Tue - April 1, 2003

My Day Job: My name is Ron. By training and experience, I'm an attorney. By talent and temperament, I'm a wiseass. I started my career as an intellectual property and first amendment litigator for a large Chicago law firm, whose clients included big city newspapers, a major broadcast network, several book publishers, and a variety of businesses in unrelated fields. After demonstrating my oratory, writing skill, and intellectual capacity to all involved, I was forced to flee torch and pitchfork-toting partners by leaping from my office window into the bed of a passing truck bound for Apple Computer's headquarters in Cupertino, California. There, for several years, I practiced the art of disguise—eluding my former firm and my Illinois creditors while acting as the principal hardware lawyer behind the company's PowerBook product line. Upon learning that Silicon Valley brimmed with venture capitalists, I summarily left Apple for an internet company, certain I'd strike gold in the dot com boom. (It turned out that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.)

My Lame Excuse For Writing: As a child, I showed so much literary promise that my teachers encouraged me to write early and often—usually, long after-school essays on topics such as "Why I will not yell in class." The writing bug stuck. During college at UCLA in the 1980s, I served as editor-in chief of the campus daily and as a campus correspondent for The New York Times. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, I wrote a regular column about internet law for the American Bar Association's Computer Litigation Journal, a publication that I also eventually ended up editing. (Just call me a glutton for punishment.) This blog is my latest creative outlet and expresses my personal ideas of the moment. Tag along if you're morbidly curious about why I do not yell in class.

My Self-Righteous Viewpoint: I'm a registered Democrat—hence, the title of this blog—but you'll find me to be more of a left-leaning Libertarian. On a few issues, I veer very much to the left: gay rights and a woman's right to choose being good examples. But in other areas, such as spending to ensure a strong national defense, I might even find things in common with Michael Savage—frightening though that is to contemplate.

What I'd Rather Be Doing: When I'm not blogging indignantly about one imagined affront or another, I enjoy running, swimming, biking, cooking, film, theater, and reading (especially science fiction, mysteries, biographies. and histories).

My Pit Crew: I am married to the author of Detritus Ex Machina (at right) who, despite her libertarian-conservative views, is a pretty good egg. We have two cats—or rather, they have us. Despite our best efforts, they maintain an attitude of perpetual indignance

My Vital Statistics: Eyes: Two. Hair: Some. Height: Of folly, which is about 5'6". Birthdate: January 6. Sign: Texaco. Blogiversary: September 2002.