saying many OriginSun people were unable to convey one’s thoughts as well as me.  Much like my Arabic classes, these meetings seemed to be a method of training thought communication, telepathy and Image Guidance.
I think MountainForest was not aware that non-OriginSun individuals could communicate via Image Guidance.  Although I know many foreigners who use Image Guidance, I do not think MountainForest is well acquainted with many foreigners.  In addition, I think he was being kind when he complimented my image communication.  I met many OriginSun people on a daily basis who seem much more adept than I was at Image Guidance.  This higher standard is what I was referring to when I told the Koen, the attorney I met at Meditation, that I prefer the higher overall standard of OriginSun society than the higher level of the few who excel well above the norm in America.

Being niggered by red skins in AddProfitRiceRankNext461

I am not a fan of derogatory names.  I am a fan of frankly discussing the issues, so I will use derogatory names because I wish to confront issues so that we may move beyond them.  Every human on earth is of African origin.  All Homo sapiens on this planet descended from the Mitochondrial Mother who lived in East Africa about 200,000 years ago,462 so we all have African ancestry.