American Soccer

I've never been a huge fan of soccer. I've been spoiled by sports that cater to my short attention span like basketball. You don't have to wait for scoring in basketball.

In 2006, I kind of got into World Cup because I was working with a guy named Kent who is practically the guru of international soccer. I even had brief success picking teams in a fantasy soccer league. But, I lost interest and failed to make any picks after the round of 16.

This year's World Cup was a blast for me. I'm still not a raving fan like the guy with USA shaved into his chest and I'm not sure I'm going to catch a lot of MLS games this year, but I was excited for our national team advancing out of group play.

If you haven't seen the goal by Landon Donovan that pushed the US to a win over Algeria, let me set it up for you. The United States had tied in its first two matches in group play against England and Slovenia. After England scored a goal in its final match against Slovenia, the United States needed to win - not tie - in its match against Algeria to advance. The game was tied at the end of regulation time and with three minutes added as stoppage time, the United States desperately needed a goal. Here is the next play:

The US counters from a weak attack by Algeria and sets up a great approach. Dempsey gets a great shot which rebounds off the keeper and Donavan, who set the play up and is trailing Dempsey, puts the ball into the back of the empty net. GOAL! United States wins and advances out of Group C.

You've got to love that. It was like an overtime win in basketball or football or a walk-off home run in baseball. People have put a bunch of reaction videos on YouTube. Some of them are funny.

Here's a guy proudly rocking a USA headband and a sleeveless shirt. The 1980's called and said they are proud that he was willing to get all dressed up to root for the US alone in their clothes:

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Here are some weirdos at a bar in D.C.

And here are some rowdy law students. Law students get a bad rap. We're a fun bunch.

Those are some happy people. I make fun of that guy with the headband for getting all dressed up to root for the US alone. I wore the US National jersey I bought in Chile while I watched the US-England match.

Lots of people are speculating about whether soccer has finally taken hold in the US. I don't know the answer to that. The NHL hasn't gotten a huge boost from the 2008 Olympics and Michael Phelps didn't exactly put competitive swimming on the map. It's too soon to tell what that goal will mean for American Soccer. But it was a great moment and it won't hurt. I'd rather the Lakers win the NBA championship, though, than that the national team win the World Cup. I'm just saying.

DVR: Just Say No

DVR has taken over my home.

If you don't have DVR or if you aren't familiar with it, let me explain. If you already have DVR, you probably know what I mean. DVR stands for "digital video recorder." It's a magical box that sits atop your television and records your favorite T.V. shows. DVR is so smart that you can tell it which shows you like and it will record them whenever they are shown on any channel on T.V. In other words, you come home from work or school or whatever productive activity you engage in during the day and DVR has all your favorite shows saved for you. You get to watch your favorite shows and you don't even have to watch the commercials. You can just fast-forward through them.


I'm sure this sounds lovely to you. You may be saying to yourself, "No commercials? Everything automatically saves itself? Sign me up!" That would be a mistake.

First of all, Comcast is going to charge you a ridiculous amount of money for the privilege of having access to their cable network and a little bit extra for the magical DVR box. They will then lure you into a "bundle package" at the end of which you will be paying like $99 for stuff you didn't think you needed.

And the worst part is that you will forget about all the wonderful, creative, productive things you did before you got your first DVR hit. If it ever breaks you will go through DVR withdrawal for at least a month.

My wife and I have discovered "The King of Queens" and AMC movies. Last night I decided to tape Sahara because it was on TBS. Who would ever voluntarily watch Sahara? I don't know what came over me. It was free. All I had to do was press the little "record" button on my T.V. remote and DVR did the rest. I couldn't help myself.

If you are thinking about watching Sahara, I suggest that you visit the official Sahara website. Seriously, check it out. Are they serious? Do there have to be gunshot sound effects every time that I highlight a link on that stupid site? Who put up the money for this movie? Luckily they lost over $20 million.

Anyway, a person who is recording Sahara voluntarily has a sickness. Don't make the same mistake I did. Just say no to DVR.

I'm a Lawyer Now

I got sworn in as a lawyer last week. It was a nice ceremony at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. Christine Durham, Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, said a few words. We all raised our hands and swore to uphold the Utah and the United States Constitution.

It's a pretty cool thing to be a lawyer. I hear quite a few lawyer jokes, but Chief Justice Durham of the Utah Supreme Court said that when a doctor tells her a lawyer joke she makes this response: "While YOUR predecessors [doctors] were still treating people with cobwebs and leeches, MY predecessors [lawyers] were writing the Declaration of Independence." Good point.

One of the great examples, to me, of a revolutionary lawyer fighting for the rule of law is John Adams. John Adams defended the soldiers accused of killing colonists in the Boston Massacre because no one else would do it. Adams later wrote of his defense "It was . . . one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country." He believed that sentencing the soldiers to death without a fair trial would have been "as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently."

The crisis in Pakistan this week makes me particularly proud to be a lawyer. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suspended the Pakistani Constitution on Saturday and fired the Chief Justice of the country's Supreme Court. He also fired any judge who refused to take a new oath. Pakistani lawyers have been a major part of the protests against Musharref's latest actions and many have been clubbed or arrested while protesting.

I hope that I can be a little bit like the Pakistani lawyers protesting this week and the lawyers who helped found the United States. To me being a lawyer means helping people to understand the law and, occasionally, standing up for the rule of law when it is under attack.

Video Games that Don't Feel Like Work

Remember when video games used to be fun? When I was seven years old, my piano teacher had a Nintendo at her house that we were allowed to play while we were waiting for our mothers to pick us up. That was my first experience with video games. All week I would look forward to playing Super Mario Bros. I had dreams about little Luigi bopping mushrooms on the head in the sewers.

Seventeen years later, I admit that I still play video games – but they’ve started to feel more like work than fun. I am a huge college football fan and EA Sports’ NCAA Football series is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. Who can resist playing football sports as Reggie Bush or creating a super version of yourself to destroy college defenses on your way to the Heisman Trophy? It is particularly appealing for me because I am so uncoordinated and slow in real life.

But these games have huge learning curves. If you don’t know what bump-and-run coverage is, you probably don’t want to play NCAA Football. It’s going to take you hours of practice to play Halo 3 with your friends.

That’s why I’m so enthralled by the Nintendo Wii. Last night, my wife and I had dinner with a married couple. After watching the Office (classic) we busted out the Wii and we played the Wii Sports bowling game, tennis, and boxing. My wife developed a strategy of constantly punching in the boxing game that was basically unstoppable. Even when I tried to replicate it she beat me soundly.

The Wii is a good, old-fashioned arcade game machine. I’m sure it has difficult games that take hours to master, but we picked it up for the first time last night and got super sweaty trying to beat each other over the head in the boxing game. Seventeen years after my first video game experience, Nintendo has come through again.

Should Religion Be Out of Bounds?

The religious belief of the candidates running for president has become one of the most important issues in this year's campaign. From Mitt's Mormonism to Giuliani's Catholicism and Hillary's prayers to Obama's many paths to the same place, each of the major candidates has had to decide how to present their faith to the public.

Some have decried this public discussion as irrational and applauded Mayor Giuliani for refusing to answer questions about his Catholicism because he considers it to be his personal affair. Last week, Mr. Giuliani said "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests. That would be a much better way to discuss it. That's a personal discussion and they have a much better sense of how good a Catholic I am or how bad a Catholic I am."

Richard Cohen, of the Washington Post, is cheered by Giuliani's refusal to discuss his religion and compares it to Kennedy's famous declaration that he was not the Catholic presidential candidate but the Democratic presidential candidate who happened to be Catholic.

Richard Cohen, however, is wrong. It is true that we should not have a religious test for political office in our country. As long as a candidate's personal beliefs are moral they should not be disqualified for office. However, religion is extremely powerful in informing the worldview and guiding the actions of many religious people.

The president of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief and the head of our state, not a robotic policy-maker. We need a leader who has the character to respond to emergencies like September 11th with courage and clear vision.

Religion is relevant to choosing among candidates for public office for two reasons:

First, religious belief often dictates a candidate's policy positions. The most obvious example is abortion. If your religion leads you to believe that life begins at conception then it is very likely that you will advocate a complete prohibition of abortion as murder. Scientists cannot tell us when life begins, so it is left to our consciences and personal beliefs to decide this critical conceptual question.

Second, a person's religious life can provide insight into that person's character. If a politician has not kept sacred promises made as part of his or her religion, how likely is it that that same politician will keep campaign promises made to the American public?

Religious questions can be bigoted and insensitive. But understanding a candidate's religious beliefs is crucial to understanding the policies that candidate will advocate and the type of leader the candidate will be.