In one small corner of shiny, high-tech, forward-looking Silicon Valley, it is always 1776. Richard Alexander is perhaps one of the valley's best-known personal injury lawyers, and he spends his days defending clients -- many of them who've been injured working in some of the world's most sophisticated scientific laboratories and factories. But when he gets up each morning at his home in Palo Alto, this neighbor of Apple's Steve Jobs is most likely to raise Old Glory or the Stars and Stripes on the flagpole in the yard. And when he steps out of the elevator at his offices in downtown San Jose, the first thing Alexander sees is a museum-quality model of John Paul Jones' ship the Bonhomme Richard, an 18th century sideboard and a vast number...