On Tuesday, the final event which millions of people had been waiting for finally occured. The actual inauguration ceremony started around 11 am eastern standard time, so we began our trip to the capitol building right around 9 am. We arrived at the capitol right before the ceremony began to behold this scene:
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We watched the festivities from the District Court for DC, we were lucky to be inside to escape both the crowds and the weather.  Unfortunately we had to walk there from Cleveland Park.  Here is a map:

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But once we got to the Courthouse we were warm and comfortable to watch the event. After the Jump there are around 70 photos. Some are of the speeches and some are of the crowds watching the parade.

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These pictures are from the pre-inauguration HBO We Are One concert.  The stage was built into the front of the Lincoln Memorial and as you will see in the pictures after the break the concert was very well attended.  Overall it was a pretty good experience, although finding a bar to grab a few drinks was difficult.  They were all full so we just ended up waiting at Madhatter on M street.  Take note of the dust in the air when people were leaving the mall area.

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There are a bunch more pictures after the break:

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Actually it wasn’t much of a story at all, but I found the notion that people should be accommodated because they are unwilling to vote because it is raining outside laughable.

Buy an umbrella.

The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : Federal Grants Aimed to Enforce Underage Drinking Laws.

Every week the blog invites top congressional staff to summerize the pending bills in congress. But this invitation opens the door for some comical partisan mudslinging. This week there was even a link to a photo. The photo was posted as the latest response in the argument: Whose energy policies make more sense? Republican’s or Democrat’s?¹ I thought the photo was hilarious, but check it out for yourself.

See the photo here: Small Wind Car.

Kosovo’s independence does raise to interesting questions. First, Serbia has already refused to recognize Kosovo, and declared it a “false state.” I wonder if Kosovo will be the new Taiwan, and independent nation to most of the the world, but a rebel state to its former parent state.

Second, how will the effort that the UN, EU, and United States displayed in creating an independent Kosovo effect Israel-Palestinian relations? Will the world push harder for a Palestinian state? Will the Palestinians look to Kosovo as an example fit for emulation?

I wonder how many new nations will be liberated in the next 50 years?

• Giving Time – Helping a charity by working as a volunteer.
• Giving Money – Obvious.
• Giving Things – See Giving money in a non liquid state.
• Giving Experience – Helping schools by becoming a teacher during your retirement, passing down your learned skills and advice to people in need.

While most people understand “how” to give, having a manual listing many honored charities can be useful. Therefore the best audiences for this book include people who are interested in charitable organizations, people who work in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), or people who want to give to charity but for some reason are distrustful (or unknowledgeable) of the process in general. The book reads mainly as two parts “who’s who in NGOs/Charities” and one part “Hillary helped here, there, and everywhere.” The fact that a large part of this book reads as a campaign piece for Hillary is really disappointing. I felt that the Hillary grandstanding in the book seemed intentional and contrived: that they appeared to be added to talk about Hillary, instead of occurring because of her natural proximity to Bill and his work. I think these passages will tend to deter/alienate some readers. Perhaps I’m reading too much into the book, but I felt that a book designed to encourage charitable giving using Bill Clinton’s experiences/contacts gained in the years after his presidency, doesn’t need to add to Hillary’s bid for the White House.

I have to say though, charitable giving is a very noble cause, and an increase in giving can only help society as a whole. Therefore any effort by prominent influential people attempting to encourage giving are welcome in my opinion. We need more wealthy people like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet who get rid of their excessive wealth to aid those less fortunate than themselves. What is the point of having excess money, when it could be used to really help people? More people need to give, and more people need to realize that they do in fact have enough for themselves and have the ability to give. Everyone can give something to another person, you don’t need to be rich in money only rich in kindness and character.