NINETY SEVEN HOURS


First and foremost, happy July 4th, everyone.


Secondly, allow me to apologize that I couldn't post anything last weekend. Like many hundreds of thousands of others in the Washington, D.C. area, my family lost power for several days (four days and one hour to be exact, but who's counting). This was my city's boffo summer power outage. Two years ago, we were treated to the winter variety, which is now commonly known as "Snowmageddon." If anything, this episode seemed even more dangerous. There were fallen trees and power lines all over the place, and sadly, a number of fatalities as well.


For all of us, these events are grim reminders of just how much we have all become dependent on electricity. But for me, they are also a reminder of what happens when you combine (a) increasingly profound climate change, (b) a nation with an aging infrastructure in so many respects, and (c) a metropolitan area with countless tree-lined neighborhoods. It's ironic that perhaps the most beautiful thing about my nation's capital, our trees, is becoming the city's great nemesis. What do you bet that our society will decide to respond to these increasingly potent power outages not by addressing climate change or aging infrastructure but rather by chopping down trees?


I so wanted to post last weekend about the Obamacare decision, which for me was a sorely welcome development. For now, let me simply say that John Roberts has indeed practiced what he preached in saying that his job isn't to second guess the legislature but rather to interpret the law as an impartial umpire would. Whether or not you agree with his reasoning in this case, you need to respect his courage and his integrity.

Now, if you feel the need to knock someone (or some thing), allow me to suggest an alternative. CNN! That network has been getting on my nerves for years, and their absurd treatment of the Court's Obamacare opinion was the last straw. Remember -- Fox News also jumped the gun, but at least Fox fixed their mistake within a couple of minutes. The Einsteins at CNN allowed their talking-heads to blather on for quite a while about how the Court was overturning Obamacare. Fortunately, I work in a law office where people knew better than to get their legal news from CNN. Millions of others weren't so lucky, so they were treated to sheer nonsense masquerading as news.

I hope you all join with me and boycott that network for a good while. I ask that not only because of their Obamacare coverage but because of their general pattern of insipid reporting and fluff interviewing. To be sure, CNN does have a couple of folks who I respect a lot (Anderson Cooper and David Gergen come to mind), but enough is enough. If CNN is going to be the preeminent bipartisan news network on cable TV, it is going to have to radically transform itself. And the only way that will happen is if enough of us boycott the network and force them to shake things up root and branch.

I'm going to sign off now and continue to do the things I couldn't do when my power was out, but I'm happy to be back and in touch with you all. Once again, happy Fourth!