Washington Post, June 30, 2008:

Twenty thousand soccer fans are expected in the Washington area this week to watch teams of Ethiopians from the United States and Canada compete. The annual tournament has become one of the largest gatherings of Ethiopians outside their homeland.

In the recent Feller decision, the Supreme Court struck down a fairly long-standing gun ban in the District of Columbia, holding that the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms of a sort in general common use.

On hearing from Media Matters that Arianna Huffington would be at Politics and Prose talking about her new book "Right is Wrong," I decided to make the trek to Chevy Chase.

Unfortunately, the northbound L series of buses up Connecticut Avenue from Van Ness Metro to Chevy Chase Circle were shockingly absent, gone, not there, failed to post, whatever. The buses run for that stretch about 7 times an hour in late rush hour, but I (and 15 other angry passengers) waited at Van Ness close to half an hour. Arianna was scheduled to start her talk at 7 PM, which is when I punch out. I was just hoping to hear the last 20-25 minutes or so. Of course, when the bus finally did arrive, it brought me to Connecticut and Nebraska just in time for me to hear, in her lovely, unmistakable Greek accent, "Thank you all for coming." Out marched the hordes of applauding liberals both old and ancient, nearly mowing me down. On my child-support oriented budget, there would be no chance I would buy this book new in hardcover, so I did not bother to stand in line. Instead, I caught one picture of the lovely author from in between several liberal hordelings, and rushed out the door just in time to catch a timely arriving M4 bus quickly crosstown a few blocks to Tenleytown, to check out computer printers and storage doodads.

I have now moved into the District of Columbia, having survived a slew of medical nastiness, one blown tire in a thunderstorm on Northern Parkway in Baltimore, the adventure of finding an open pharmacist to fill prescriptions for steroids and antibiotics at 3 AM in Langley Park, driving a cargo van in miserable weather, etc. I am out sick from the job today; my chest hurts when I breathe but at least now I can take full breaths. Getting one full night's sleep helped a lot.

Comcast will be installing internet service to my apartment tomorrow and thereafter I will be in a much better position to blog routinely.

A brief update. My internet access is limited so this will have to be short. I will be signing a lease at Fort Totten Station in northeast DC on Friday for a Saturday move-in. After internet access starts at that apartment, I will resume more regular posting.

The past seven days of my life have been oriented around the impending family adjustments and my residential relocation to the District of Columbia. Finding an apartment has been a serious pain in the neck. Happily, problem solved.

A little snark for your snark needs.

I sit now in Chevy Chase, DC, the tony urban side of the suburban-urban trans-Western Avenue liberal sprawl that gives Brian Griffiths intermittent explosive diarrhea. I sit in the basement Politics and Prose, a minor cathedral to tony, tasteful liberal wealth and somewhat well-deserved intellectual smugness. Howard Zinn was to speak today here, but cancelled due to some family issue. But alas, good Brian, I am drinking a carbohydrate-laden plain Italian soda - a shot of flavored corn syrup, a snowball without the snow or the ball, not a latte (which are overrated and taste the way that Ari Fleischer speaks: no matter how hard you steel yourself for the disappointment, you still manage to be disappointed.)

I have had some fun looking at DC apartments, "fun" in the "oh s%%% a freight train just mowed over my Corolla, may as well enjoy the fire" fun.

Right now, I am looking for apartments in DC, specifically within the District itself.

There are basically three ways to go.

1) Insane cost
2) Daunting Physical Risk
3) Tolerable Medium

(3/11) There is a current project for tri-lingual document review attorneys - French and Spanish - in DC. To find out more, please call Stephanie Schoenfeld at Update Legal DC at 202-872-5000 and mention "Bruce Godfrey/Crab's List." Thanks.

Hillary Clinton supporter Larry Johnson on the evils of Chesapeake and Potomac voters:

Okay. Then if he is the candidate of change fighting Washington, why did a majority of the Washington, DC and the government employees in the surrounding suburbs and those pesky lobbyists and their spouses and employees, vote for Barack? You see, I believe that people act in their own interest. So, when the folks who live inside the beltway, vote in large measure for Barack, then maybe he is not what he claims to be.

What a stupid argument.