2009 in Review

I like to end each year with a review of some of the things I’ve been posting about. I don’t know if any of you care, but it’s always interesting to me to see where I’ve been. This year I expected the pickings to be pretty slim because of all the turmoil surrounding and following my parents’ passing, but it turns out I wrote quite a bit.

In fact, here at Windypundit, 2009 was the year in which

• I asked my hosting provider to move this blog to a new server.
• I explained four ways to answer the question “Have you got something to hide?” Be sure to read the comments for Pete Guither’s awesome fifth answer, and few more from Jdog.
• I explained the hedge from hell.
• I explored my love-hate relationship with 24.
• I uncovered the Shanghai Chooke domain name scam…er, well, linked to someone who uncovered it.
• I got peeved at some of the bad tech in 24.
• I started using Amazon Cloudfront to serve the blog design elements.
• I slammed a stupid anti-legalization argument.
• The Obama presidency had its high point.
• I explained how to think about the problem of innocent people in jail.
• The Nazi Zombie uprising reached Austin, Texas.
• I invited people to make my dream of being a published author come true. It didn’t work.
• I explained the difference between armed robbery and civil forfeiture.
• The war on drugs reached the century mark.
• I shredded a really stupid argument about evolution.
• I explored Apple’s vision of the future…from 1987.
• A cop wrote a silly blog post about Ryan Frederick’s conviction.
• A prosecutor wrote a silly blog post about my response to the cop’s post.
• A cop tuned up a 15-year-old girl for hitting him with a kicked-off shoe.
• I explained how to keep people from walking off with your pens.
• A minor genius took on Google and won.
• I accepted the loss of Pluto as a planet. But I will Never Forget.
• I fought with my computer.
• I tried to bring back Friday catblogging.
• I explained how The Stimulus could go wrong.
• I gave my wife some tips for a gunfight.
• I welcomed Jennifer to the blogroll.
• My mother got very sick and I moved in with my dad.
• My mother died.
• My wife posted about my mom.
• I smacked around Robert J. Samuelson for his absurd attack on Obama’s cap-and-trade plan.
• I discovered that Melrose Park was not Mayberry.
• I tried another video blog. And it also sucked.
• I decided to enter the legal education market.
• My dad told us it was time to put him in a nursing home.
• I explained how much government is enough.
• I evaluated Obama at 100 days.
• The Supreme Court once again showed how much it trusted police.
• USLaw.com didn’t bother me as much as it bothered Scott Greenfield, but then they turned psychotic.
• I posted some random thoughts about my mother’s passing.
• I fired an open volley in my healthcare blogging, elaborated on it later, and then again some more. 
• I put my dad in a nursing home and got to go back to my home at last.
• I commented on a shocking incident of police thuggery.
• I tried to apply logic to the testimony of a gang expert.
• I discovered that Justice Thomas may be a little crazy.
• Lori Drew was acquitted…which was almost certainly a good thing.
• I finally managed to work Lincoln’s 1838 address to the Young Men’s Lyceum into a blog post.
• I posted some pictures of fireworks.
• I claimed the title of greatest criminal defense blogger in Chicago and no one has risen up to dispute me.
• I decided to try Chitika.
• I got the story behind a slightly controversial photo.
• I had a depressing vision of how the ubiquitous surveillance in 1984 could actually be possible.
• I speculated about crossing the border with an encrypted hard drive, and then I got a few real answers from a Customs lawyer.
• I started to explain why identity on the web is complicated, and got some puzzling responses. I’ll have to finish that someday.
• I explored some of the mysteries of minimum wage.
• I learned that Avvo Answers really was as bad as everyone says it is.
• My father died.
• I explained the evil of coupon settlements.
• The Ninth Circuit tried to clean up the mess that is computer search and seizure law.
• I questioned the ethics of force catheterization, and got a less-than-awesome response from the AMA.
• Norman Borlaug died.
• I found some truth in rock and roll.
• I noticed that a lot of children are being charged as sex offenders.
• The feds came after bloggers who get free stuff.
• Photography was still treated like a crime.
• I questioned the level of happiness in the kingdom of Bhutan.
• I thought about the economics of the death penalty.
• The Minnesota Supreme Court reminded me that sometimes the law is really stupid.
• I gave the world a glimpse of the complex technology of my everyday life.
• Mary Beth Buchanen’s reign of terror finally ended.
• A woman who supplied Eliot Spitzer with hookers had a few questions about his ethics.
• Meep.
• I spoke truth to zombie alarmism.
• I explained why the public option and healthcare reform are redundant.
• I complained that juries are kept in the dark.
• I was thankful for my friends.
• Muvico screwed over its customers.
• The Warlord of Maricopa took crazy just a little bit further…
• I explained why people on the internet seem so rude.

See you all in the new year!