24 Hours to Go

This seems appropriate:

What We Need More Of Is Science

Water + Cornstarch + Subwoofer = Awesome

NDA

For real this time, guys.

Trapped in Amber

Important Note: Recent decisions, like Heller discussed below, are NOT tested on the bar exam.

Trevor, stop reading the news.

Individual Gun Rights

It amazes me how far to the right I've moved on gun control in the last few years, but the recent decision in Heller strikes me as entirely reasonable. Scalia is way less entertaining than usual when he's being reasonable, but one takes what one can get.

Honors and Signaling

What's that? The DOJ under Bush systematically excluded left-of-center applicants from the DOJ honors program? The Federalist Society is a vehicle for affirmative action for conservatives? This is me not surprised.

Most Original Blawg Post Ever

Studying for the bar? Sucks.

Totally sucks.

Without A Net

1. I graduated! See shiny new title above.

2. I just quit the firm. 3 months before I even started. I still think it's a great place and would still be there in a minute, but I was seduced away from my legal career before it even began by some crafty financial services wizards, who used the cunning technique of getting my best friends from college to recruit me.

So, now the real fun begins.

Astronauts and Marriage

All oxygen tanks and massive bespoke shoes.

Literacy

Dang. I have read, like, no books ever.

Arrogance

I don't bring my laptop to Bar/Bri class, because this is my first an only opportunity to learn many important points of legal doctrine. Like, say, what exactly is a "tort." Not everyone takes things so seriously. Today, a student a few rows in front of me was confident enough in his mastery of the Duty of Care that he spent the lecture playing Doom on his laptop.

Cloud Pedant

Real graffiti from SFist:

The Giant Pool Of Money

This American Life, of all places, has a great story about the housing crisis and credit crunch that breaks it down more clearly and thoroughly than I've seen anywhere else.

Ganstagrass

Their severs are crawling under the load from Boing Boing, but I can't really complain since that's how I found them too. Head over to Ganstagrass.com, where the self-titled hip-hop-slash-bluegrass album is available for free download. A few seconds into the first track and you'll know – these guys are doing something right.

Batman and Iron Man

It's Movie Tuesday!

Elizabeth Warren on the Collapse of the Middle Class

I'm a little disappointed I went through my time here without having the opportunity to take a class form Warren. I can only take some solace from knowing that I have been able to meet her dog Otis, and he's awesome.

Michael Pollan at Google

The author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food at the Mountain View campus:

One Sentence Movie Review: Iron Man

Iron Man is the best superhero movie ever made, except for The Incredibles.

The End

And just like that, it's over. I'm done with law school!

And Then There Was One

In eight hours and four minutes, I will be done with law school. Bring it on, Terry.

Photo Outrage: Ur Doin It Rong

The Daily Show tells me that everyone's all upset that the popular star of a Disney kids' show posed for sexy pictures in a magazine, and she's only 14. I agree that the pictures are gross. But not because of her bare shoulder. They're gross because she looks like The Joker:

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.

Try Out For Parody!

Can you act? Can you sing? Can you dance? Audition for the Parody! It is without question the most fun you can have in law school. Come be a part of this year's show, already being hailed by critics as "one of the funniest ever" and "in a class of its own."

Hey everyone-

The script is nearly ready and it's fantastic. The first few songs are already transcribed, dances are starting to be choreographed and the directors are working with set direction to create the look of this year's show. It's time for the 2008 Parody and we can't wait to have all your talented selves back onstage.

It's official- the 2L/3L tryout times for this year's Parody are:
Friday, January 18th from 6pm to 11pm
Saturday, January 19th from 11am to 6pm

Tryout sessions will start at the beginning of each half-hour, and will take place on the third floor of Pound Hall. Please send Pat McHenry, our wonderful stage manager, your preferred tryout times (ideally give a range or a couple of options) at p mchenry at law dot harvard dot edu.

If you are absolutely unable to attend one of these sessions, we will have a limited number of spots available during 1L tryouts on January 28th and 29th from 3:30-9pm.

Hope everyone's having a great winter term- we can't wait to see you soon,

Andrew and Kees

The Right to Exclude

Having liberals sabotage the Michigan Republican primary by voting Romney sounds like a lot of fun, but it's also the kind of thing that makes open primaries unconstitutional.

Which is kinda too bad.

Elitism

I love it when judges slip for a minute and betray some great disdain for juries. Even better when it's tinged with envy for their counterparts overseas unencumbered by the unwashed masses:

It is a quiddity of our law that a well and thoroughly reasoned decision reached by a highly skilled and scientifically informed justice of the Patent Court, Chancery Division, in the High Court of Justice of Great Britain after four weeks of trial must be ignored and essentially the same issues with the same evidence must now be retried by American jurors with no background in science or patents, whose average formal education will be no more than high school.

Cuno Inc. v. Pall Corporation, 729 F.Supp. 234 (E.D.N.Y. 1989).

Why I Support Obama

Yes, some of it is spite at the media monopoly of Baby Boomer narratives after 40 goddamn years already. See below. But not all of it. Fundamentally, it's because I think you have to strike while the iron is hot. Obama can see the fire, and he brings the biggest hammer. Watch:



Anybody can win. I want to win big.

Where's Your Baby Boom Now?

Booyah, old people. Booyah.