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October 26, 2005

Woman of the law: coming full circle

http://womanofthelaw.blogspot.com/2005/10/coming-full-circle.html#comments Wow. I've got nuthin as far as what you should do about the whole getting involved w/a coworker thing, but I can say that is one damn fine story! You recreated the night so vividly that I was hanging on the edge of my seat at the end of every post!

You know, NaNoWriMo starts on Monday. I know that was all true, but imagine what a great story you could tell if you started making stuff up...

Posted by mowabb at 12:33 AM

October 24, 2005

Indefensible: Dumping on Africa Again

http://davidfeige.blogspot.com/2005/10/dumping-on-africa-again.html#comments This phenomenon exists in a legal world minature version, too: The clinic I work in has two good-sized offices crammed pretty much floor to cieling with obsolete computer equipment -- CPUs, monitors, keyboards, mice, and more -- that have been “donated” by big firms in the city. Most of these “generous” donations are obsolete and barely-functional crap the day they arrive at the clinic, and then it becomes the clinic's responsibility to figure out how to dispose of the junk. I guess the clinic accepts these donations b/c it usually gets a couple of usable machines out of the deal and it also has learned to salvage certain parts (e.g. network cards) that can be used in other machines or sold on ebay or whatever.

Posted by mowabb at 11:48 AM

October 17, 2005

divine angst: learning to think like a lawyer: am I there yet? is it supposed to hurt this much?

http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/10/learning_to_thi.html Hey, don't worry. What you're looking for isn't there, so don't be concerned that you can't seem to find it. What I mean is that you can't figure out the underlying legal principle for many cases b/c many cases aren't based on any real underlying principles. Many cases are decided as a means to whatever end the judge thinks is correct, and later academics come along and try to harmonize the case with others and extract some underlying “principle” that seems to explain them all. That's the cynical reading, but in many cases it's true. A less cynical and also true reading is this: Even when a case is decided on an underlying principle, few single cases will give you the full legal principle within that single case. That's because the principle developed over time in a sort of process of accretion as one decision built on another and another until finally, one day, a judge said, “Hey, looking at all these previous cases, it looks like this is the rule. So here's the rule!” And bang, there's your underlying legal principle. Your professor has read that case that's last in the line, so he/she knows the rule. You might even read that case next week and by then the rule will seem very clear to you. Or, maybe you'll never read it and you'll always wonder where the rule came from. Or maybe the rule has never been written into a case and is just out there in a bunch of academic theory, in which case you might be trapped in the cynical reading of things, as described above. All of which is to say the law is just a bunch of stuff people have made up. There's no there there, so don't worry about finding it. Listen to the prof when he/she announces the rule, write it down, remember it, try to figure out a way to make it make sense for you, regurgitate it on an exam, and move on. Then when you're in practice you can start making up the rules based on your own reading of the cases and see if you can persuade anyone to see things you're way. If you do, eventually some professor will be teaching your reading of things and future law students will be thinking you smoked way too much crack.

Posted by mowabb at 09:04 PM

October 16, 2005

Dept. of Nance: DoN Wants YOU

http://deptofnance.blogspot.com/2005/10/don-wants-you.html#comments Yeah, I realized after I made such a big deal out of it that it was just a typo. My bad. I heart English teachers!

Posted by mowabb at 07:11 AM

thisdarkqualm » Superdome

http://thisdarkqualm.com/?p=297 I'd missed this post the first time around so I'm glad you recently linked to it again. Although I've spent far too much time bemoaning the failures and blind spots of Yubbledew, et al., I'd never really thought about the whole Republican philosophy in these terms. It seems in many ways the 20th century took sort of a hammer to that traditional belief in human and social progress and our ability to make our own world better as we instead saw demonstrations of our ability to destroy the world forever (via world wars, the halocaust, nuclear weapons, etc.). Such apocolyptic power feeds right into the Republican “end times” thing that says something like “Hey, god made the whole deal and he's going come back and end it soon so let's just sort of keep the status quo 'til he gets here, ok?” The thing is, they're right that there *are* limits to what we can do with design in terms of improving life for the majority of the people on this planet, but I agree that we really haven't even come close to finding what those limits are. I do babble about things about which I really know nothing, don't I? Alas, law school has made me stupid.

Posted by mowabb at 07:09 AM

October 14, 2005

Dept. of Nance: DoN Wants YOU

http://deptofnance.blogspot.com/2005/10/don-wants-you.html#comments As a former English teacher myself, I do appreciate this little list. I especially love #4, which is a huge pet peeve of mine because I hear it all the damn time! However, I don't understand #5. How is “could not” different from “couldn't”? I always thought “couldn't” was simply “could not” without the “o,” in other words, a contraction of “could not.” So whassup there?

Posted by mowabb at 08:55 AM

October 12, 2005

Scoplaw: Feeling Good – Feeling not-so-good.

http://scoplaw.blogs.com/scoplaw/2005/10/feeling_good_fe.html#comment-10255323 I feel you on the nostalgia for past literary studies. I was never studying in Scotland, but what I wouldn't give for sinking my teeth into some literature and criticism about now instead of law law law. Sometimes the nostalgia is very strong; I think fall brings it on especially, for some reason...

Posted by mowabb at 02:35 PM

October 08, 2005

Woman of the law: remove Bush from office immediately

http://womanofthelaw.blogspot.com/2005/10/remove-bush-from-office-immediately.html Happy Birth Day? Was it, and you didn't tell us? If so, I second Schulte...

And about Bush: Not only is he fearmongering to try to boost public support for whatever it is he wants to do now, but he also sounds really whiny while doing it. He especially sounds like a defensive, whiny, petulant child whenever the subject of Harriet Miers comes up. It's really kind of sad.

Since about September 2001 I have made it a practice to turn of the tv, radio, etc. whenever Bush gives a “major speech.” It's guaranteed to be bullshit and I have better things to do w/my time. Plus, I can count on NPR to play the most ridiculous bits on the highlight reel later in the day, so I get plenty of material to be angry about w/out subjecting myself to the undedited propaganda of the whole thing. 

And hey, don't you have some clients to be defending or something? ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 01:41 PM

October 04, 2005

Three Years of Hell: Creative Returns, or Why I Left the Zen Micro and Went to the Dark Side

http://www.threeyearsofhell.com/archive/004804.php Your downward spiral has begun.... ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 11:45 AM

Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Talk Amongst Yourselves

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/09/talk-amongst-yourselves.html Can't. Help. It. 

Macs = no viruses, no malware or spyware, and much less chance of downtime. The lifetime cost of a Windows machine is greater than the lifetime cost of a Mac b/c of maintenance costs, not to mention your time and headaches fighting w/your machine and/or its vendor. The fact that Windows dominates the marketplace is proof that the market does not produce optimal, rational, or efficient results. 

Whew. Sorry about that. I feel better now.

Posted by mowabb at 11:38 AM

Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Day 986 of my captivity...but it's all good.

http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-986-of-my-captivitybut-its-all.html Jobs are overrated. Here's a little fact to make you feel even better about everything: Not only do I have no job, but I haven't applied for a single one. Not one clerkship, fellowship, or real job. See, you feel better, don't you? ;-)

Posted by mowabb at 09:52 AM

Blonde Justice: Amazing Race:Family Edition

http://blondejustice.blogspot.com/2005/09/amazing-racefamily-edition.html#comments So basically what you're saying is: This is really good tv! ;-) I missed the opener b/c of a tragic tivo season pass conflict (stupid Firefly marathon!), but I'm looking forward to plenty of snarkorific domestic strife tonight. My gfriend's theory about this family edition is that it won't be as good b/c, while our society is fully comfortable w/the spousal abuse that usually occurs on the show, we don't really have the stomach for the child abuse that will probably be part of the family edition. From what you say, perhaps we'll be treated to some good parent abuse, too! Sorry. Have we now crossed over beyond snark?

Posted by mowabb at 09:47 AM