I Have A Problem

Everyone else has more serious things to worry about, but with my semester all but over (five pages to write for Thursday, and then only one exam) I have been apartment hunting on Craigslist somewhat ... obsessively. I made bookmarks of the two neighborhood searches I run so that I can do one-click refreshes, which has me checking for new listsings, judging from my browser history, literally every five minutes. I have a problem.

Cheeseburger Symphony

I'm writing papers tonight, and to help me focus I've got Pandora going in the background, playing a station keyed around Mozart. I just tabbed through the window a minute ago, and the entire screen is taken over by a large, full-color ad that has become the dashboard for my internet radio station. Pandora, famous for its meticulous assessments of users' musical taste and exhaustive taxonomy of musical styles, decided that the product most closely associated with Mozart was Wendy's new Spicy Baconator™ double bacon cheeseburger with jalepeños:



I don't even want to know what targeted advertising will come up on my Wagner channel.

Unrestricted Interrogation of Minors Not Yet Shown to Have Engaged in Culpable Behaviors

Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule have posted Unrestricted Interrogation of Minors Not Yet Shown to Have Engaged in Culpapble Behaviors on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Relatively unsophisticated analysis of the problem of unrestricted interrogation of minors who have not been demonstrated to have engaged in culpable behaviors often begins with the assumption that such potentially harsh interrogation would violate a deontic obligaton. This kind of moral objection to the harsh interrogative techniques frequently depends on a distinction between acts and omissions, but that distinction is misleading in this context, because government is a special kind of moral agent. Moral objections based on deontic obligations depend on a distinction between acts and omissions, but that distinction is inapplicable to actions by the state for which the obligation to prevent harm stands on an equal footing with the obligation not to cause harm.

...

From the Legal Theory Blog via Julian Sanchez.

Spring?

My weather report says today's high in Boston is a balmy 64 degrees.

Naturally, I suspect a trap.

From His Bracket to God's Ears

Obama picks Stanford to beat Pitt and make the Final Four

Cross-Registration Thought of the Day

Writing a business plan is WAY less fun than writing a motion for summary judgment.

John McCain Has An Extra Gallon of Windshield Washer Fluid If You Need It

johnmccainisyourjalopy.com

Kenneth Mack Facts

This will only be funny to Section 6, or at least someone who's taken Property from Mack. But if that's you, it will be really funny.

Sunstein to HLS

Cass Sunstein, who taught me administrative law when he was visiting last year, has accepted a permanent position at Harvard.

I've already written how despite my early skepticism, everyone should take administrative law. Still, a fair warning: I know at least two classmates who went straight to the "recommended prerequisites" box on the course evaluations forms for Sunstein's class and wrote in "Admin."

Football Textualism

BUCK: There’s a call that won’t make Giants fans very happy.

AIKMAN: No, but the rule clearly states that the player must be completely off the field before the ball was snapped, and it’s also pretty clear that Blackburn was just short. It’s a tough break for the Giants, but still, it was the right call.

BUCK: Sure, but he was sprinting to the sideline, and nearly made it. It’s not as if he was standing out there on the field trying to be some kind of unnoticed extra blocker on the coverage.

AIKMAN: Fair enough, but the rule doesn’t recognize those niceties. You’re either on the field or you’re off, and the only ambiguity, so far as I can see, is whether you can be off the field if you’re in the air but still hovering briefly within the field of play.

BUCK: But Troy, aren’t you reading the letter of the rule at the expense of its spirit? There’s no sense in which Blackburn was part of the play. His being a step shy of the sideline had no material effect whatsoever on the punt or its return.

AIKMAN: Joe, I gotta disagree with you on principle here. The letter of the rule just is its spirit. You’re either on the field or you’re not. We don’t want to open this up to infinitely-nuanced judgment calls from the officiating staff as to whether a player who belatedly realizes he needs to get off the field has removed himself sufficiently from the play in what you call a “material” sense. You need a clear-cut rule for things like this or the sport just won’t work.

Read the rest at Crooked Timber.

Giants 17, Patriots 14

This look won't leave my face:

Hulkobamamania!

Hulk Hogan endorses Obama:

But does he have what it takes to win the Eliminator?

BREAKING: Ray Smuckles Taps TPHS Alum Tony Hawk for VP Slot

Today's Achewood.

Really, the whole election storyline beginning here has been hysterical.

The Real Chuck Nesson

Talking poker on the Colbert Report:

Cloverfield

All you need to know about the movie is from the last two sentences of the New York Times review:

Like too many big-studio productions, “Cloverfield” works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt.

Rarely have I rooted for a monster with such enthusiasm.

Heath Ledger, 1979-2008

As my roommate says, "What's going on with celebrities all of a sudden?"

Rambo Inflation

Data via Marginal Revolution:

Number of people killed per minute in the Rambo series.

* Rambo: First Blood (1982): 0.01

* Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985): 0.72

* Rambo III (1988): 1.30

* Rambo IV (2008): 2.59

Miracles, etc.

Andrea is totally putting a whole new person into the world. We should wish her well.

Deep Cover

John Rogers (not the one I know) has got his hands on the best CIA interview ever. Go read it.


Believe in heroes.

Rematch!

San Diego 28, Indianapolis 24.

Bring it on, Patriots.