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.

Mutilate Your Thirst

Priorities

Via ATL, this motion to continue at trial on the grounds that it conflicts with the LSU-OSU game is pretty awesome.

Head Tracking with the Wii

The End of the World

Rent to Own

Merrill Lynch's expectations for the housing market:

But with the sales backdrop still softening, they may have to slice their construction plans by another 30% before we hit bottom on a cyclical basis. And, that bottom could be as long as a year away. Beyond that, weak demographic fundamentals point to years of sluggish real estate activity, particularly in terms of the “price”. The looming dominance of the “move down” buyer suggests that home values will continue to soften long after the building industry mops up the current excess supply. In fact, real estate pricing in general can be expected to be in the doldrums through 2012.

Which, conveniently, is the first year that my net worth will become non-negative.

That's a scary thought.

Finito

Also, I finished my last exam (Copyright). I am outta here. Touchdown in San Diego at 8:10 p.m. PST.

The Death of the 3L Paper

This is the best news in a long time:

All J.D. students are required to produce either

(1) a substantial research paper of publishable or otherwise professional quality, to be written in close consultation with a faculty advisor, in conjunction with a seminar or workshop (for an addition of 1, 2, or 3 credits), or through independent study or the January Term writing program (for 2 or 3 credits); a 3-Credit project should have the scope and ambition commensurate with a 3-credit course, and students electing 3 credits should make sure that this would not cause them to exceed the 12-credit limit on writing credits nor interfere with their plans to pursue cross-registered and clinical courses, the credits for which, along with writing credits, count toward the 16 non-law-school-classroom credits students may take for degree credit.

or

(2) two pieces of writing of a different sort from those encompassed in (1), which could include any of the following, provided that at least one of the pieces was written under the supervision of a faculty member or clinical instructor:

a. lawyers work product: this category would include substantial writing in a clinic, upper-level moot court briefs, or the equivalent, as certified by the supervisor of the relevant program, but not written work from a summer job or paid work;

b. law school course and seminar papers: substantial writing as part of a course or seminar, including the standard series of reaction papers, amounting to no less than 15 pages;

c. law journal writing: including notes, book reviews, descriptions of developments in the law, and the like (totaling no less than 10 publishable pages);

d. nontraditional writing produced under faculty supervision: this might include interactive web-based material, surveys of students or practitioners with analysis, case study materials appropriate for classroom use, or other law-related writing outside of the forms mentioned above.

Everyone winds up writing plenty of long papers for various classes and activities, and tacking another extra long paper requirement onto the tail end of 3L year was just gratuitous, especially for those of us who have no interest in pursuing an academic career. I was going to have to come up with some 30-40 page research paper and bash my brains out trying to write it over the course of next semester.

Now, I don't have to.

Hooray!

Take Admin

It was rough at the time and seemed hopelessly obscure, but one short semester later I can already tell you that taking Administrative Law was one best things I have done to deepen my understanding of how tings actually work. Insights form Admin have helped me in all of my classes this semester, including the venture capital class I took at the business school.

I normally hate on the standard curriculum, which most people seem to take unthinkingly, but please forgive this momentary lapse into earnestness: take Admin.

This Time It's Serious

Boston finally decided to stop playing around and snow for real.

Naturally, we received an e-mail informing us that finals will continue unaffected:

Dear Students:

Just to confirm, exams will take place today as scheduled. Given that most students can reach the school by foot or by public transportation, the Law School has traditionally held exams in the snow without disruption.

Update: The business school, where I am this afternoon for a final presentation, is completely shut down. There's talk of canceling project presentations and doing them again in the spring.

Foxboro Hot Tubs

Been listening to this all week on my ipod. Supposed to be Green Day's new secret side project, only not so secret I guess. Either way, good music, and free, too.

1-900-Turing-Test

Russian chat bots con personals seekers out of their credit card numbers

Barack Obollywood

The lip syncing is awesome, but for my money the best part is the dance at 1:25.

The Race is Over. You Are All Winners.

0 pages still to write. 4 hours until deadline.

Who wants shots?

The Race Is On

15 pages still to write. 28 hours until deadline.

Ready, Go!

Finals

Suck.

But you know this.

A Question of Discipline

One of the professors in my awesome cross-registered course is a medical school professor, and will be teaching a class in the spring called "Human Disease." This brings to mind two questions:

1) Isn't that a fairly broad topic for a one-semester course?

2) What exactly were the med students learning last semester?

Imagine the Harvard Alumni Association With an Army

Westerners think the Communist Party still has something to do with political ideology. You know there is no political philosophy in China except prosperity. The Communist Party is basically a gigantic Skull and Bones. It is one of the social networks its members use to build wealth together.

David Brooks has a quite good column on China.

Heroes Finale

Sigh. For a moment there, it looked like they were going to take the series in a really interesting direction. I confess, I got my hopes up.

It's probably just as well. Given that Heroes watching is now a drinking game in my household (take a drink any time something stupid happens, which is often) it's just as well. They probably couldn't have pulled it off.

Blogger Ethics

MPRE results are out. According to the scaled score, I am nearly twice as ethical as required by the state of California.

Social Networking

From icanhascheezburger.com, the best I've seen in a long time.

World Traveler Points!

I got turned away from a Red Cross blood drive today because I have been in a Malaria zone within the last 12 months.

TMI

I just received the following weird, creepy e-mail:

Trevor,

Zipcar and Flexcar merged. Now we're working 'round the clock to turn Flexcars into Zipcars and Flexcar members into Zipsters.

Who better to bestow savory bits of wisdom upon our newest additions than you, a Zipcar pro?

Its a busy time of year (don't we know it) and we won't keep you long -- just five short questions and you're done. Thanks in advance for the help. Check out the survey here.

The whole Zipcar team

There's nothing weird or creepy about the text, and I have used Zipcar's fine service several times with happy results. The only problem was the subject of the e-mail was "Afterglow".

Marketing directors of America, I implore you. I do not want to be burdened with mental images of C Corporations copulating.

Thank you. That is all.

Endearing Neurosis

Like most of my cohort, I've drifted out of the law blogger scene, but I just got a hot new tip from Ken and I figured I'd pass it along. Good stuff. Endearing Neurosis.

Snow

I fully endorse Andrea's thoughts on the current situation.

Huckabee Facts

A World Without Writers

You Are Hella Smart

Get a Cash Advance

Copyright Reform

From xkcd.

Support the WGA

Work continues on the Parody script, because it's for us and not for some media company. We're not getting paid anyway, except in the adoration of our fans. And beer.

But Mom's a union organizer and I support the strike, even if it's taking away all of my beloved shows. It helps that they're, you know, right. The crew from the Office:



More at the United Hollywood blog.

Art

We The Robots

Fire

My parents were in one of the evacuation zones, but I've been checking the maps and it looks like the fire didn't come to close to our house.

The Blog is Dead - Long Live the Blog

I'm not saying there will never be another post. But I am saying you may be a fool to expect one. It's been real, y'all.

Trevor

Update in response to comments: post frequency and quality have both been in decline for some time. I'm putting this out of its misery. The blog was originally intended as a creative release, and I have since found other, more satisfying outlets. Plus, I somehow got very busy. I used to feel compelled to write here, now it feels like a chore. I'm tired of feeling guilty about not writing up stories. And the I'm-a-new-law-student angle is played out.

I reserve, of course, the right to totally change my mind and create a new blog in a month or so.

Update: I have an addictive personality. Reincarnation!

Grandma at the Movies

I really love Jeremy Blachman's posts about his grandma's opinion of the new releases.

Boo. Yah.

John Harvard, Master Chief

I didn't see it when it was up, but it makes me happy to live in a world where MIT students dress up the John Harvard statue to look like a character from Halo 3.

Iran So Far

Aw hell, why not:

That's just a really well-executed genre parody. I used to roll my eyes at slashies like Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, and Justin Timberlake trying to make crossover careers taht spanned several entertainment media. But the more time I spend on Parody stuff, the more appreciation I have for the tradition of trying to do everything in show business, and the respect I have for people with that across the board singing/acting/dancing experience to make them balanced performers. Which is all a long of of saying that Andy Samberg has some serious chops.

And Matt Holliday Still Hasn't Touched Home

Goddamn Rockies.

Jets v. Buffalo

Trent Edwards is looking pretty great. Go Cardinal (alumni)!

Finbarr Fest '08

Tomorrow, September 25, is St. Finbarr's day. Finbarr was an Irish saint, and his day is also the anniversary of the founding of U2 and the breaking of ground on Fenway park. It is incidentally the day Congress passed the bill of rights. Clearly, as law students in Boston, we have a moral obligation to observe this oft-forgotten holiday.

Meet at the Hark at lunchtime. Bring beer.

Can Bill Simmons Save Friday Night Lights?

He's already trying. I hope it works.

Sunday Morning Lights

The Blue Thunder Squids: XXX-treme Edition are 2-0 after this morning's win. And the internets are teaching me advanged new techniques to customize this year's jerseys. Posterboard and Krylon may not cut it this year.

And Then You Win

Here's my hometown mayor, Jerry Sanders, explaining why he decided to break an election promise to veto any legislation in support of gay marriage:

This seems a much bigger deal to me than Gavin Newsom's grandstanding a few years ago. San Diego is a little island of Red America in our People's Republic, and eventual acceptance there by an elected Republican is an incredibly promising sign. It's just this kind of private victory of conscience that lets the good guys win in the end.

So: yay progress!

The Manhattan Project

Great article in the SF Chronicle:

The best Manhattans slide easily down the throat. They linger on the palate, dance on the tongue and tickle the tonsils for a good long while. Manhattans, when made by a master of the craft, can produce euphoria in discriminating souls, and they've been known to tempt angels to return to physical manifestation, just for one more sip.

Martinis, on the other hand, get you drunk quickly.

Anachronism

Anybody can do talk like a pirate day. Real pros are already gearing up for Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day on December 8.

The Intentionality of Coalitions

They're discussing Jon Chait's new book, The Big Con, over at the TPM Cafe book club. Ross Douthat has the first response:

The most attention-catching aspect of Chait's thesis - his argument, restated in his first post, that the best way to understand the contemporary conservative movement is by treating it as a conspiracy to practice class warfare on behalf of the rich - strikes me as little better than name-calling, and undercuts the more subtle political analysis that he practices elsewhere in the book. I don't want to step on anything Megan McArdle might say in her contributions to this discussion, but I think her old post on why, in most cases, people actually believe what they say they believe and should be engaged on those terms applies in spades here.

If Douthat's description of Chait's argument is correct, though, his objections miss the point. If a political movement is functionally equivalent to a conspiracy to practice some covert goal, it makes sense to treat it as such even if no individual members of the coalition are actually conspiring. From the way I read Chait's argument, it's not necessary that there be an actual conspiracy. Chait's evidence of "bad faith" is that any time there is a conflict between upward income redistribution and some other conservative policy goal, tax cuts for the rich win. If that's the case, the movement is functioning like a conspiracy, even if nobody is actually lying.

The idea is hard to wrap your mind around - just ask John Searle. But it's perfectly possible when decision-making power isn't vested in a single individual. Then, the honest reasons that individual people give for their preferences don't explain the behavior of the group. Imagine a coalition comprised of the following elements:

• A group of prominent opinion leaders arguing that, on balance, raising speeding limits is a good idea in some circumstances.
  
• A group of crazy/ignorant but still honest people arguing that raising speed limits always reduces the number of accidents.
  
• A group of wealthy sports-car owners who don't write op-eds, but feel that they have a moral right to drive as fast as they can, and only vote for and give money to candidates who support that right.
  
• A group of potential politicians representing the range of possible policy preferences. They are utterly incorruptible and will not change their a priori policy stances in exchange for votes or campaign cash, but they don't feel bad about being deliberately vague on the campaign trail to broaden their coalitions.
  

Under the right (not terribly rare) circumstances, this coalition will be functionally equivalent to a massive conspiracy with the explicit goal of always raising speed limits every time, and deliberately lying about the reasons why, even if all the individual actors always tell the truth.

The question in an individual case is whether it matters if the participants are liars, or if the argument gets its moral/logical force from somewhere else. Here Chait's case gets complicated, because I think his primary thesis is that the party functions as a conspiracy whether or not most participants are honest, but that he also wants to call out certain individuals as liars in a kind of rhetorical going-for-two. This can make his main case appear to rest on bad faith on the other side, even if it doesn't necessarily.

"Nothing feels as solid as a living branch; stone by comparison is brittle."

This (former?) English prof in New York writes a really neat blog, Steamboats Are Ruining Everything.

President Bush Confronts the Zombiefascist Menace

And won't take no guff from no reporters about it, neither.

Incidentally, does anyone know why Blogger won't let me embed YouTube videos?

Test Prep

LSAT Practice, from McSweeney's:

A concerned father drops three boys (Peter, Dom, and Björn), three girls (Henrietta, Elaine, and Meghan), and his daughter (Lorelei) off at the local mall's theater. He wants to know which one of the boys will be making out with his daughter during the movie. He knows that each of the eighth-graders will make out at least once but not more than twice before the movie ends. He also knows that the following conditions must apply:

* Elaine will not make out with Björn until she's with Peter (because they're in an open relationship and she's testing the waters).

* Henrietta will not make out with Peter or Dom (because she only dates older guys).

* If Lorelei makes out with both Henrietta and Elaine, then Peter and Björn will make out. (They made a bet.)

* Meghan will always make out last (because she's ugly).

* Dom will always be paired with Meghan (because he's desperate).

What I Wish I Had Know About Law School At The Start Of My 1L Year

A new year is starting for a new crop of 1Ls, and the internet is bursting with advice for them. I admit I consumed this stuff voraciously, stuffing my cheeks with tips, tricks, and how-tos. But I really had no idea what any of it meant in context, and in place of all the earnest advice, what would have really helped me was a brief bird's-eye view of how law school works. So here it is.

As treated in law school, the legal process is a function that maps fact patterns to verdicts. The way that law works is that stuff happens, making a kind of a short story. The court hears this story (through the lawyers) and then returns a decision. You win, you lose. If you imagine stories as little notes spread across a tabletop, the "law" is a line drawn on that surface separating stories with one outcome (the contract is valid, the defendant is guilty, whatever) from the others. The whole project of law school is figuring out where that line is.

What complicates things is that written laws generally just say "the line should be hereabouts," because it's impossible to think up and account for every possible story ahead of time. And on top of that people have all sorts of reasons for saying the line is somewhere when it isn't really. So then only way to know where it actually lies is to check individual points. So instead of traditional textbooks that just tell you the Rules of Physics, law schools use casebooks. A casebook is just a big book of cases, each one an important data point in figuring out where the line is. Law schools could just tell you where the lines are, because that's what professors spend all day thinking and writing about, but the idea is that out in the real world you won't have professors to tell you the answers, and you'll have to figure out where the line is by yourself, by examining cases. So they figure you should learn to do that now. Don't worry, it only takes a few weeks.

Every case in the casebook is a data point to help you figure out where the line is. Importantly, every case has been put in there on purpose to illustrate some part of how the line curves. The trick to law school is extracting the one important thing that a case stands for from all the excess information.

For example, you are almost certain to read a case (in Contracts) about a botched skin graft that causes the patient to grow hair on the palm of his hand. Professors love the wild details, and they may help you remember, but they're irrelevant. The Hairy Hand case (I don't even remember the real name today) stands for the proposition: "If you break a contract, you owe the other side the money equal to the difference between the value of what you promised them and the value of what you gave them." This is the usual way to assess damages in contracts suits, as opposed to other potential measures like "You have to give them the full value of what was promised, ignoring the value of what you already gave them" or "You don't have to give them anything! Ha ha!" The case is full of wild turns about shady plastic surgeons and how you put a dollar value on having a hairy hand or a healthy one, but you don't really need to know all that. All you need to know is how to do the math.

When it's exam time, you apply that line-finding skill. Your average law school exam is what they call an issue-spotter. All that means is the professor writes a handful of short stories, and then asks you what arguments a court might have to decide, and which side of the line they're on. The best way to figure out exactly how to do well is to get old exams, take them under test conditions, and compare your results to the model answers. But that's no different from any other test.

Now a lot of the time the line is blurry, or there's not enough information to draw it precisely, because this shit is hard. We're mapping to legal outcomes from every possible range of human interaction. That's a lot of space to cover. But if you know the two closest points, even if they fall on opposite sides of the line, you'll do alright. Because it is hard and the people implementing it are only human, there's a lot of individual discretion at the margin.

That's the big picture. Everything else you can figure out plenty fast.

Why Are So Many Nerds Libertarian?

Slashdot put up a thread, and the very first comment modded up to 5 for "insightful" has the answer. Not the answer the author intends, which is a rehash of the non-aggression principle, but in the paragraphs immediately preceding:

I'm sure like many others here, I got very good marks at public school, but was also often in trouble and sent to the principal's office for mouthing off in class, etc. Why? Because while I would accept that the teachers were more learned (or in some cases, less ignorant), I never thought for a moment that they were more intelligent. They demanded respect from me, but never offered the same in return (there were precious few exceptions, and for their counsel, I will always be greatful).

So what messages did I receive in those public school classrooms? "You're no better than anyone else", "Take your place and shut up", "Slow down and learn at the same rate as everybody else; you're not special". All the while, within myself, I was thinking "But I can go faster than everyone else", "I can see a better way to do this", and "I am special".

And I can speak from experience here when I tell you that it's very easy to keep thinking you're special and the rules shouldn't (or even don't really) apply to you when you haven't yet developed the social skills to take other people's interests and perspectives into account. Because, you know, you're a nerd.

None of which is a knock-down critique of the power of markets or anything, and just a piece of the larger story about why ideologies may be popular independent of the merits. But there you are.

UCLA 45, Stanford 17

I'm already tired of hearing how people are excited for football season. I don't get to be excited about football season anymore. Seriously, "Nano-progress?"

Ken Rolls His Ankle

Perhaps the greatest joy came shortly thereafter, when my good samaritan neighbor asked if I wanted him to call me an ambulance to make sure there was no break or ligament damage. "No thanks," I answered. "I have no health insurance!"

Because I am invincible, I have never suffered a major injury, but that sure sounds like it sucks.

Doldrums

Okay, I'm over being home now. It is hotter and more crowded feeling here than I can ever remember it. I'm out of sorts enough that I'm procrastinating to avoid writing on my weblog.

I actually cannot wait to get back to law school (Monday!). How's that for an endorsement?

New-Media Leverage

It is important to CP that I note that he is currently studying in a Spanish language immersion program at the Frida Spanish School in Mexico City.

Exotic Delicacies

In a dramatic proof of God's love - or at least human genius - they now sell chocolate covered bacon.

Justice!

Alberto Gonzales leaves as head of the department thereof.

Gainful Employment

Also, I totally have a job. Sweet.

The Return

I'm back from my Asian Adventure, but due to various frailties and the vagaries of air travel, I'm currently operating with the mental capacity of your average dead raccoon. Maybe a slightly-below-average dead raccoon.

Readers who have been with the blog since its original incarnation (and what a sad lot you must be!) can take heart. I will write extensively about my travels, and may even provide pictures. I totally lied about that no electricity thing.

Vacation

I leave today for a three week vacation through Thailand and China, with stops in Bankok, Hong Kong, Guilin, and Shanghai. I'm not bringing anything that uses electricity. Posting will resume August 25 at the earliest.

Wheels

You know those sneakers the kids these days are wearing, with the wheels in the heels that let them fly past you on the sidewalk? Haven't you wanted a pair? I have. Well Slate has a fun article about a grownup like you or me who buys a pair.

Those Who Do Not Remember The Past...

I can not believe that Law & Order's Fred Thompson is a serious candidate for President of the United States of America. A lazy, affable, inexperienced Southerner and "Authentic Conservative" with down-home charm that seems like the kinda guy you'd want to have a beer with? Guys, we just tried that one. It didn't work out so well.

There Are No Such Thing As Shark Attacks

Gilbert Arenas has a blog. An awesome blog:

I know this is random, but I just want to clear this up for people out there.

There are these things called shark attacks, but there is no such thing as a shark attack. I have never seen a real shark attack.

I know you’re making a weird face as you’re reading this. OK people, a shark attack is not what we see on TV and what people portray it as.

We’re humans. We live on land.

Sharks live in water.

So if you’re swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that’s called trespassing. That is called trespassing. That is not a shark attack.

A shark attack is if you’re chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that’s a shark attack. Now, if you’re chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack.

When I see on the news where it’s like, “There have been 10 shark attacks,” I’m like, “Hey, for real?! They’re just running around? Sharks are walking now, huh! We live on the land, we don’t live underwater.”

Gone Fishin'

There is a certain kind of summer associate project very popular with assigning partners. Partner can't think of any cases that stand for a given principle, but (s)he would really like there to be one. So (s)he sends you to look for it. It is of course, not there. Sometimes, if you are lucky, there are lots and lots of cases that say the exact opposite. But usually there's just nothing out there. You just keep searching, aimlessly, not knowing when to cut short your search, unproductive but scared that you're missing something crucial. This is the worst kind of assignment.

And then sometimes you find something. Sometimes you suddenly see that even though Partner's theory is completely crazy you know how to make it work. That is the best kind of assignment.

Already Falling Behind

I heard on the radio about an article in Time Magazine about The Sopranos State of North Korea and I thought to myself, "Hey, isn't that what Sheena's thesis was about?" Sheena is a friend who lived down the hall from me freshman year, and we all went to watch her presentation. So I roll on over to the website and sure enough, the venerable newsweekly has written a feature article about her work, listing her as "a researcher at Harvard University."

I spend the rest of the day feeling like I've been wasting my time at school.

The City Veins

I don't read Matt Yglesias's blog for music recommendations, but because I'm a Trainspotting-level political junkie. Still, the other day he linked to this indie band The City Veins, who were (and are!) giving away their debut CD for free. It's not at all what I'd usually listen to, but I've had it on the iPod at work and it's really grown on me. It kind of makes me want to steal Ken's computer and spend days staring plaintively into a rainy middle distance. This effect is troubling. Having hastily abandoned my SoCal roots, I'm increasingly alarmed that I've become locked in to some irreversible metro-hipster-yuppie metamorphosis. I fully expect to awake in the middle of the night encased in a gossamer cocoon of polyester while terrible enzynes melt my intestines and coat me in a chitinous shell of vinyl and hair product.

But the music is pretty good.

Relative Velocity

I'm picking Ken up from the airport. I just realized it may take me longer to drive there than it will take him to fly.

Double Take

A co-worker asks if anyone has ever told me I look like Roger Federer. They haven't, and I didn't even know what he looks like. But I did a Google Image search and it' actually kind of close:

Pop!

The latest law school term bill arried by e-mail. Some day, I will get used to the idea hitting a few buttons and sending ten thousand dollars off into the ether.

But today is not that day.

Pop!

The Denmark Model

Yes Virginia, national health care would greatly increase labor mobility. This is an issue that plays into pretty much all of my ideological biases, but damn if I didn't wish we heard this case more often.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Apparently, the Walgreens a few blocks up was destroyed by arson. I say apparently because I wasn't here to see any flames, let alone any saboteurs setting them. I only saw the burned-out hulk of a rooftop air conditioner in the middle of the intersection, surrounded by police barricades. The locals told me it was arson. No word on whether the air conditioner was dragged there after or, as I prefer to imagine it, popped off the roof like a champagne cork and came crashing down in a cloud of fire.

Noah's Bagels across the street boarded up its windows, but its owners have spray painted the plywood with encouraging pleas for normalcy. "I ASSURE YOU," reads my favorite, "WE ARE OPEN."

Exodus

No updates for a while, must mean I've been busy. And I have. Most drastically, Summer employer agreed to send me on a three-week impromptu split at the Redwood City office. I had been composing to myself a long and reflective post about my ambivalent feelings about San Diego and what that send about me and law school and how I've changed over the years, and I voiced some of those thoughts at my mid-summer review. Then - BAM! - faster than a speeding blogger I got a call asking if I could start in Silicon Valley on Monday. I drove up all day yesterday and had my first day at work today back in the Bay Area.

Free advice: if you're planning a day-long road trip, do not nap on the beach the morning before you leave. A sunburned back is very uncomfortable during an eight-hour drive.

I didn't leave San Diego until 4:30 because Mike the Once and Future Management Consultant was in town for the Fourth and I had to take him down to the airport. I finally got in to Palo Alto at 12:40.

More free advice: after a long holiday weekend, get some freaking sleep before starting your new job. Man cannot live on caffeine alone.

Also, Live Free or Die Hard is better than Transformers. Transformers does have giant robots fighting, which is awesome. But it sometimes has robots talking, which is a bit less awesome. Die Hard has Bruce Willis fighting, which is awesome. But then it has Bruce Willis talking which is also awesome.

I think I could write a lot about both of those movies, but for now let me just point out one thing. You know how at the end of Transformers when Protagonist and Hot Girl are making out on the hood of his car? That car is a robot and his friend. He's hooking up on top of his friend. And then while they've having some kinky cyborg threesome, the camera pans back and you see all the other robot cars watching them, headlights shining? That's some freaky shit.