Tuesday, May 31, 2005

The PETA Spy
Yes, this is illegal. Yes, I disagree with the girl's beliefs. Yes, if I was on a jury hearing a case arising from these matters, I would vote against her in a second. But you know what . . . it is kind of cool in an odd irrational way at the same time. Go figure.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Housing Prices Will Create Perverse Politics
Are you one of these recent home buyers in a hot market? Are you worried that after plunking down half a million for a one bedroom in a bad neighborhood in the bay area that prices are going to crash? Do you want to protect your investment that you probably overpaid for? Vote for putative zoning restrictions. Of course, this might not be efficient for the overall market, but is that really your problem?

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Something Is Rotten in Denmark.......
Some are suggesting that Bush should pick a "moderate" to replace Rehnquist. Others are hoping the Republicans learn from the past so they aren't condemned to repeat it.
Homeland Security, Protecting America
From movie pirating that is. Aren't these guys, you know, supposed to be doing something else.........like fighting domestic terrorism?
Man Released After Serving 35 Years for Stealing TV Set
No, he was not wrongfully convicted. But the sentence seems grossly extreme. There is a need for deterance and retribution in making criminals serve their time. But how much time is too much time? How much is not enough? How do we make these decisions? Things to ponder............

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Power Corrupts: Republican Ideological Drift
Witness the change in Republican policy towards the Department of Education.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

European Superiority Watch
Today: Superior Free Speech Rights
Bar Prep 1
So I've set up a new sure fire system to fail the bar. I am going to do almost all my studying on.............EXCERCISE MACHINES!

Oddly enough, it is easier for me to focus on the BarBri Outlines while burning off 680 calories an hour on an elliptical machine. For example, yesterday I did three hours on the elliptical, read about half of the BarBri Contracts outline, and also listened to a Property tape. The two previous days I managed to read almost the entire Criminal Law outline over the course of 3 and a half hours. If you throw in the swimming that I am doing too, I hope to not only finish my bar studying by mid July, I hope to be in great shape when I take the exam too.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Has PC Culture Infected Even the University of Chicago Law School?
Supposedly one of the last redoubts of free thought, Walker has a disturbing email that was received from dean of students.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Now I Really Feel Bad For Him
Its always been clear that Professor Lessig has had more inner demons to confront than others. One of them has just been revealed.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Treo 600 v. Treo 650
Does any reader of this blog have any experience with these phones? My dad is hassling me to upgrade to the 650, but for the price, it just does not seem worth it. Then again, I have had the 600 break twice on me now, so he might be right.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Video Games May Be Good For Your Kid
Something I have suspected for a while (yes Professor Cuellar, that means your kids too, despite our disagreement). Of course, coupling video games with physical exercise remains a smart strategy.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Let's Hope It Is Something The Authorities Are Not Telling Us
And not incompetence. Passenger on diverted flight to Bangor has some troubling thoughts about the experience.
Graduation (and Post Graduation) Depression
I told my parents during graduation that the hapiness one has for the event is inversly proportional to the happiness had during the school experience. Throw in an ex (thanks Tai!) who did a good job screwing with my head during the weekend, and it was an "interesting" time.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Throw the Book at Her
If the Wendy's Finger-in-the-Chili Lady made it up, she needs to go to jail for a long time. Not only would she have lied, she would have done so maliciously to destroy a company's good name (a valuable asset) for the potential of enriching herself in the process. In my mind and with my limited knowledge, such actions are worse than the balance sheet manipulations in the Enron type cases over the past year which at least had the benefit of being possibly legal. This would be extortion, pure and simple, different from the mafia only in that no violence was involved, and equally intolerable in well functioning society.
White House Screws Poor for Benefit of Special Interest
The White House is reimposing quotas on textiles made in china. This will "save" supposedly a few thousand job. I put save in quotes, because it will do nothing of the sort. What this will do is transfer jobs from the overall economy to the american textile industry, destroying jobs in the process. How? Because the Chinese make clothing more efficiently than we do, giving effectively more money in the process, leading to even greater employment. Even worse, if you are concerned about issues of equality, the increase in clothing price is a regressive tax on those who can least afford it, the poor.

Can't say I am all that surprised. So we have a big spending, protectionist administration that is abandoning state rights when morality can be imposed (gay rights, drug war, and probably abortion when Roe Wade is struck down).

Why can't we have a real opposition party unlike the even worse dems?

Friday, May 13, 2005

Could Have Seen This Coming
Take a look at this story:
In a pact brokered by the New York County Lawyers' Association, more than 60 law firms have agreed to tell their corporate clients the composition of assigned legal teams by race, gender, ethnicity and sexual preference.

For several years, clients have asked law firms to sign statements in support of diversifying the legal profession. But with the formal agreement, firms have volunteered to put hard numbers behind their noble aspirations. According to the pact, "law firms should not object to requests by their corporate clients [to] report the number of hours devoted to the clients' matters by minority lawyers."


This Comment reacting to the story
at Volokh's blog struck me as very disturbing of the implications of some of our laws:

I can remember very well when we were told that we could not keep records by race or gender or age because it would lead to discrimination. The next year we had to prove we did not discriminate on race or gender or age. I was responsible for personnel/payroll/benefits computer processing programs for a major firm in New England. We used to keep race and gener and age in the educational slots on the records. That way when they required us to report that we were not discriminating, we had the info. The whole concept reeks of PC crap!! If you keep it you are breaking one law, if you don't you are breaking another. The whole LLL PC crap has made this part of a company hell on wheels to work in.

And God forbid somebody claims you discriminated. Then you have to produce reams of paper every month to prove you have not discriminated and all it takes is someone apply for a job and not get it and then complain that your discriminating against them was the reason. Someone needs to get in there and clear out all these PC laws that make corporate life impossible. Once someone complains to the government for any reason at all, whether it is true or not, you are stuck. I used to have to devote a full weekend running reports that ended up being 4 feet high, 6 copies, and send them to the federal government every month. The reason is that we did not have the percentage of blacks working that matched the population. Of course the fact that blacks were afraid to venture into that part of the city meant that we did not have any blacks applying, but that did not matter. It was all our fault. I developed a very bitter distaste for the federal government working on those systems. The laws were totally insane, but the professors at Harvard thought they were wonderful.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Good to Know
Clint got this piece published about an Al-Queda linked terrorist who owns his own airline. As he said to me when I received it - "Sleep well"

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Fed Courts and the Legend of the 150 page outline
I made a 150 page outline for my fed courts exam tomorrow. Prediction: it will be worthless on the exam.
Gullible Law School Staff
Picked a hang nail, and it started bleeding. So I went to random members of the law school staff and asked if the squirrels in the area were rabid as I showed them my bloody finger. Yep - they mostly fell for it - I was told by quite a few of them to go the emergency room to get rabies shots :-)

Hey - it's exam time. Let me have my amusement in peace!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Email worse for IQ than Marijuana?
Funny study if it holds up to peer review. Remember, since marijuana is a non-addictive drug without proven gateway effects, the one legitimate argument to keeping it illegal is lost productivity of society.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Andrea Dworkin, Rest In Peace
One man's hilarious diatribe against Dworkin.
Evangelical Overreach in the Military
I don't like this.