That's a Lawsuit

Diary of a 24 hour take home final.

2006-01-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

8:30am- Woke up in a panic, thinking I slept through the window of time to pick up the exam even though I had set my alarm. Unable to regain my previous sleep pattern, I decided to get cup of coffee #1 and try this breakfast thing so many people recommend.

11:00am- Picked up the test. I don't work well in the mornings, even if I did wake up all on my own.

11:01am- Didn't even open the test yet for whatever reason but a wave of nausea came over me. Briefly wondered to myself, if I took a good 5 minutes to lay down and get a grip, if I would have enough time to finish the test.

11:07am- Nearly hit by a car in Brooklyn yet again. As I saw it, I wondered if I should stop scurrying away from it. I quickly reasoned that the test wouldn't be that horrible and kept walking.

11:10am- Back in my room. Finally look at the test and decide it's going to suck but it's fair. Despite that, I still allow myself 5 minutes to doubt myself to write a single word.

11:45am- I've actually begun to write by now. I think it might be an early night...Who am I kidding?

12:00pm- Coffee #2

12:30-3pm- Worked but the pace began to slow down pretty quickly. Sometime around 2 I went out to get air. Decided I couldn't handle people being drunk and done with finals around me during my final just yet.

4:30pm- Finished the 1st question and it was only 3 pages long....and I went over. Not satisfied with the answer but at least 1/3 of the test is over. For those interested: Dormant Commerce Clause.

4:45pm- Coffee #3. I don't normally drink more than 1 cup day and I don't drink it on a daily basis either so i'm starting to feel the effects.

6:00-8:00pm- A blur. I might have been in a caffeine induced blackout. All I do know is, caffeine is a total appetite suppressent and I knocked off question 2 (Commerce Clause/N&P). 2 page limit, went over again.

8:30pm- Coffee #4. I'm not even tired but I think I developed a habit. My body is awake but i'm mentally tired.

9:00pm- Coffee kicks in, feeling euphoric and ready to work again.

10:00pm-12:00am- Question 3 is on war powers and Iraq. I have to research and learn it all. There were paragraphs I wrote in 5 minutes time, certainly not from extensive knowledge, but because i'm certain I might be high.

1:00am- Tired but at the same time, I couldn't sleep even if I tried. It's a mental marathon to look at the same 3 pages off and on for 12+ hours. I might have forced myself to eat at this point.

3:00am- Finished the exam and proofread it. I disliked it. Hopefully that helps you out.

4:00am- Sobering up from caffeine.

5:00am- Caffeine hangover. Going to have to sleep this one off--if I can.

8:30am- Decide that I must hand the test in as early as possible because as long as I have it in my possession, I feel more guilty and worse about it. I make a pact with myself to not read it again on the way over so I don't get cold feet.

8:45am- Waiting for the exam control room woman to help me, I accidentally glance at my final. I have about 2 hours left and I live close. I could still fix something. I promptly decide against it, arguing that if I haven't gotten it by now or during the proofreading stage, it won't come to me now.

8:47am- It's finally over and there is nothing I can do about it now. Which is my reasoning for not being upset over tests after the fact (even if they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped).

9:00am- Crashed. I had trouble getting to sleep--who knew caffeine had such a long withdrawal time?
------------
Tomorrow is the first day of class and we have legal writing during the first week of class this semester. The one thing I miss about last semester is I think they're going to coddle us less now. I sense it.

Con law final tomorrow.

2006-01-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

I hope the commerce clause is enough to get me through it because it might be the one and only thing I know even the slightest thing about. At this point I intend on spending close to 24 hours looking everything up.

Trager knows we don't know anything. He commented multiple times today during the review session that people seemed scared. Why shouldn't we be scared? I'm not sure this class had a clear direction from day 1.

People say he gave us 24 hours because he expects it to be good. I think he just doesn't want to actually give out any F's.

Finals momentum is gone for good until the end of the spring semester.

T-4 days until the con law final.

2006-01-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

I'm beyond unprepared.

January is a wacky time to be posting about finals and I still find it baffling that there are other law schools that purposely schedule all finals after break. However the MTA and TWU had to do their thing and the administration had to poorly do theirs so here we are.

I cannot for the life of me bring myself to carry on a semi-productive study session. My head just isn't in it at the moment and I know i'm not alone. It's not even like we had an overly long, college-style winter break that lasts for a minimum of 4 weeks. We had 2 weeks, if that much.

The problem is, it takes so little time to get used to doing nothing but so much time to get back into law school mode. 2 weeks, while short in terms of relaxation time, is long enough to lose any and all momentum that you had during the actual finals period. It's January and it feels like a new semester. Our new professors are already emailing us, we need to get new textbooks, and it has that calm feeling that I began to long for sometime around the second memo.

....Except we have a con law final.

Losing your finals momentum has got to be worst part about this. I know mine is gone and from the looks of everyone else, they don't have it either. Will everyone regain their early to mid December form? Doubtful but we'll have to figure something out.

Good luck to anyone taking a final. I know i'll need it.

MTA strike: The new snow day.

2005-12-21T16:51:00.001-05:00

Finals went about as well as you can hope. I wasn't totally clueless (thank god since I actually studied) then again I don't feel that they went as solid as they could have. However I think that is the nature of a law school exam. Everyone here clearly studied a lot and no one is stupid so it's just you against the curve. All I know is that I worked hard and that is all I can do.

The last exam I have is con law and I will not be taking it until January sometime. This is good for two reasons: First, I am the most screwed for this final out of all of them. I know the least about this class and I don't have the slightest idea of what to expect. If there is any test that I need more than 2 days to study for, it's this one. Secondly, I took the night off after my civ pro final and then proceeded to take the next day off too and go drinking that night. If by some stroke of my typical bad luck TWU and MTA solved their differences, I would have been even more screwed than I already was. That was a gamble I was willing to take and thank god it paid off.

Minus the con law final that is up in the air, I have completed my first semester of law school. I never doubted my ability to do it since i'm not the quitting kind. However i'm pretty satisfied with myself, no matter how grades turn out. I know I actually learned something this semester and now i'm halfway to completing one of the suckier years of law school. I told myself if I could survive year one, I would make it through the entire thing.

In retrospect, the semester only truly got tough when finals began to loom...and we had memos. If I can survive the appellate brief, oral argument, and finals next semester then I should be ok.

Thanks to the MTA, i'm able to go drink and relax much earlier than expected and for the first time in several weeks.

Why did Professor Mazzone ban laptops?

2005-12-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

"I came to the conclusion that serious and attentive students suffer when they use laptops in class. First year law students don’t know how to take notes effectively, particularly in a difficult course like Constitutional Law. Their strategy, therefore, is to record every single word uttered in class. Their hope is that even if they have no idea what anything means at the time, so long as they get it all down they can look it up later on and they’ll be OK.

Laptops, I found, turned the most diligent students into scribes.

I spoke—they typed. I spoke again—they typed some more.

But law schools train lawyers not court reporters. Learning to be a lawyer requires hands on experience: tussling with the cases, articulating arguments, reflecting on what others have said, offering quick reactions, presenting rebuttals. This is the whole point of attending law school rather than just reading about the law in a library. And you can’t do these things if you’re busy typing. There is a good reason lawyers are not the ones asked in the courtroom to produce the transcript of what has transpired. "

----

Out of the jungle

A reflection on the Fall 2005 semester.

2005-12-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'll do this before I take finals so as not to have a biased opinion.

This has been the most intense semester of schooling that I have ever encountered. However, I can say with total certainty that this is one of the most fun semesters as well. As the years go on, I continue to meet smarter and smarter people who encompass many interesting and eclectic backgrounds. Just when I think i've met the best of the best, I prove myself wrong.

I believe the thing I like best about this school is that not only are people smart but they like to let loose and have some fun. There are law schools out there where people will not go out on the weekends but here, people like to get away from it all and keep their sanity. I know my level of satisfaction with law school as a whole would have been much different had I not been here. That's the bottom line.

Pulling up to BLS in August, I was very excited to be living in the much hyped building but also uneasy about what was ahead. I knew I wanted to be in law school and I knew that I was very happy to be attending BLS. However, I had heard all the horror stories of law school and having come off a year of intense laziness and senioritis, I was afraid I wouldn't be ready. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to snap out of it.

Furthermore, I didn't know if it would be hard to meet people in law school since it was such a different atmosphere than college was. My fears were unfounded. This has been especially true as of late. Another rumor I heard was that people were cutthroat come finals time. Everyone I have seen has been more than willing to help their classmates out.

Law school and its finals are not enough to negate the first 3 months of school. The first 3 months where everything was fresh and there was a lot of fun to be had.

Good luck to everyone on finals.

Which FRCP are you?

2005-12-07T19:20:00.000-05:00

YOU ARE RULE 20(a)!
You are Rule 20, an important part of the Federal
Rules' policy of permissive joinder. You are
designed specifically to allow as many parties
in an action as can be tried efficiently, and
you'll include someone as long as there is some
factual overlap between a claim involving them
and the rest of the case at hand. You are
popular, out-going, and are never far from
friends. However, your overly gregarious
nature and magnanimous approach do make things
a bit crowded--you're the reason that lawsuits
are often cluttered with innumerable parties
and even more numberous claims for relief.
Still, despite the crowds that you attract, you
can't argue with the efficiency of getting
everything done at once!

Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?
brought to you by

Con law: annoying right until the end.

2005-12-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

There is no reason why this final needs to end on the 23rd of December.

There is a party thrown by the school at the end of the semester that I will most likely not be able to attend because of this final. While everyone else is letting loose and slipping into a liquor induced blackout, I will be holed up somewhere inventing information that i'm going to pass off as constitutional law. We are most likely the last people in the entire school to finish a final too.

Relaxation aside, having a final end so close to the holiday would not even allow people any travel time. In addition, it's not like any of us have had time to shop, what with law school currently sucking.

It's pretty fitting that con law would be last. It's my least favorite class, it seems to be the most ambiguous, and the outline is very up in the air at the moment. However, i'm thankful it's last. I need to teach myself pretty much everything and with it being last, I can devote time to it without neglecting anything else.

The school should think about scheduling finals before the 23rd of December in the future. It's been a crazy semester and all we're asking for is to be able to go celebrate the end with the rest of our fellow classmates.

Misery

2005-12-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

Finals mode is in full swing and sleep is no longer a necessity. Forget about it even being an option. You just don't get much of it or have time for it for that matter.

The nights you spend studying just seem to fly on by and before you know it, it looks like the sun might be rising outside.

Outlines take a long time to do and even when they are done, you aren't much better off. I have 2 done, 1 that is about 85% done, and of course, as expected, con law has gone untouched--much like the casebook for the past 2-3 weeks.

Today my mother called me because she has sent me 4 emails in the past 2 weeks and have answered none of them. The first words out of her mouth were that she was very worried about me and wanted to make sure i'm ok.

December 23 I will be much better when i'm pouring copious amounts of alcohol down my throat.

----

Crim law final is closed book. Advice?

Tortious Acts of the Holiday weekend.

2005-11-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

Watching people trample over each other and fight to get into a store first never ceases to make me laugh. If I were a torts professor, I would find a way to make a case like this part of the syllabus.

-------

When the lamp fell on those two sisters at the Thanksgiving Day parade, the first thing I thought was "that's a lawsuit."

However, their father said it was a freak accident and no one is suing since accidents happen.

Class notes=useless.

2005-11-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

As I write this, i'm sitting in class. This could be why but it's not.

I came to the conclusion last week that if I had to make an outline and be prepared for a law school final based solely on my notes, I would fail out. I hear no one fails out but without any type of supplement, I would go against that notion.

It's not that I take terrible notes....well not in every class anyway. The thing is, notes are generally haphazard and contain things like "?" and "I don't know". That cannot be helpful for the academic hazing known as first semester 1L finals.

From speaking to upperclassman, however, I see that this isn't limited to 1L's. In fact, people seem both surprised and impressed that I still go to class and take notes at all. Notes, to me at least, seem good to get some basic black letter law, some policy, and make use of my "?" key. It also prevents me from playing spider solitaire for the entire 1 hour and 50 minutes of class. There is no way in hell that these notes alone could be enough.

In beginning to make my torts outline, i've noticed that i've relied mostly on Emanuel for structure and information and very little on the majority of my notes. Sure, stuff has gone in there, but by and large I wonder why I helped facilitate the early on-set of carpal tunnel syndrome by typing down 70% of this.

Paying attention is beginning to get hard. It's November and we are tired. The people that speak most have begun to ask the professor things that even he or she does not know. Safe to assume it won't be on the final?

Finals and one last memo loom. I have come to terms with my mediocrity.

Beat the clock.

2005-11-06T11:35:00.000-05:00

I hardly get sick except since i've started at BLS, i've already had 3 throat/nose ailments. I hate this. Is this 1L syndrome or are you all just sicker than the average people?

Thursday I had a midterm in civ pro and it was pretty much what I expected. What I mean by that is, if I were Nan Hunter and I wanted to write a fact pattern that encompassed as much of the syllabus as we have covered so far, I would probably have wrote something similar.

The main issue: TIME. I can see time is pretty much what will get you on these exams. We had 2 hours to read a 3 page fact pattern and write. To non-law school people that doesn't sound too long but as the rest of you out there know, you can really pack a lot into those 3 pages--and I know it's going to get worse.

I allowed myself about 10-15 min to read it, underline, jot stuff down, and then re-read. You really couldn't spend too much time doing that though because as it is I barely just "finished". Who knows what finishing in law school even means? Spotting and writing about more issues than everyone else?

It's only worth 10% of my grade. Like she said, it's a painless way to see what a law school exam was like and I do now have an outline for the class.
--------
A recommendation: if you like beer, you should go to Peculier Pub in the Village. They have a menu with beers from all over the world, including countries I didn't know existed. What's even better is that it's not expensive and they include tip in the price.

Bluebook quiz today.

2005-11-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

Fast fact: a 2L said the average last year was a 95.5

Confirmation?

It's good if we know what F. Supp. means but it remains to be seen what kind of impact 10% of 2 credits will really have if any at all.

Good luck to any other 1L's out there who might read this.

Reality is setting in and it hurts.

2005-10-24T18:26:00.000-04:00

This morning I handed in my first graded memo of the year bright and early. I had mixed emotions; part of me was ecstatic to get it off my hands and another part of me was afraid. Once I submitted the email and dropped the hard copy in the box it was all over. No longer can I change anything. Even as I was riding the elevator back down, I began to re-think my QP. I should try acting less 1L-ish.

I did sleep last night. I know quite a few people who didn't and i'm glad I wasn't one of them. I'm very used to all-nighters whether they be voluntary or procrastination induced. I just couldn't bring myself to stay up all night on top of having the dullest weekend of the year because of all this. If I don't do one fun thing the whole weekend, then work should be done so I can sleep. If i'm going to stay up all Sunday night, it better be because I wasted the whole weekend--or was wasted the whole weekend. Same thing.

Not having con law today was so sweet and timely. I love how we never have that class. It's even sweeter having the day off after memo weekend.

I am beginning to feel that as fun as this upcoming weekend is going to be, I think people are going to go into panic mode all of a sudden immediately following. November begins next week and from what I hear, this is the beginning of the big freak out. I don't think i'm ready for all of this and i'm definitely not ready for people to give me agita because they have it.

At the time of this blog entry, I haven't begun to outline yet. I attempted a torts outline a few weeks ago and I hate it so it doesn't even count. This wasn't the plan. I never stick to my own plans.

Stupid stupid memo.

2005-10-22T20:54:00.000-04:00

Entrapment: lets talk about it. That is, if you aren't entrapment'd out yet.

Legal writing is the most important class, I know. I still think it's a nuisance. It's memo time and I will do anything to avoid it so I blog.

My legal writing professor has given me a bit of a complex. My first "practice memo" had so many pencil markings I feared I might get lead poisoning. I guess it turned out about as well as I expected my first memo turn out. She assured me that everyone had the same amount of pencil markings. The thing is, lawyers lie so I don't know if I should believe her. I fear now i'm bound to fuck this next one up.

I'm also very scared that it is worth 40% of my grade. That is a high percentage right there and all I can keep thinking about are all of those pencil markings.

I will soon have my very first law school grade, and at 40%, it will be hard to overcome and will stick around for a while. What if I fuck up? Anytime I see someone that I know isn't a 1L, I envy them for no longer being in legal writing.

To anonymous high ranking official at BLS, I apologize in advance for dragging your name through the mud by choosing you as my alias name for the memo. Perhaps if I had chosen my professors name, she would subconsciously grade me higher.

First 1L scandal of the year.

2005-10-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it's spread past sections 7,8,9 but it originated there.

Apparently someone has dedicated almost their whole facebook profile to ripping on the school.

Now I understand that this is how people bond. Everyone can make a remark or two about the school and laugh about it with their classmates because they can all relate. They can even attempt to write a sarcastic blog about certain aspects that they would like to rant about. Obviously I do this as do many others. It's good to hear the opinions of others on their experiences but from what i've gathered this was a little different.

After overhearing some fellow classmates talking, many seemed to agree that they took it pretty far and came off downright rude. It wasn't a lighthearted remark about the elevators or even a professors hairstyle. This person belittled the school as a whole and seemed to imply that the quality of the students here is below them.

In order to protect the identity of this person, I will paraphrase certain portions:

Interests: Getting the fuck out of Brooklyn Law

Clubs and Jobs:
Member of anonymous student organization (resume boost
to get me out of BLS), The I want to get the fuck out of BLS Society

About Me:I go to a shitty law school and am aware of that fact.
I'm pretty sure I'm the smartest one here. And I am aware too of my conceit.

Whoa. I know this school isn't perfect but no school is. In fact the people here have been a pleasant surprise from all of the horror stories i've heard. I actually didn't know what to say when I saw this. It's fine that you are aiming to transfer up. You have to do what is good for you but to essentially talk down to the student body when you have yet to earn a single grade here is jumping the gun. Whatever crawled up their ass and died, they should look into removing.

-----

On another note, we finally have a day off tomorrow. I can't decide if I should read for Friday tonight or save it for tomorrow. What I should do is think about making a dent in that memo packet at some point tomorrow. So much for days off...

The tracks don't need work.

2005-10-10T17:57:00.000-04:00

The weekend schedule of the subway does though.

One of the best aspects of NYC is that there is a lot of public transportation to take and it isn't priced that badly. Sure it wasn't always $2 for a subway ride but you can get really far for 2 bucks. There is nothing I love more than saving money and getting the most I can for a buck.

The subway was atrocious and failed me this weekend.

The subway always had a lame weekend schedule. If there is ever a time that people wanted to take the train, aside from rush hour, it's weekend late nights. When do they drastically cut back service? Weekend late nights. It was even worse this weekend because you basically couldn't find a train into Brooklyn Heights. I know the N replaces the M/R late nights but not this weekend. No, it was re-routed for "maintenance". What has to be maintained? Certainly not the cleanliness. Not that I care, the dirtiness gives it the character I love.

I am fully aware that you can transfer lines but the problem with that stems back to the weekend late night schedule problem. I have never seen a shortage of people that were either on the train or waiting on the platform. No one wants to wait 25 minutes per transfer.

I've never run into this problem before. If you only need to ride one train home and it is one of the few that hasn't been cancelled altogether, even a 20 minute wait isn't that shabby.

However for the next two weekends, don't bother with M/R/N, and just split the cab with 3 other people to begin with.

My political beliefs.

2005-10-07T09:19:00.000-04:00

According to http://www.okcupid.com/politics , anyway:

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Moderate
(41% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I got publicity!

2005-10-06T22:56:00.000-04:00

I see my visitor counter has skyrocketed recently even in my absence. I also see that BLS News did a write up on blogs here at school. It's always good to get new readers. I just wish I were worthy of the attention or had anything of interest to say at all. Thanks for plugging the blog.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I think the reality of 1L has begun to sink in among other things. I'm either consumed with reading, going out when I do have a spare moment, or I am just so tired that I can't bring myself to sit and write anything. Let's not forget that I have nothing interesting to say anymore because i'm in law school. Since I assume the majority of my readers go here then I know you can feel my pain.

How many of you go out to the bar and you are having a great time then suddenly someone starts talking about law school? This happens all the time. They really weren't kidding when they said you would be consumed by school. I was hoping we wouldn't become a statistic but it always seems to come back to law...

Here are quick thoughts on classes:

Crim law: I like this one a lot. Very interesting class and from what I hear, we have the best crim law syllabus/professor

Torts: I'd enjoy you even more if you didn't meet at 9am on Friday. I also have a hard time drawing your charts on my laptop

Con law: I dread reading this casebook but you make up for it by rarely having class meet

Civ pro: I heard such bad things but I oddly like this class. It is taught very well.

Legal writing: I can tell the memo writing process will be a gigantic burden. I also think this class could stand to be shorter but it's fine otherwise. I will try smirking at my computer less.

Aside from the subject matter itself, I got lucky with my professors. They are all nice, very bright, and aren't brutal with the socratic method. It's about time something goes right.

The secret to winning the socratic method sweepstakes:

2005-09-22T18:22:00.000-04:00

Professors that call on people because they know they are on AIM or otherwise not listening to them because the internet is much more exciting:

Hunter (Civil Procedure)
Guerrini (Legal Writing)
Cheng (Torts)

There might be an internet users blacklist among the professors. I have seen the same people get called on multiples times in multiple classes already while countless others have yet to speak. These people happen to be the ones who surf the internet 90% of the time. Coincidence?

Watch out, you could be next.

Salaries of Lawyers in NY

2005-09-21T11:35:00.000-04:00

A small sample of salaries of legal professionals in NY:

Robert Morgenthau
$150,000
District attorney, Manhattan

Jeannine Pirro
$136,700
District attorney, Westchester

Eric Rosen
$50,000
First-year assistant district attorney, Manhattan

Shannon Stallings
$45,922
First-year public defender, Legal Aid Society

Laura Held
$126,072
Parking-violation judge

Judy Sheindlin
$30 million
Television judge

H. Rodgin Cohen
$4 million
Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell

Josh Dubin
$512,500
Jury consultant and trial strategist

William Joshua Brant
$125,000
First-year associate, Weil, Gotshal & Manges

For additional salaries
Credit to raging pundits

A student group will feed me lunch everyday this week.

2005-09-15T13:24:00.000-04:00

Except for Monday since this idea didn't dawn on me until Tuesday.

Don't get me wrong, I did attend some general interest meetings because they were groups that I was actually interested in and wanted to join. However in doing so, I decided to turn this whole thing into a game.

I vowed (minus Monday) to eat lunch for free everyday this week and would do so by choosing a meeting each day of something that I could mildly tolerate.

Think about it, if I spend anywheres from $2-6 on lunch per day, I have saved upwards of $24 on lunch this week! Granted I don't spend $6 on lunch all too often but this was a truly brilliant idea on my part.

I now have upwards of 24 more dollars to blow this weekend on booze.

For the record, one group who will remain anonymous had the best lunch setup I have seen. They had pepperoni pizza, not just the standard cheese, AND garlic knots. Friday has yet to come but i'm pretty certain that you will win the "best free lunch of the week" award.

Library Pet Peeves.

2005-09-12T01:22:00.000-04:00

Making unnecessary noise including, but not limited to, slamming things.

Is your purpose in life to make as much noise as possible or is it just to get on my nerves? Why do you exist? The library is so quiet that it is the little things that begin to get to you.

I have already gotten to know the "regulars". You know, the people that you always see day in and day out and you expect them to arrive any minute.

There is this one person who is the loudest of all. Without fail you feel the need to slam your books, pens, and throw things around the table. You also love to pick up your iced coffee cup and shake the ice for a good 5 minutes. If winter time and frigid weather means that iced coffee season is over, I welcome it. Anything to stop the madness.

To the guy who pounds on his laptop keys: stop. Type easier, why are you at war with your poor laptop? The smokers out in the courtyard on street level could hear you all the way upstairs I bet.

To the guy drumming on the table, blasting his IPod, and using the phone for what looked like a bill collecting service: you are beyond help. Additionally, pens aren't expensive. You can refrain from asking me 20 times for mine which i'm in the middle of using. The Duran Duran eminating from your headphones was distraction enough. I like them too and I like them even more when I don't want to read for constitutional law. However pick one distraction and stick to it.

This is a sign that I go there too much.

Criminal law class makes me want to practice criminal law.

2005-09-06T14:02:00.000-04:00

What is it about this class that makes criminal law sound so interesting?

I would be lying if I said I never had a passing interest in the subject, that I will never, ever take a criminal law case in my career, and I don't have more real life experiences that would cause some casual interest. Truth is, I am a blank slate at the moment. I didn't come here with clear, set goals and my whole career planned out. I could do anything right now but there is definitely something about the dynamic of this class that makes anyone I have spoken to have an increased interest in this area.

Cohen is a typical ex-prosecutor and for that, he is awesome and quickly becoming one of my favorite professors.

He whips knives out in class in a manner that makes it clear he has become quite proficient with using them in his Tennessee days. Today was the icing on the cake when he came busting through the doors to the classroom to demonstrate just what "breaking and entering" was in terms of burglary.

Speaking of burglary, the quote of the year so far is credited to this same man: "Burglary is like foreplay."

Why is burglary like foreplay? Think it through a bit. Even if you can't figure it out, be immature enough to giggle at your law professor using the word foreplay as a part of his lesson plan.

I expect other professors to come up with similarly humorous statements in order to keep my interest away from the [shitty wireless] internet.

To the rest of my professors: Keep the class cancellations coming and while you are at it, don't re-schedule them.

My temporary ID and I don't get along.

2005-09-06T13:53:00.000-04:00

In 4 years of college, I lost 1, maybe 2 ID's tops.

In 3 weeks here, I have lost 1 ID and nearly lost the second one on so many different occassions I have lost count.

I have no idea what it is about this card that I can't keep track of. I should also mention that I have lost a mailbox key too due to my new-found alcoholism.

It takes really long to get a real ID card around this place. I will also make sure not act this negligently when I have actual, real clients.

Roberts for Chief Justice.

2005-09-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

Bush drops the nomination on Labor Day, 2 days after Rehnquists death, and without any time for anyone to speculate.

"President Bush on Monday nominated John Roberts to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice and called on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3. Just 50 years old, Roberts could shape the court for decades to come.

The swift move would promote to the Supreme Court's top job a newcomer who currently is being considered as one of eight associate justices. It would also ensure a full 9-member court, because retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has said she will remain on the job until her replacement is confirmed.

Senate officials are considering three options: starting Roberts' confirmation on Tuesday with a delay built in on Wednesday for Rehnquist's funeral; starting the confirmation hearing on Thursday; or starting the confirmation hearing next week, the scenario considered to be the most likely. "

In full

I called it.

2005-09-04T18:08:00.000-04:00

Prior post: 7/15/05
------------
Only, he died much sooner than I thought he would.

"Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who quietly advanced the conservative ideology of the U.S. Supreme Court under his leadership, died Saturday evening. He was 80.

The justice, diagnosed with thyroid cancer, had a tracheotomy and received chemotherapy and radiation as part of his treatment.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Rehnquist had "continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days."
Then with his three children beside him, the justice died at his suburban Arlington, Virginia, home, the court spokeswoman said."

Rest in peace.

Who is up next for a nomination? Gonzales? Scalia for Chief Justice?

Source

Energy Crisis.

2005-09-01T02:33:00.000-04:00

Warning about the elevator furthest to the left.

2005-08-29T19:06:00.000-04:00

I nearly got stuck in it today.

The doors opened and wouldn't close. The elevator, being full of lazy people not wanting to walk down several flights of stairs, opted to stay inside.

When it finally closed, it didn't move for several seconds. We all should have known better than to stay inside of an elevator that did not want to close to begin with.

I am home and safe tonight but be warned about it.

To think I thought their slowness was the problem here...

Law school is all about overkill.

2005-08-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

School just started last week and i've already begun to notice this.

Everything I have read so far is about repeating the same things over and over and over again.

It first began during the introduction to the study of law class during orientation. Just when they beat the idea of precedent to death, they continue to lay it on.

In criminal law, when they say that statutes are a gray area because it is open to so many different interpretations, they continue on for another 25 pages.

I get it.

*Disclaimer: I know jack shit about law, this I am positive of. However I do know when i'm reading the same thing over and over again. I also know that when I have two more classes to read for and they too will do this same exact thing, i'm short on time and patience.

A re-cap of the first week of 1L.

2005-08-26T14:43:00.000-04:00

With the first week now over, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be (of course it helps that by "week", I mean 2 days).

The professors were definitely not laying on the scare tactics or trying to get people to drop out the first day. They cracked jokes and generally made you think that you would love these classes and you would love law school.

I know this won't be the case come October, but hey, I love false hope even for a little while.

Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw definitely try to buy your love. I came home with 2 constitutions, 2 federal rules of civil procedure books, a package of printer paper, 2 water bottles, 110 points, and candy. They are absolutely shameless in their attempts to buy your love and the reps were blatant in their begging you to use their services. I feel so....used.

I leave you with 2 questions:
1. How did I manage to make it to class this morning after having gone to bar crawl the night before?
2. Why does the free water bottle from Lexis-Nexis look like a penis?

Introduction to the study of boredom.

2005-08-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

Err, I mean law.

Allow me to clarify. As a naive 1L, it isn't that I find law to be boring. I have wanted to and am now attending law school afterall, so this is obviously something I want to learn and study. What is boring, however, is 1L orientation classes.

I'll premise this post by saying that the two professors I have had the pleasure of sitting through lectures from were very bright, funny, obviously knew a ton of shit, and have impressive backgrounds.

The problem here lies with whoever plans this program out.

I think a lot of it serves a good purpose but I also think they could condense this and not drag it out so long. 2 days on case law? 3 days of this total? I say, condense the case law section and make this a grand total of 2 days maximum. I don't know if anyone else agrees but by hour 3 of case law, I more or less got the picture.

I know many many people were bored and mentally drained from all this, even some of the professors said so. Tons of people were on the internet and I could see the tension building in the room when the wireless went out YET AGAIN. People had to spend the rest of class either playing every single card game known to man kind 68 times or try to manually fix the online connection.

As the time marches on, people become more and more hopeless that it will fix itself. If it didn't come back on within 5-10 minutes, you knew it died for the rest of the lecture.

The internet got a hell of a lot of people through it. To the countless 2/3L's who said that the wireless internet was spotty as hell and an inconsistent pile of trash: you weren't kidding.

All I do is wait for elevators.

2005-08-22T17:34:00.000-04:00

I have noticed that my life now consists mostly of waiting for elevators.

I get home, I wait for the elevator.

I get to school, I wait for the elevator.

I want to leave home or school, I wait for the elevator.

Elevators are slow, or at least the ones at school and where I live just are. Maybe it's the volume of people coming and going at certain times. Maybe they should work on getting new elevators. Maybe this is a sign that I should learn to love climbing a million flight of stairs.

Laptops aren't just for law students anymore.

2005-08-22T11:39:00.000-04:00

VAIL, Arizona (AP) -- Students at Empire High School here started class this year with no textbooks -- but it wasn't because of a funding crisis.

Instead, the school issued iBooks -- laptop computers by Apple Computer Inc. -- to each of its 340 students, becoming one of the first U.S. public schools to shun printed textbooks.

Most important to law students:

"Students get the materials over the school's wireless Internet network. The school has a central filtering system that limits what can be downloaded on campus. The system also controls chat room visits and instant messaging that might otherwise distract wired students."

Source
*****
Law schools don't seem to do this for the most part. Thank you.

Can You Spare 25 Cents for Food?

2005-08-18T21:41:00.000-04:00

I have gotten this on the street quite a bit lately.

Why 25 cents? They all ask for this specific amount. It's not like you can get anything for 25 cents either. I'm also not about to open up my wallet in the middle of a crowded and busy city street, i'm sorry.

Another thing, i'm a law student so you're definitely asking the wrong person. I'm poor. Can you spare ME 25 cents for food?

$557.

2005-08-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

This is how much I spent on first semester 1L casebooks/textbooks and I still need to get the ones for Criminal Law. I also have not purchased any commercial outlines yet.

I know I haven't been updating much lately, what with moving and running around and all, but I know someone is still out there reading and I know I can't be alone in the shock. The shock has been eased slightly by knowing ahead of time I would be spending the most I ever have on textbooks upon coming into the first year of law school. However the pain of it all still stings.

Speaking of stinging, I only live 3 blocks from the school which is great but when you are carrying a semesters worth of casebooks in plastic bags, home couldn't feel further away.

I did buy all new books. I looked at the used books but between all the pen marks, writing in the margins, and highlighting techniques that lead me to think every single incoming 1L last year also read Law School Confidential, I decided that I just needed to buy new. I need to be able to start fresh and since I will actually be using these books unlike in college, I decided to not be cheap in this one instance.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations on commercial outlines? I have heard many things around but I am open to even more opinions on them or how to use them.

An Apology.

2005-08-16T18:44:00.000-04:00

I will do my best to keep this a blog for diverse audiences. However let me apologize in advance if you click here often and see that any and all law school related rants bore you. I have been warned that once all of this gets started, I will have nothing else to talk about except law school. I believe this is the beginning of all of that but don't worry, I will continue to blog with non-law school people in mind.

To those who clicked here 2 months ago in hopes of this being a law school blog but instead were flooded with other things, good news: the law school rants will be more frequent now. Rightfully so: a 0L/1L has nothing to say on the subject until now.

All Moved In.

2005-08-14T23:57:00.000-04:00

The day is here and I have moved into my new law school apartment. I'm going to forgot for a moment that this is the beginning of the worst year of school ever. For now, I want to be happy.

The place is brand new and awesome!

The neighborhood is also cool and I love my apartment. So far, so good.

Dear Wal-Mart.

2005-08-12T21:45:00.000-04:00

Today was my last day of work (thank god) and it felt even more odd than usual, even for Wal-Mart.

Towards the end of my shift i'm cleaning one of the aisles and I see a notebook open and propped up against the others. I walk over to fix it only to notice that someone had written a note in pencil. It went just like this:

Dear Wal-Mart,

Please pay your employees more money so they don't have to go on welfare.

Thanks,
Concerned customer

I died laughing, right there in the aisle. It must be a full moon out because this is one of the more out there things i've seen and i've seen it all.

I showed a few people and a manager. She told me to rip it out and that the crazy woman must have did it. I'm sorry, but you are going to have to be more specific. Crazy is par for the course it seems.

I now have the letter and it still makes me laugh.

Thank you random "crazy woman" or concerned customer, you made my day.

It's All in a Name.

2005-08-11T23:59:00.000-04:00

Since Beaver College in the Philadelphia suburbs became Arcadia University four years ago, applications have doubled. Western Maryland College was also looking for a boost when it became McDaniel College in 2002. And California State University, Hayward, decided last January that a name change to California State University, East Bay, would help it reach out to students in new communities.

Names have gained increasing importance in the competitive world of higher education. As colleges jockey for market share, they are looking for names that project the image they want or reflect the changes they hope to make.
---------------
You mean the cleaner version of the name gained more students? I'm shocked.

In full

Companies Love to Waste Money.

2005-08-09T18:46:00.000-04:00

My employer this week has paid me for nearly an hour of work that I didn't do. Anyone who knows me, knows I try my best to do as little as I possibly can at work as it is. However this time, it was my employers fault.

Management is lazy as fuck. If you want me at work at 12, why are you not capable of punching me in until 12:30? You are no better than me: you do nothing but in turn, get much more money than I do. If you weren't so absent minded in the first place, you would have scheduled me to begin with. Since you did not do that until after the fact, it is your fault that I have go through this load of crap.

On top of this, you complain and make me wait.

Fine by me because I love to get paid for work I do not do (and d0--A LOT). However you could save everyone, including yourself, the headache if you did not cause these problems from the start.

Lets see how it goes tomorrow. It has already happened the past two days and things happen in three's.

Top 10 Memorable Drug Moments on TV.

2005-08-08T23:53:00.000-04:00

Click for list

How could they not include Jesse and the caffeine pills on Saved by the Bell? This is an unacceptable oversight.

DIE.

2005-08-07T23:58:00.000-04:00

WTF is this?!

48% of Americans: Bush is Honest.

2005-08-06T23:42:00.000-04:00

Americans are split almost evenly on whether the word "honest" describes President Bush, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Fifty percent of those surveyed this week said they would not describe him that way, and 48% said they would.

"Whether you agree or disagree with him, the president has taken a pounding on perceptions of his honesty," said Karlyn H. Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

In January, 53% of respondents said they'd describe him as honest and 45% said they wouldn't.

About two-thirds still said they would describe him as "likable" and "strong," but 56% viewed him as "arrogant," up from 49% in January.
---------
Either I only know the other 52% of the population or people need to make up their mind.

In full

And You Aren't Retiring. Smooth Move.

2005-08-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer, was treated at a hospital yesterday to try to determine the source of a fever, a Supreme Court spokesman said.

The chief justice went home in the early evening without the court or the hospital providing information about the source of the fever.

It was the second time in less than a month that the chief justice, 80, had gone to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington because of a fever. He spent two nights at the hospital after being admitted on July 12. The cause of the fever in July was not disclosed.
-------------
Are we to expect a miracle here? Will all the hospital visits and medical emergencies cease to occur simply because the Court is back in session? No.

Rehnquist, you are ill. Thank you for your time but step down and take it easy. Your health is more important than work.

In full

School is Really Close.

2005-08-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

Hold me.

Today in the mail I received my first reading assignment for law school--or rather for a required but not for credit class during orientation called "Introduction to the study of law".

A few people have told me that it's bullshit and not to bother. For once, school is truly important. I haven't felt the weight on my shoulders in a long time and I think using this book as a door stop right off the bat might not be such a good idea.

I'll give it a read through unless other people have some insight otherwise?

Still waiting on orientation materials and for the school to process the last of my paperwork.

For 17 Minutes, Your Constitutional Rights Can't Be Violated.

2005-08-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

A police officer who makes a traffic stop has at least 17 minutes to question the driver and passengers without violating their constitutional rights, a federal appeals panel has stated.

That idea came last week in a footnote by Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision allowed Alabama federal prosecutors to pursue a case against a woman accused of transporting drugs in her car.

Louis Franklin, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama, said the ruling should straighten out the varying interpretations within the circuit about how long a traffic stop may last.

"We needed some clarification," Franklin said. "We've just kind of been wondering -- we've had some different time frames when we get to a stop."
Edmondson concluded with a half-page footnote about whether a 17-minute stop ever could be considered too long.

"Where at its inception a traffic stop is a valid one for a violation of the law," Edmondson said, "we doubt that a resultant seizure of no more than seventeen minutes can ever be unconstitutional on account of its duration: the detention is too short."

In full

Good Thing This Moron Isn't Running Again.

2005-08-01T23:58:00.000-04:00

Democrats and Republicans on Monday began a fierce attack on Gov. George E. Pataki's decision to veto a bill that would make the so-called morning-after pill available without a prescription and raised doubts about whether the legislation could be revived.

The criticism came a day after aides to Mr. Pataki said he would oppose the measure because it did not include any provisions that would prevent minors from having access to the drug. Mr. Pataki's aides said the governor would reconsider the measure if the Legislature made amendments to the bill that addressed his concerns.

But Mr. Pataki's critics inside and outside the State Legislature sharply questioned the governor's motives, noting his long support for reproductive rights and suggesting that he was altering his position to win favor with national conservatives as he prepares for a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

In full

Law & Order Coloring Book!

2005-07-30T23:52:00.000-04:00

Awesome.

You can just print it off from this website:

The Coloring Book

Email Becoming a Thing of the Past.

2005-07-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I was reminded of the opening lines of the popular 1980s Whitney Houston song "The Greatest Love of All," which declared that "children are the future" and that adults should "teach them well and let them lead the way."

If that's true, then e-mail may be at the beginning of a long, slow decline in usage.

According to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life project, barely 5% of American teens aged 12 to 17 prefer e-mail over instant messaging as their digital communications method of choice. Teens view e-mail as a way to talk to "old people" or institutions like companies. Kids, it seems, prefer the immediacy and mobility of instant messaging and text messaging to e-mail, which they might some day refer to as snail mail, the same way most people over 30 refer to the U.S. Postal Service.

That's not to say that e-mail use is dropping. It is still the most popular Internet application. According to the Radicati Group, over 130 billion e-mail messages will be transmitted worldwide every day this year. That number should more than double to 276 billion in 2009.

Corporate users and consumers will swap 14 billion IMs per day worldwide this year, a figure that Radicati expects will more than triple to 46.5 billion by 2009. The number of free public IM accounts will grow to 1.1 billion in 2009 from 816 million today, while corporate IM accounts will more than double to 126 million in that time frame.

In full

IBM/Lenovo Lies.

2005-07-29T23:57:00.000-04:00

...For the better.

I ordered my Thinkpad T42 laptop for law school on Monday evening. They said they were going to ship it on 8/5 but instead, they shipped it two days later.

Great business tactic. Overestimate the shipping time on purpose so that when you pull through much earlier, I now have an over-inflated opinion of you.

I should add that I tossed this laptop on my credit card without having any kind of budget allowance increase in the works yet and I can't pay for it out of pocket.

I always hated debt which is why I never got into any. Now here I am though joining the ranks of everyone else.

My Cat Should Learn To Do This.

2005-07-28T23:57:00.000-04:00

Chelsea Clinton is Worth....Goats and Cows.

2005-07-27T16:35:00.000-04:00

Hahaha, wow.

A Kenyan says he offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter's hand in marriage five years ago -- and is still waiting for an answer.

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor told the East Africa Standard newspaper last week that he wrote to Clinton asking for Chelsea's hand in 2000 during the then-president's visit to Kenya.

Chepkurgor, a 36-year-old elected city councilor in Nakuru, recounted writing to the U.S president through the Kenyan government.

He described his plans for a grand wedding presided over by South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He named then-President Daniel arap Moi and the president of his university as references.

In full

No Re-Election Bid For Governor Pataki.

2005-07-27T14:36:00.000-04:00

Republican Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday he will not seek a fourth term next year. "It's the right thing to do," he told The Associated Press during an interview in his state Capitol office. He formally announced his intentions later at a news conference.

"We've done a lot together, and yet there is always more to do," he said. "But there is one thing I've understood from my very first day in public office: That as elected officials we are only temporary stewards of the people's trust."

When asked about a possible presidential run, Pataki, 60, said "That's for down the road. I'm not ruling anything in or out, but my goal is to be the best governor I can be for the next year and a half."

Recent polls in New York had shown Pataki trailing state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, in a possible 2006 gubernatorial matchup and the governor's approval rating had slipped to an all-time low among New York voters earlier this year.

In full

So Gross, Yet So Awesome.

2005-07-27T14:21:00.000-04:00

A high school student convicted of battery for vomiting on his Spanish teacher has been ordered to spend the next four months cleaning up after people who throw up in police cars.

Johnson County Magistrate Judge Michael Farley said during the sentencing Tuesday that he considered the boy's actions "an assault upon the dignity of all teachers."

The teen, now 17, vomited on teacher David Young as he turned in his textbook on the last day of classes at Olathe Northwest High School. His attorney, Brian Costello, said the student vomited because he was nervous about his final exams.

But two other students testified that the teen said he threw up intentionally. One girl said he told her in advance that he planned to throw up on Young on the last day of school. The girl wasn't in class when the teen threw up, but she testified that the boy later told her, "You missed it. I did it."

Young said the student, who was failing his class, made no effort to avoid throwing up on him. "I was just sort of stunned," he said.

Source

Good News Everyone, We Have Good Debt!

2005-07-26T05:07:00.000-04:00

Debt is not always a bad thing. In fact, there are instances where the leveraging power of a loan actually helps put you in a better overall financial position.

1. Buying a home

2. Paying for college:
It's unwise to borrow against your home to cover tuition. If you run into financial difficulties down the road, you risk losing the house.

Your best bet is to save what you can for your kids' educations without compromising your own financial health. Then let your kids borrow what you can't provide, especially if they are eligible for a government-backed Perkins or Stafford Loans, which are based on need. Such loans have guaranteed low rates; no interest payments are due until after graduation; and interest paid is tax deductible under certain circumstances.

3. Financing a car
-----------------------------
Replace "college" with law school and we can all feel somewhat better knowing that we have taken on GOOD debt. This is even better debt than college debt since we will now have marketable skills and be more employable than we were immediately after college.

In full

Cats Lack a Sweet Tooth.

2005-07-26T04:38:00.000-04:00

Cats are notoriously finicky eaters, as millions of pet owners can attest.
Now, there's a scientific theory explaining, at least in part, why cats have such snobby eating habits: genetics.

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and their collaborators said Sunday they found a dysfunctional feline gene that probably prevents cats from tasting sweets, a sensation nearly every other mammal on the planet experiences to varying degrees.

Researchers took saliva and blood samples from six cats, including a tiger and a cheetah and found each had a useless gene that other mammals use to create a "sweet receptor" on their tongues. The gene in question does not produce one of the two vital proteins needed to form the receptors.
-----------------------
Not true with my cat! The whole reason we adopted him was because he was adorable enough to approach my family because he wanted our ice cream. He also loves yogurt and has a big sweet tooth--unless there is another reason for this.

In full

I'm a Night Owl and Damn Proud.

2005-07-25T03:16:00.000-04:00

Do people take notice of the time that emails are sent when they go to read them? Do you look to see what time an email sent to you was sent? I've often wondered this.

Why?

I have taken a liking to emailing relatively important people at hours such as 3:17am or 4:48am and sometimes even a tad earlier or later. Obviously I'm not talking lame emails to friends or acquaintances but rather emails to send resumes for job listings or to ask the law school housing woman a question or ten.

The hours between 11pm and 5:30am are my prime hour. This is my equivalent to the morning or afternoon that old people brag about. 12 noon is boring but 12 midnight, and I feel like I could do anything. This is when I feel most awake and feel like taking care of any of my business. Afterall, I work retail and work relatively non-traditional hours. I cannot get things done at 2pm like a normal person.

Does the law school housing woman think I am a loser? (Actual loser status does not apply to this specific scenario) Does she think lower of me because I email her at this hour? Does she sit there and wonder just what I do at 3:17am that is so wonderful that led me to stay up and be up at such a crazy hour? Remember, she's on a "normal schedule" and I wasn't even asking about the 5:06am email either.

Perhaps she has come to expect this from a 20 something year old student. I know I can't be the only one who has emailed her at such a wack time. Even if she doesn't care about the timestamp, the timestamp can say something about a person. 3:17am email? For one, I don't sleep in the middle of the night. I also tend to worry about law school things in the middle of the night, which might be pathetic in itself.

The best part? I won't be up in the morning tomorrow. If I were to wait, then it wouldn't get sent until the afternoon and answered until Tuesday. Now, it will be waiting in her inbox right when she gets into the office for the day.

If everyone did their emailing at 3:17am or a tad earlier or later, they could enjoy this advantage as well.

3 Weeks.

2005-07-24T20:31:00.000-04:00

3 weeks from today I can move into my law school apartment.

Where did the summer go?

Are Lawyers Sexy? No.

2005-07-23T21:20:00.000-04:00

So you think you're hot stuff on the dating market because you're a rising young legal star earning megabucks at a powerhouse law firm.

Think again.

A recent survey of 5,000 people by Salary.com found that lawyers ranked 10th on a list of the top "sexiest" jobs. The top three "hot jobs" were firefighter, flight attendant and chief executive officer. Lawyers ranked just below doctors and just above veterinarians.

Even if their sex appeal is dipping, lawyers are still better endowed, financially speaking, than professionals who ranked higher in the survey.

Salary.com reports that the median salary for lawyers is more than three times that of news reporters, who ranked third on the sexy jobs list.

That means lawyers can afford to console their lonesome selves with solo trips to exotic vacation destinations, while poor but charismatic journalists must invite their dazzling dates home to dine on Ramen noodles.

But wait. News reporters ranked third, in a three-way tie with interior designers and event planners. That seems preposterous enough to invalidate the whole survey.

Source

The Days of Finding Love at Wal-Mart are Over.

2005-07-23T20:52:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart has ditched a program that helped single shoppers find love in the discount store's aisles.

Officials at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, ordered their Roanoke store to put an end to Singles Shopping, the only program of its kind at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores.

Taking a cue from Wal-Marts in Germany, the month-old program encouraged customers on Friday evenings to pick up a red bow they could place on their shopping carts as an invitation to other singles. "Flirt points" were set up in various sections of the store.

A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the reason behind the program's cancellation. But customer Dale Firebaugh, who showed up Friday night hoping to meet his match, said store employees told him several people had complained.

Source

Additional Cost of War: Age of Recruits to be Increased.

2005-07-22T14:13:00.000-04:00

Faced with major recruiting problems sparked by troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has asked Congress to raise the maximum age for U.S. military enlistees from 35 to 42 years old.

The request, sent to lawmakers this week, would apply to all active duty branches of the military services, said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, Friday. But it is aimed chiefly at the active duty Army, which has fallen far short of recruiting goals this year, by adding millions of potential enlistees.

Maybe these lawmakers should be tossed into war.

In full

Random Bag Checks to Begin in NYC.

2005-07-21T17:36:00.000-04:00

Police will begin random searches of bags and packages carried by people entering city subways, officials announced Thursday after a new series of bomb attacks in London.

Passengers carrying bags will be selected at random before they pass through turnstiles, and those who refuse to be searched won't be allowed to ride, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The announcement drew complaints from civil liberties advocates in a city where an estimated 4.5 million passengers ride the subway on an average weekday. The system has more than 468 subway stations _ most with multiple entrances _ and the flood of commuters hurrying in and out of stations during rush hour can be overwhelming.

Kelly stressed that officers posted at subway entrances would not engage in racial profiling, and that passengers are free to "turn around and leave." He also downplayed the possibility of bottlenecks at subway entrances.

I find it tough to imagine that there won't be racial profiling. There are also obvious questions that need to be asked: where is London in all of this? Why are they taking their sweet time, in light of not one but multiple bombing incidents within two weeks time?

In full

How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart.

2005-07-21T17:09:00.000-04:00

"Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish.

At Costco, one of Mr. Sinegal's cardinal rules is that no branded item can be marked up by more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more than 15 percent. In contrast, supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent, and department stores by 50 percent or more. If shareholders mind Mr. Sinegal's philosophy, it is not obvious: Costco's stock price has risen more than 10 percent in the last 12 months, while Wal-mart's has slipped 5 percent.

Mr. Sinegal, Chief Exectuive, has made Costco the nation's leading warehouse retailer, with about half of the market, compared with 40 percent for the No. 2, Sam's Club. But Sam's is not a typical runner-up: it is part of the Wal-Mart empire, which, with $288 billion in sales last year, dwarfs Costco. In the United States, its stores average $121 million in sales annually, far more than the $70 million for Sam's Clubs. And the average household income of Costco customers is $74,000 - with 31 percent earning over $100,000.

A typical Costco store stocks 4,000 types of items, including perhaps just four toothpaste brands, while a Wal-Mart typically stocks more than 100,000 types of items and may carry 60 sizes and brands of toothpastes. Narrowing the number of options increases the sales volume of each, allowing Costco to squeeze deeper and deeper bulk discounts from suppliers.

There is little love lost between Wal-Mart and Costco. Wal-Mart, for example, boasts that its Sam's Club division has the lowest prices of any retailer. Mr. Sinegal emphatically dismissed that assertion. Still, Costco is feeling the heat from Sam's Club. When Sam's began to pare prices aggressively several years ago, Costco had to shave its prices - and its already thin profit margins - ever further."

In full

Did You Know the Supreme Court is Elected?

2005-07-20T23:59:00.000-04:00

Some people are really stupid but if it weren't for them, who would entertain me?

I could spoil what was said but the the post title is enough, you need to watch for yourself.

Scroll down the page and click on "supreme jaywalking":

Supreme Jaywalking

Credit to the person who forwarded it my way.

John G. Roberts Jr. Nominated.

2005-07-19T20:10:00.000-04:00

"As a result, some conservatives have made unflattering comparisons between Roberts and Supreme Court Justice David Souter, whose short stint on the 1st Circuit before being appointed in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush failed to reveal Souter's moderate-to-liberal leanings on some issues.

Yet those who know Roberts say he, unlike Souter, is a reliable conservative who can be counted on to undermine if not immediately overturn liberal landmarks like abortion rights and affirmative action. Indicators of his true stripes cited by friends include: clerking for Rehnquist, membership in the Federalist Society, laboring in the Ronald Reagan White House counsel's office and at the Justice Department into the Bush years, working with Kenneth Starr among others, and even his lunchtime conversations at Hogan & Hartson. "He is as conservative as you can get," one friend puts it. In short, Roberts may combine the stealth appeal of Souter with the unwavering ideology of Scalia and Thomas."

A brief he wrote for President George H.W. Bush's administration in a 1991 abortion case, in which he observed that "we continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled."

That last part is most troubling.

More info

Genes Responsible for Mating Rituals.

2005-07-19T18:33:00.000-04:00

Biologists have been making considerable progress in identifying members of a special class of genes - those that shape an animal's behavior toward others of its species.

Last month researchers reported on the role of such genes in the sexual behavior of both voles and fruit flies. One gene was long known to promote faithful pair bonding and good parental behavior in the male prairie vole. Researchers discovered how the gene is naturally modulated in a population of voles so as to produce a spectrum of behaviors from monogamy to polygamy, each of which may be advantageous in different ecological circumstances.

The second gene, much studied by fruit fly biologists, is known to be involved in the male's elaborate suite of courtship behaviors. New research has established that a special feature of the gene, one that works differently in males and females, is all that is needed to induce the male's complex behavior.

The gene is called fruitless because when it is disrupted in males they lose interest in females and instead form mating chains with other males. The male's usual courtship behavior is pretty fancy for a little fly. He approaches the female, taps her with his forelegs, sings a song by vibrating his wing, licks her and curls his abdomen for mating. But the female flies with the male form of fruitless aggressively pursued other females, performing all steps of male courtship except the last.
-----------------------
Aside from finding a gene for romance and mating rituals, it looks like they might be onto something here with homosexuality as well.

For more...

Earth to Wales: No Work is "Women's Work".

2005-07-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

Too many girls in Wales are still being steered into traditional women's work, claims an equal opportunities report.

They are denied better job prospects because they lack all-round careers advice, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

The organisation claims working roles in Wales are more based on a person's gender than anywhere else in Britain. It is calling for school pupils to have the chance of work experience in jobs that challenge sexual stereotypes.

The report said that, with a few exceptions, young people in Wales were still being channelled into jobs which are seen as appropriate to their gender. It said three-quarters of Welsh women were still working in low-paid jobs in cleaning, caring, catering, clerical work and customer services, while men dominated in better-paid trades and in engineering.
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You're stuck in 1950's United States. The largest and one of the most productive nations in the world has realized that women are vital to the economy and function in many "male jobs". Get with the program and do the same.

In full

SCOTUS Nominee to be Named Tonight.

2005-07-19T17:08:00.000-04:00

President Bush tonight is expected to name his pick to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush will name his choice at 6 p.m. PDT.

McClellan did not name the successor, but there has been intense speculation that the president would name a woman to replace O'Connor, the first woman on the high court.Among the candidates most often mentioned is Judge Edith Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Here we go.

Source

Hispanic Immigration Necessary for the US Class/Caste System.

2005-07-18T23:58:00.000-04:00

The critics fear that the Hispanic wave—especially that part rolling in from Mexico, which accounts for about two-thirds of the total—is in danger of creating two nations: the existing one (which Robert Levine, in the Public Interest magazine, dubbed the “Anglo-Protestant-African-Catholic-Indian-German-Irish-Jewish-Italian-Slavic-Asian society”), and a Spanish-speaking sub-group. The new wave is unusually big, say the worriers; it is growing unusually fast, is unusually cohesive (everyone speaks Spanish) and, unlike previous waves of immigrants, it is fed by a country next door that is continually refreshing the cultural differences between Hispanic immigrants and the rest of the country.

By far the largest immigrant group now consists of Hispanics. They accounted for around half of America's total population increase between 2000 and 2004, more than in the 1990s. The Census Bureau forecasts that by 2050 the Hispanic population will have increased by 200%, the population as a whole by 50% and whites by only 30%.

This immigrant diffusion piggybacks on domestic migration and is essential to the boom in America's fastest-growing areas. Without it, cities that have attracted lots of well-educated domestic migrants would have seized up, becoming top-heavy with university graduates. Arguably, that is happening in San Francisco. But in many boomtowns, Latinos have poured in to take up the basic jobs in construction, food and distribution that cities need to back up their growth. The cities of the inland South and west are wealthy because white Americans are pouring into them. But they keep growing because immigrants are tagging along in the domestic migrants' wake.

America seems in no danger of becoming a society divided by language. In 2002, a survey by the Pew Hispanic Centre and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that over 90% of second-generation Hispanics were either bilingual or mainly English-speaking, split equally between the two. In the third generation, more than three-quarters were mainly English-speaking. In the same year, a market-research company, Cultural Access, found that young Latinos watched twice as much English-language as Spanish-language television.
------------------
Hispanic immigration, while appearing "negative" on the surface, is actually responsible for the maintenance of the class system in the United States. Someone needs to take these "lower jobs", they won't get done on their own. The standards of education today are high and keep getting higher. With a BA becoming the next HS diploma, everyone is going to want someone to perform tasks they do not want to do. This is where these immigrants come in being that they haven't had the same access as most Americans.

I call BS on the language. I'm surrounded by many different languages daily and often get asked if I speak their language. Granted I live in a "melting pot state" but if the immigration rate is becoming even higher in more secondary areas, then I know this problem cannot only be limited to where I live.

In full

London Bombing Terrorists.

2005-07-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

Strolling casually towards their grisly destiny, these are the four suicide bombers who brought hell to London's rush hour.With their payload of explosives sitting in backpacks, Hasib Hussain, 18, Mohammad Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22 and Germaine Lindsay, 19, have just hours to live.
----------------------
Dirty monsters. The rumor that you all died in the attacks should be true. You're all a bunch of dirty, worthless sub-human beings with nothing to give this world. The only regret I can imagine is that people didn't get to torture you before your death or kill you themselves.

In full

A Hint My Ass.

2005-07-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

President Bush gave the nation several clues Saturday about the person he will nominate for a seat on the Supreme Court, except for the most important one--a name. In his weekly radio address, Bush said his eventual nominee will be a "fair-minded individual who represents the mainstream of American law and American values."

His candidate also "will meet the highest standards of intellect, character and ability and will pledge to faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our country," the president said.

Source

Characteristics a Justice should have is not a hint nor is it even close to resembling one. Could you be more vague and uninformative?

Teen Burns American Flag; 1st Amendment at Issue.

2005-07-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

A teenager was jailed for nine days after being accused of burning an American flag on the Fourth of July, and he faces trial next month.

While the case could test a state statute against flag burning — an act the U.S. Supreme Court says is protected under the First Amendment — prosecutors said Andrew Elisha Staley has yet to argue that he was exercising free speech rights.

Staley, 18, is accused of taking the flag from a residence and setting it on fire. His father said the teenager "has no reason for anger against the United States" and could easily have ignited a garbage can instead of a flag.

Source
-----------------------------------
Significance of this case: A past entry on the House passing the flag burning Amendment. If this were to be enacted, this may have an effect on cases of this nature in the future.
June 22, 2005: House Approves Flag Burning Amendment

Rehnquist to Stay.

2005-07-15T04:58:00.000-04:00

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's pledge to continue working despite his thyroid cancer leaves the White House with just one Supreme Court seat to fill, suddenly changing the dynamic of the summer confirmation battle.

The prospects of a double high court vacancy had much of Washington in a frenzy. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced earlier this month that she was stepping down, and the retirement of 80-year-old Rehnquist was thought to be next.

"I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement,'' Rehnquist said in a statement first disclosed by The Associated Press late Thursday and later confirmed by the court.
----------------------------------
You just know he is gonna croak mid-session, sending the Court and the Government into disaray. To be blunt: you are ill and going to die. You can retire sans death and still get tons of media coverage and attention, you know.

In full

Jury Duty.

2005-07-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

Today was my day off from work. I planned to sleep until close to 2pm, eat lunch, blog, and watch TV. I look forward to my days off, it's my chance to re-live the months of May and June when I was essentially a housewife without any of the responsibilities.

Instead, I spent my day at jury duty.

Jury duty is fine by me but not on my day off. If it had been yesterday or even tomorrow, not only would my employer have paid me but I would have gotten to keep my jury duty check. On top of that, I would get to sit on my ass all day and learn about the jury selection process. That's nearly double the money for less work that interests me. However, luck is not my friend.

Bright and early at 8:30am, I made my way into the big jury room earlier than I have woken up all summer, even for work. They had a video on that explained what a plaintiff, a defendant, and a verdict are. Clearly, this is all stuff that I needed to know. I promptly found a seat and squeezed between someone's grandma and the man who breathed like a horse and took out Getting to Maybe. No better time to start this book than now, since they had custody of me until the end of time.

I tend to fixate on things. Once I do this, I simply cannot get over it and it will rapidly get under my skin. I immediately focused on 2 guys who just could not be ignored. Why? They were the weirdest, most off the wall people they could have summoned on Earth. In fact, i'm convinced they shipped them in from Mars for this. Lucky for me, they were both in my further broken down 28 person group.

One guy made up the most inane excuses for why he couldn't serve. I'm not even sure he really wanted out or if he had no control over his foolish mouth. He also dragged the entire process out by volunteering personal information that no one asked for and was beyond unimportant. Everyone laughed at him, right there in front of him and he was completely oblivious. The other guy was a real life nerd. I'm talking khaki's, tucked in button shirt and a pen in the pocket. He also took an interest in sitting right next to me and looking at me, sometimes smiling. Like I said, luck is not on my side.

8 hours of this and they never did randomly select my name from the box to get questioned by the attorney's. I was disappointed, I wanted to get picked and I might have been the only person in the room that did. Despite the fact that being a future law student might have hurt me, I remained optimistic. They picked all the jurors they needed before they got to me, which made this day somewhat of a waste and a letdown.

I do know how to select a jury for a personal injury/car accident lawsuit case now though.

A lawsuit case, how fitting.

Competition Shop Your Way To The Top.

2005-07-13T19:38:00.000-04:00

What is competition shopping or comp shopping?
It is when employees go to other stores in the area and check what their prices are so that they can then price the same products accordingly. Further broken down, a member of each department will go to the stores that carry their products since that is obviously their area and this is the efficient way to do it.

Why comp shop?
Wal-Mart's motto is "always low prices". So obviously their goal is to have low prices and to have them as low as they can and still turn a profit. It appears that they do this to also make sure that not only are their prices low but that they are the lowest out of all of their competitors. Everyone wants to have the lowest prices out there and this is the best way to make sure that you do.

Why don't competitors do it?
Who says they don't? I haven't seen any activity that would lead me to believe that comp shopping has gone on. However that doesn't mean that it hasn't been done. If a store has higher prices, it could be that they simply cannot go lower. All they can hope to do is comp shop so that they have the lowest prices that they can and offer that to already loyal customers. Why can't they do it? They just don't get the volume and variety of customers to cover all profit making bases. Basically, they don't make the cash to cover such cuts in price.

Is comp shopping underhanded?
No. While I have heard of instances where employees were asked to leave a store after they were seen and/or suspected of comp shopping, it by itself does not bring any trouble. The store does have the right to throw them out since it is their store however there is nothing stopping them from coming to our store and doing the same thing (aside from maybe being thrown out?). This is the same thing is a gas station lowering their price below the guy across the street. Sure it's a large publicly displayed outdoor sign but basing your price on what theirs is, is comp shopping. The same goes for getting a competitors circular in the weekend newspaper. This same employee could be shopping on there on their day off and remember a price even if they didn't go there for that specific purpose. Prices are public knowledge and because of that, it cannot be underhanded.

Some businesses, like Wal-Mart, can take the initial loss and still gain huge. Others cannot make the same sacrafices, otherwise they would. That's how it goes in the world of business.

Retire. Now.

2005-07-13T17:42:00.000-04:00

"Chief Justice William Rehnquist was taken to a hospital for observation and tests overnight after complaining of a fever, a U.S. Supreme Court spokeswoman said Wednesday. An ambulance took Rehnquist to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington on Tuesday night, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. Arberg gave no indication when the 80-year-old justice, who has been battling thyroid cancer, would be released."

Click for more

Court isn't in session but you obviously could not perform job functions to the best of your abilities in this condition. In the real world, you would most likely be shown the door.

Bush is a Mad Man.

2005-07-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has attacked President George W. Bush in a speech and accused him of damaging the economy by overspending while giving tax cuts to the rich.

The Democrat from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton also accused Bush of depriving US soldiers of equipment needed to fight the war in Iraq and cutting funding for scientific research.

“I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Newman is in charge in Washington,” Clinton said referring to the freckle-faced character in the satirical Mad magazine. She described Bush’s attitude toward tough issues with Newman’s catchphrase: “What, me worry?”

When it came to the economy, Clinton accused the Bush administration of focusing on helping the wealthy while hurting the middle class, which she said has been key to Americans’ success and stability. She said the middle class is now being threatened by an ailing economy caused by the growing national debt, growing healthcare costs, the loss of pensions and the loss of manufacturing diversity.

Source

Bill for Permanent Patriot Act Proposed.

2005-07-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a bill yesterday that would make the controversial USA Patriot Act permanent, but he balked at including some new powers sought by the Bush administration.

The proposal includes 16 provisions set to expire at the end of this year unless they are renewed or made permanent by Congress. But the proposed legislation does not go as far as legislation approved in June by the Senate intelligence committee, which voted to make it easier for the FBI to open mail and issue subpoenas without a judge's approval in terrorism probes. Sensenbrenner's bill also calls for stronger oversight of some of the government's powers.

"Although the House Judiciary Committee's base bill does not expand the Patriot Act in the unwise and unwarranted way the Senate Intelligence Committee proposed, it can and must be modified to ensure that Patriot powers are focused on terrorists and not ordinary Americans," Graves said in a statement.

Sensenbrenner's bill would repeal expiration dates on all the provisions of the Patriot Act that are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year. Those include a controversial section that allows the FBI to obtain without a warrant a wide range of records from financial companies and other institutions, including libraries, in terrorism probes. The bill also makes permanent two separate provisions from last year's intelligence reform package that clarified the definition of "material support" for terrorism and made it easier to monitor "lone wolf" suspects unaffiliated with a terrorist group or country. But the proposal also would tighten some of the requirements that must be met by the FBI in obtaining business records and would establish a judicial review process that allows a judge to set them aside.

Source

Average American Doesn't Work at Work.

2005-07-12T14:19:00.000-04:00

The average American worker admits to wasting 2.09 hours per day at work, not counting lunch. So says a recent Web survey by America Online and Salary.com.

While most human-resource managers expect the average employee to waste about an hour a day, the results of this survey were startling. These 2.09 hours per person per day add up to $759 billion in salaries. Of the 10,044 people who responded, 44.7% cited personal Internet use, such as email, IM-ing or games, as the No. 1 time-waster at work.

I strive to one day become one of these people.

Source

Uproar Over Pot Flavored Lollipops.

2005-07-11T02:03:00.000-04:00

The new lollipop is called 'Chronic Candy' and it's made to taste like marijuana. Critics of the product say it's one more way to make illegal drugs seem cool. The little lollipops really are made to taste like marijuana, but there is no THC in them, which is the active ingredient in pot that gets you high.

The ad campaign for the pot-flavored pops is almost more shocking than the candy itself, using pictures of marijuana and slogans that make parents cringe, such as "tell a friend, not a cop," and "every lick is like taking a hit." "Every lick is like taking a hit, that's nice. And then of course, the packaging is called nickel bag. I mean, that's uncalled for," said parent Wade Marr. He says his is not kid candy. "I don't want it in kids' hands. It's not meant for kids. It's an adult thing." But experts say, if the makers think kids won't get their hands on this product, they must be high.

Source

The Breakroom: What is Exciting About Work.

2005-07-10T18:21:00.000-04:00

All the good and juicy stuff happens in the employee lunch room.

The Good:
SITTING
Grabbing something to drink
Eating lunch/dinner or a snack
Sleeping since there is no time to do it during non working hours

The Juicy:
Gossip

I have to admit, i'm a sucker for gossip but with good reason. I spend all day stocking shelves, climbing ladders, lifting junk, cleaning up after people--then cleaning up after them again, repeatedly for 8 solid hours, directing customers, avoiding customers, finding reasons to hide behind a shelf in order to not be seen so I can grab a moment to myself etc. Plopping myself down in the breakroom and getting a little entertainment is all I have going for me.

There is this guy that eats a lot. I mean A LOT. We're talking like 2 tacos, 2 burritos, 2 desserts and from the gossip I hear, this is a light day. The guy is already an urban legend. 12 hamburgers for one meal, 10 hotdogs for another, I don't know if people are embellishing slightly but I have witnessed him in action. He is a decent guy and I feel bad for him but I can't help but stare. It has gotten to the point, in my short time back at Wal-Mart, that I hope he is there when I am so I can catch the next installment of this saga. I hope for his sake he can turn this around. There is plenty of gossip to be heard, he can stop being a part of it.

Blogs Will Influence SCOTUS Nomination(s).

2005-07-09T03:08:00.000-04:00

Political groups preparing to battle over the first U.S. Supreme Court nomination in 11 years have a powerful new tool -- Internet blogs -- to spread information quickly and influence decision makers without relying on traditional media.

Web logs likely numbering in the dozens provide a way for the thoughtful and the passionate to publish their views. Politicians are taking notice as they prepare for the first high court nomination fight since the Internet became common in American households.

Blogs and similar forums have been around since the early days of the Internet, but only in the last year have they begun to have an impact on public opinion and lawmakers, congressional staffers and bloggers said.

(s)= There will be more nominations when Rehnquist ceases to be stubborn and drag out the inevitable in order to gain attention.

In full

Roller Coaster Ride of Crude Oil Prices.

2005-07-08T21:58:00.000-04:00

Source

Everyday the price of a barrel of oil seems to change but what has remained constant is that it is expensive. Who can keep up with all the daily fluctuations in price?

Above is a graph of the price changes for your convenience.

Quit Being a Douche.

2005-07-08T21:30:00.000-04:00

When asked by one reporter Friday if any speculation about his resignation is true, Rehnquist said: "That's for me to know and you to find out."

We all know you're retiring, so just do it. What are you waiting for? A written invitation? This must be some kind of game to him.

Article on the topic

That's a Lawsuit Featured on the Blog "Always Low Prices".

2005-07-08T02:05:00.000-04:00

I added a link to the Wal-Mart blog a couple of days ago. There are trillions of blogs out there and I got to thinking. I was curious if anyone out there blogged about Wal-Mart. With all the faux-bashing that goes on, how could there not be at least one blog?

You should check it out, it's pretty good stuff.

The author of that blog took interest in one of my posts:
Link to the entry this blog has been featured in

2006 Official Guide to ABA Law Schools Released.

2005-07-07T22:27:00.000-04:00

Thank god this no longer really applies to me but here it is:

ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools

Terrorists Strike London.

2005-07-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

Three explosions rocked the London subway and one tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday. The blasts killed at least two people and injured about 190 in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called a series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks.

Blair said it was clear the attacks were designed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The prime minister said the meeting of world leaders would continue but that he would return to London.

A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility for the blasts, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Web statement, republished on the site of the German magazine Der Spiegel, could not be immediately confirmed.
------------------------------------
Anyone that would do this is a terrorist. People also cannot be feeling good about the Olympics now. They are not for seven years though and hopefully this will just step up their security that much.

Barbaric

Bloggers Not Protected Journalists Under the Shield Law.

2005-07-07T02:27:00.000-04:00

The definition of "journalist" fomented by internet media and bloggers is reaching new heights as a group of influential senators rallies to pass the nation's first federal reporter's shield law.
If enacted, the measure could protect journalists from jail terms for refusing to give prosecutors the names of anonymous sources. But, depending on the wording of the final bill, it may not apply to online reporters, including legions of unaccredited bloggers.

Reporter-shield legislation failed last year, and a pair of new bills has been languishing in committee despite garnering bipartisan support from a few dozen representatives and senators.

HR 581 and an identical Senate bill, S340, are gaining momentum, thanks in part to a high-profile case involving an anonymous source who allegedly unveiled the identity of an undercover CIA agent. The controversy came to a head this week, when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand without review a lower court's ruling ordering two news organizations to hand over confidential information to prosecutors. As written, the bills would appear to leave out not just bloggers, but all freelance journalists "without contracts or those who publish solely on the web," according to a summary by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.
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Use caution before blogging. Exercising your First Amendment rights can be used against you if you say something that could trigger the government to want know who or what your "anonymous sources" are.

In full

Ease Up on Wal-Mart: Expanded.

2005-07-06T09:25:00.000-04:00

I already did a write up on why I am right and Wal-Mart bashers are wrong.
(June 11, 2005: Editorial: Ease Up on Wal-Mart)

Now there are even more reasons mounted against haters:
http://ragingpundits.com/?p=471

Wal-Mart Making AA in Law Firms a Priority.

2005-07-06T03:12:00.000-04:00

Law firms that pack their lower ranks with minorities and women while leaving white men in charge are about to find Wal-Mart a tough customer. The nation's biggest retailer wants to see diversity at the top. The company's general counsel has told its top 100 law firms that at least one person of color and one woman must be among the top five relationship attorneys that handle its business.

The move by Wal-Mart appeared to answer two of the big questions posed at the symposium that drew about 400 lawyers from around the country: Do general counsel at large companies consider the number of women and minority lawyers employed by outside counsel when deciding whom to hire -- and will they move business away from firms that remain overwhelmingly white and male?

Once the retailing giant gets lists of attorneys from its outside firms, due in mid-July, it will start weeding accordingly, Wal-Mart GC Thomas Mars said. "We'll be making more decisions to retain and terminate firms [at that point]," he said. "We are terminating a firm right now strictly because of their inability to grasp our diversity expectations," he added.

Wal-Mart's new policy signals a growing determination by corporate legal departments to pressure outside counsel. It is no longer enough, the general counsel at the symposium said, to raise the numbers of women and minority lawyers in a firm's lower ranks if its upper echelons remain an exclusive club for white men.

Source and full story

Summer Job: Day #1.

2005-07-06T00:39:00.000-04:00

Tonight I started back at my former job from last summer. New position but they fit me right in considering the only reason I left was because I was working towards not working there ever again, aside from this summer of course.

The worst part of all of this: they are making me start over from the beginning. I had to watch all the videos about the rise of the company and how to not pull my back out. That one in particular made me want to stab myself in the eye, or should I say back. If the guy doing the demonstrations was a doctor, why was he wearing a vest from the store? Was he a doctor and a cashier too? He wasn't even adhering to the alleged "dress code". Every worthless form I filled out applies to people after 6 months of employment and I will be there 6 weeks, if that.

Everyone in my "training group" was a trainwreck too, just like last summer. One guy kept making sounds in my ear and 2 other kids wouldn't stop making wise ass comments and asking things such as "if I work for 6.5 hours, how many hours do I get paid for?".

To the other kid who kept stretching and nearly punched me in the face and knew this but for some reason continued to do it for 4 solid hours, you got on my last nerve during hour 2 of this ordeal. Had you made contact with my face, I might have threatened a lawsuit.

Bush to Nominate a Woman to the Court?

2005-07-05T15:23:00.000-04:00

America's first female Supreme Court justice is now retiring from the bench and is known for playing down the impact of her "femaleness" in her approach to work.

But as President Bush considers Justice O'Connor's replacement, gender is very much an issue. If he replaces O'Connor with a man, the high court goes back to eight men and one woman, hardly a balance that looks like America.

However, Bush faces little outside pressure to replace O'Connor with another woman - largely because the most vocal interest groups, from both the left and the right, are focused on how the nominee might rule on various hot-button issues as opposed to their gender. As soon as O'Connor announced her resignation, the White House made clear it would consider women nominees.
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Ideology may matter more than gender but there is certainly a correlation between gender and ideology. Who a person is, including the challenges they face being a certain gender, have a strong impact on the person that they become and the views and beliefs that they hold. O'Connor, even if not viewed as just a female, did bring female viewpoints to the table and this could be, in part, the reasons she acted in certain ways. To say that ideology matters more than gender is correct in part but does not even begin to crack the surface.

In full

Mail Call.

2005-07-05T14:42:00.000-04:00

Today in the mail I received my Bachelor's Degree. I suppose this means I actually did graduate. It is not that I didn't think I would but checking the status of your requirements is like trying to read something in a different language while wearing a blindfold. Some people and I were convinced that like a cliche wedding movie, someone was going to come running down the aisle at graduation and yell reasons why we could not in fact graduate. Perhaps a part of us hoped that would happen so that we wouldn't have to let go of the four best years of our lives. Now that I am holding my degree, which is suprisingly of a decent quality considering that some classes could not afford to give me a syllabus those last two years (even the best of state schools are still state schools on state budgets), I am actually a college graduate.

Being a college graduate officially, I am now one step closer to being "qualified" (and I say that hesitantly) to begin law school. The law school also sent me a piece of mail today as well. They spent .37 cents on a card on my summertime confirmation of enrollment plans.

Paranoid. I always thought I was paranoid but this is even a step above that. I had paid seat deposits, housing deposits, tuition down payments, and they even just certified the last of my 5 figure loan requests. Despite some friendly warnings, I am clearly going.

Economics of the 4th of July.

2005-07-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

List of foods Americans are more likely to consume on Independence Day than on an average day:

Potato salad: 540 percent more likely to eat it on July 4 than on an average day.
Baked beans: 357 percent more likely.
Hot dogs: 210 percent.
Ice cream sodas and floats: 200 percent.
Hamburgers: 117 percent.
Macaroni and other pasta salads: 150 percent.

The prices on many of these foods have dropped recently, according to the Farm Bureau Survey released in June. For example, ground chuck fell 20 cents per pound since March to $2.21.

The United States imported $172.5 million worth of fireworks last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. American flags? The Census Bureau reports that the United States imported more than $5.2 million dollars worth of American flags in 2004, again mostly from China. American manufacturers shipped a mere $851,000 worth of American flags overseas.

We import American flags. I'm sorry, I know we outsource now but something about that strikes me as just being downright wrong.

Full story and breakdown

Independence Day.

2005-07-04T05:08:00.000-04:00

Today's terrorism threat level: It is a holiday and a United States specific one at that. I would say it's at severe x 347 .

Inane Thoughts on Law School Mailings.

2005-07-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

I don't know if i'm alone in noticing this:

Whenever a law school is asking if you are withdrawing your interest or enrollment in their program, they are more than willing to foot the bill. They include a postage paid card that you can easily slip in the mailbox and be done with them for good. It seems that they simply cannot wait to get you off their hands so that they can track down less people.

If you actually want to go there and pay the $150K however, they do not pay for the postage. You would think that if you were actually going and giving them tons of money at that, they would at least extend the same favor. Nope. They do not have to, after all of those loans, are you really going to care about .37 cents here and .37 cents there?

Now, does this have more to do with the fact that a postcard is cheaper or do they figure once you are going, they can get you for every last cent?
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Spoiler: In the future, I am looking to do a post on a similar topic.

Never a Dull Moment.

2005-07-03T19:44:00.000-04:00

I am laying in bed earlier with my headphones on, drowning out the world around me, minding my own business and enjoying my solitude.

My mother punches the door, and before I even knew what just happened, barges in screaming, "I broke my glasses, can you fix my glasses?!"

What am I, a goddamn LensCrafters?

F*ck Censorship.

2005-07-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

The BBC has issued an apology after many viewers complained that stars such as Madonna and Snoop Dogg used profanity during their performances at the Live 8 concert.

Too bad. There is a little something called the First Amendment. Granted, the people who were bitching were from Britain (which might be a whole seperate thing on it's own) so that does not apply. However in order to appease one group of people by not allowing certain things to be said, you are infrining on another persons freedom as a human being to express themselves how they wish. How do you decide who wins out? You need to strike a balance somehow but anyway you slice it, someone will be sacraficing some of their liberty. Censorship is the worst but life is full of compromises--not apologies.

Censored

Our Future.

2005-07-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Better get used to it.