I've been meaning to ask you warbaby, who do you work for? FBI or something?

Their downward slide began when they did not hire me for a faculty position two years ago. After that, doom was inevitable.

No, I work for the public. The FBI (as an institution) is hopelessly corrupt, incompetent and politically biased.

I am occasionally consulted as a research analyst on matters as varied as public health, terrorism, fraud, weapons of mass destruction, public housing, human rights, money laundering, environmental issues and political corruption. My role is a fact-finder and analyst. I have a very modest but international reputation. I very occasionally write as a journalist.

I charge no fees, receive no grants and what little funding I get comes entirely from private and voluntary sources without solicitation.

I know of no one else who operates without institutional affiliations as I do. Consequently, I sometimes end up as the "court of last resort" when the official police are stymied or useless.

* twirls cape *

*waves at LarryC*

Dude, you must have a day job, right?

Yup, data analyst on financial databases. Before that I did industrial design and project management on electrical, telcom and petrochemicals. I've tended to radically switch careers about every seven years.

I've been a film editor, carpenter, cook, museum exhibit designer, electronics tech, ceramic tile contractor, interactive videodisc producer, social service training content developer, programmer, scriptwriter, investigative journalist, light show operator, material handler, hardware and autoparts clerk (at different times), combine harvester driver, union organizer, etc.

My course of study included declared majors in mathematics, liberal arts, computer science, electronic music, history of science. I also dabbled in instrument design for high energy particle physics and worked with veterans of the Manhattan Project. It took me 17 years to complete my bachelor's degree what with getting periodically disgusted with academia.

The one thing I regret is not having done military service, but we haven't had any good wars in my time.

Yay, warbaby! I have to say, you really impress the hell out of me.

I was remiss and didn't post the follow-up to the Minutemen brouhaha in Bellingham. Here's one of Dave Neiwert's reports and there is more on his Orcinus blog.