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February 27, 2006
Blonde Justice: Run, Here Comes Blonde Justice!
http://blondejustice.blogspot.com/2006/02/run-here-comes-blonde-justice.html#comments It's great to tell them all the rules but I almost got a client in trouble by doing this b/c I wrote pretty much those same rules plus his stay-away instructions on the back of his summons to return to court. When he was rearrested for violating his stay-away the cops found this paper in his pocket and the prosector tried to use it as evidence that my client had ample notice that he was supposed to stay away from the specified area. The judge saved me by asking the prosecutor, “Do we have any evidence that he [my client] can read?” The prosecutor was completely flustered by that and muttered something like “we can assume...” but the judge wasn't buying it. Of course, the judge's skepticism came from the cop's testimony about my client's utter bewilderment as to his location, otherwise I'm sure my client would have been headed to jail. As it was, he walked out of there that day, which was pretty cool.Posted by mowabb at 10:43 PM
3L Epiphany: Dialogue: Blogs and Debate Boards in the Classroom
http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/02/dialogue_blogs_.html#comment-14406362 The trouble w/students blogging about a law school class is that it would take the prof an unwieldy amount of time to evaluate and track participation. My school already has discussion boards for each class and a handful of profs require 2 or so posts/semester from each student. For some classes it's worthwhile, but for the most part the professors tell you that it's a pass/fail thing -- if you do it, you get credit. That means the quality of the posts varies pretty widely and is not necessarily useful. Plus, there's really no way to track whether anyone is reading the posts others have made. So while I agree that more online participation (via blogs or discussion boards) could be valuable to law school classes, I just don't think it would work unless classes were really small (e.g. a dozen students or less), and/or profs had a dedicated team of RAs or something to monitor quality and quantity of participation.Posted by mowabb at 11:09 AM
February 26, 2006
Preaching to the Perverted: Florida: The Nation's Wang
http://www.gulbransen.net/preaching/2006/02/florida_the_nat_1.html OMG! That footage is awesome! If cops are going to react to this minimal level of stress w/such irrational and unnecessary aggression, how are they acting when something more serious comes along? I believe cops bully people like this all the time and they get away w/it b/c many of them are perfectly willing to get on a witness stand and lie about their actions and they know that judges believe cops. To be fair, we don't see every second of these encounters. Is the investigating citizen doing something we can't see to piss the cops off more? Still...Posted by mowabb at 11:16 AM
February 25, 2006
Screaming Bean - Again, it's over.
http://babybean.blogspot.com/2006/02/and-again-its-over.html Hooray! You did it! Like LvL, I'm looking forward to hearing about your barnburning celebration in a couple of months when you get back that passing score!Posted by mowabb at 12:06 AM
February 24, 2006
Mother In Law: S.D. House Approves Abortion Ban Bill
http://blawgcoop.com/lawmom/archives/2006/02/sd_house_approv.html So now the government can spy on anyone it chooses AND will soon be able to decide when women give birth. The Handmaid's Tale, anyone? Exactly. I never thought the spying would be allowed to continue but here we are, months after we learned about it, and it continues w/no end in sight. And w/our new High Court we've nearly gotten to the point where even a “regime change” in 2008 won't be able to redraw these boundaries to protect our civil liberties. Handmaid's Tale, indeed.Posted by mowabb at 06:57 PM
prettytypewriters » Dissertation Guilt
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=191 Ah yes, now that I know who it was, I'm laughing all the more. I can picture it now... I can't believe that crazy kid went and bought a house in Chambana! Why now? At least maybe if I ever make it back there this is a good sign there will still be someone around to say hello.Posted by mowabb at 06:51 PM
February 23, 2006
a Public Defender: Legislation to classify 16 & 17yo as juveniles
http://publicdefender.typepad.com/public_defender_blog/2006/02/legislation_to_.html#comment-14285871 This is appalling. We have hard evidence that these kids are being seriously abused and driven to kill themselves, but we can't cough up the cash to treat them humanely? So how did this come about? Have 16-17 yos always been counted as adults in CT, or did the state lower the age cutoff sometime in, oh, say the 80s-90s when “tough on crime” became a ritual incantation to get politicians elected?Posted by mowabb at 08:14 AM
Blonde Justice: If You See A Flashing Red Light, Put Your Clothes On
http://blondejustice.blogspot.com/2006/02/if-you-see-flashing-red-light-put-your.html#comments Related: Audacity hates teenage sex laws. I suggest our laws infantilize girls and teaches them to blame others if they get drunk and take their clothes off at parties. That said, I wholeheartedly agree w/Anonymous (at 4:38 p.m. on 2/20) that the men involved in these “girls gone wild” scenarios are behaving very badly. Their behavior may not be illegal, but that doesn't make it right.Posted by mowabb at 07:20 AM
Audacity: No Prom For You!
http://audacity.typepad.com/index/2006/02/no_prom_for_you.html#comment-14280686 30 days in jail!? For a juvenile, first offense of “unlawful touching”? That seems pretty freaking harsh, doesn't it? Crap like this is definitely connected to what Blondie was recently talking about re: girls gone wild and infantilizing women (and esp. young women) in our culture. This is different, certainly, but the thinking behind this law (viz., young women cannot take care of themselves or make their own decisions and therefore must be protected by the law) leads to college girls claiming they can't be held responsible for their actions when they get drunk and take their clothes off at parties. Freaking patriarchy.Posted by mowabb at 07:15 AM
February 22, 2006
Rename Podner - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/02/22/rename-podner/1#c1105527 I'm all for allowing Apple to defend its intellectual property, and its issue with “ipodder” I can understand, but this seems a step too far. How does “podner” infringe in any way on Apple's property? Does Apple now control anything with the word “pod” in it?Posted by mowabb at 07:26 AM
3L Epiphany: Update to Blog Usurpation
http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/02/update_to_blog_.html#comment-14241928This solution doesn't seem very workable. Once a judge writes an opinion, the court is basically finished with it. Perhaps a clerk will be charged with putting it on the court's website or forwarding a copy to a publisher (courts have a duty to make their decisions public in some fashion), but that's it. There will be no "updating the case" later if something changes.
This is another reason we need a publicly-funded legal research database that collects all of our law into one place that is freely-accessible to all. The public servants that maintain the database could easily keep URLs current. In addition, they could archive a copy of any cited material and incorporate that into their database and cite to that. Then there would be no worries of something like "URL usurpation," etc. In our current environment of for-profit legal research, Wexis (the most common source for case law) is not likely to take on this sort of work any time soon b/c it probably won't increase their bottom line.
Posted by mowabb at 06:56 AM
thisdarkqualm » Blog Archive » Random Things
http://thisdarkqualm.com/?p=380#comments I believe you both right and a misguided language tyrant at once. That’s quite an accomplishment; your chances of finding such a combination in the wild are quite random. ;-)Posted by mowabb at 06:25 AM
February 21, 2006
Preaching to the Perverted
http://www.gulbransen.net/preaching/2006/02/coming_this_sum.html I'm not such a huge fan of Linklater, but Phillip K. Dick? Absolutely.Posted by mowabb at 09:38 PM
prettytypewriters » Dissertation Guilt
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=191 It's stories like this that make me *not* so much miss the fact that I bailed on the whole diss thing. I hope your project is not eating at you like this...Posted by mowabb at 09:37 PM
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Oh sh*t!
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2006/02/oh-sht.html Prevent this from ever happening again: Get a nice 1-2GB zip/thumb drive (whatever you call the little USB doohickies in your neck of the woods), load it up with Portable Apps (including Firefox), and use that when visiting your parents. For good measure, password-protect the whole shebang so if you lose it no one will be able to access your info. Or, more simply, just give up on anonymity. It's a very freeing thing.Posted by mowabb at 09:35 PM
Blonde Justice: Worst. Date. Ever.
http://blondejustice.blogspot.com/2006/02/worst-date-ever.html#comments OMG. After reading that story my legs won't stop itching and I will probably never be able to drink red kool-aid again. I have very low expectations for what eventally happened to that sad sad specimen of a boy. You were far too patient and kind!Posted by mowabb at 09:18 PM
Objective Justice: Banning protests at funerals
http://objectivejustice.blogspot.com/2006/02/banning-protests-at-funerals.html Wow, it's hard to believe you can be so unreserved in your support of this. It seems like a fairly complex issue to me. What if you strongly believe that the way to a more peaceful world is to convince soldiers to put down their weapons and refuse to fight? Where do you reach those people to give them that message? One place might be a soldier's funeral where, presumably, there will be other soldiers and families of soldiers who could influence those who fight. It seems kind of likely that your protest would backfire -- the people at the funeral you protest would probably just get mad at you and refuse to listen to your perspective. Thus, this kind of activity might be politically unwise, but should we really ban it? On public property? And what about other funerals? What if it's not a soldier, but a political leader and all of his/her followers are there? Any sort of demonstration there should also be banned?Posted by mowabb at 07:29 AM
February 20, 2006
Bad Glacier » But then how come I still use it over Lexis?
http://blawgcoop.com/badglacier/2006/02/06/but-then-how-come-i-still-use-it-over-lexis/ I loathe them both equally. And, in fact, anti-trust and copyright lawsuits have been filed against Wexis (aimed mostly at Westlaw, which is the bigger of the two monsters). They have largely failed. The current state of the law is that Westlaw controls via copyright the page numbers essential to legal citation. This was established by a settlement, if I agree correctly, so it hasn't been finally ruled on by a court. Well, it has been, but the settlement was the latest in the attempts to rein in the legal research duopoly we all enjoy so much today. I'll try to post more about this soon b/c the right of the peeps (you, me, and every American citizen) to their own law is a topic near and dear to my heart.Posted by mowabb at 10:20 PM
February 19, 2006
Blonde Justice: Meet Bijou!
http://blondejustice.blogspot.com/2006/02/meet-bijou.html#comments Bijou is making my real dog bark. I know I could just stop clicking, but it's fun to watch my dog goes crazy as she looks around for this strange dog barking in our apartment. Does that make me mean?Posted by mowabb at 10:12 PM
Screaming Bean - Beanerific!
http://babybean.blogspot.com/2006/02/mom-asked-today-if-i-were-nervous.html If you didn't blow away and you have a little test coming up soon, we're pulling for you! Is it Tues/Weds?Posted by mowabb at 02:26 PM
Life, Law, Gender: It's D.C. for the summer
http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/its_dc_for_the_.html#comment-14119005 Wow -- that all sounds incredibly awesome! Congratulations! Are you planning to apply for an Equal Justice Works fellowship to fund the post-graduate position? The clinic you describe sounds like exactly the thing they like to fund and since you've already got a sponsor organization to work for/with, you've got the hard part done. Definitely worth looking into if you haven't -- it could save the org. you want to work for a bunch of money, give you prestige, give you some nice loan repayment (if that's an issue), and just be good all around. Anyway, perhaps since you're coming to DC, we'll actually get to meet for real. I hope you'll look me up when you get to town!Posted by mowabb at 11:57 AM
Life, Law, Gender: It's D.C. for the summer
http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/its_dc_for_the_.html#comment-14119005 Wow -- that all sounds incredibly awesome! Congratulations! Are you planning to apply for an Equal Justice Works fellowship to fund the post-graduate position? The clinic you describe sounds like exactly the thing they like to fund and since you've already got a sponsor organization to work for/with, you've got the hard part done. Definitely worth looking into if you haven't -- it could save the org. you want to work for a bunch of money, give you prestige, give you some nice loan repayment (if that's an issue), and just be good all around. Anyway, perhaps since you're coming to DC, we'll actually get to meet for real. I hope you'll look me up when you get to town!Posted by mowabb at 11:57 AM
February 18, 2006
buzzwords
http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/02/post_5.html Congratulations! The papers might be a bit of a schooly drag, but I'm betting that FL co-op is going to be *nice.* They better let you kick back a bit -- you've earned it. So what's this about the commencement speaker? Were you in the running for valedictorian or something?Posted by mowabb at 02:16 PM
February 17, 2006
tjic.com » Blog Archive » the presupposition behind every lawyer joke
http://tjic.com/blog/2006/02/16/the-presupposition-behind-every-lawyer-joke/ Over the top? Not at all! Hilarious? Absofreakinglutely!Posted by mowabb at 12:03 AM
February 16, 2006
Life, Law, Gender: Remnants of gender training, or What will I do after law school?
http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/remnants_of_gen.html#comment-14031912 I think these “where are we going to live and work” decisions must be about the most difficult decisions couples have to make. My gfriend and I are going through something similar. I know you two will find a good compromise (she's a mediator, after all!), but getting there won't be easy. I agree w/Julie's advice completely, but it's hard to keep all this in perspective when you're talking about your first real legal job after investing so much time and money into law school. Best of luck to you guys!Posted by mowabb at 11:25 AM
February 15, 2006
Gideon's Guardians: post trial
http://gideonsguardians.blogspot.com/2006/02/post-trial.html Ouch. I guess on the bright side you didn't have to wait forever for the verdict, huh? Here's hoping the next four go the other way.Posted by mowabb at 07:06 AM
February 13, 2006
3L Epiphany: Electronic Footnote
http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/02/electronic_foot.html#comment-13939206 This sounds like a terrific idea. Your uncertainty about what might happen to this blog (and the URL you actually print in the published version of your note) suggests that what's needed here is a sort of permanent repository for these things. Something like SSRN might be able to host electronic footnotes, but it would need to be some established organization that can make the webspace available and guarantee it will be there for years to come. For your own purposes, how long are you really going to want to pay TypePad fees? Maybe it would be better to create a free blog on Blogspot for something like this -- then it could be online for free (to you) for as long as Blogger/Blogspot exists. I don't know if this is the best solution, but it's a thought.Posted by mowabb at 09:02 PM
prettytypewiters » Tattoo Your Powerbook
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=189 Wait a sec -- how do you have a powerbook that's not yours? I think I am jealous. Yeah, that would be definitely jealous.Posted by mowabb at 08:47 PM
Life, Law, Gender: Bad, bad blogger
http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/2006/02/bad_bad_blogger.html#comment-13916984 It's great when real life is so rich and full you have no time for blogging. We'll be here for those times when you decide to take a little blog break; meanwhile, enjoy!Posted by mowabb at 10:35 AM
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Goddamnit. God. Damn. It.
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2006/02/goddamnit-god-damn-it.html In fact, it could be you are *too* loveable and he was afraid that he'd actually really fall for you and he's a wuss who couldn't handle that kind of thing so he had to cut and run. His loss. If it helps at all, you actually sound like you've got a great perspective on this. I hope the sun continues to shine around there!Posted by mowabb at 09:23 AM
February 12, 2006
buzzwords: February 11, 2006
http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/02/post_2.html Congrats on the job! Tell us more! Does this mean your last quarter of law school is going to be spent on a beach w/cabana boys, or do you have one more to do in Boston after that?Posted by mowabb at 10:37 PM
buzzwords: February 12, 2006
http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/2006/02/post_3.html It's great to be getting your updates via RSS again! Thanks for fixing that. So how much snow did you end up with? We only got about 8-9 inches around here. I guess NYC got about 2 feet, which makes me kind of jealous, actually...Posted by mowabb at 10:34 PM
Singing Loudly: Onward Law, Onward Writers
http://fakecurtis.blogspot.com/2006/02/onward-law-onward-writers.html Well, if getting published is all about who you know, you're likely to meet some well-connected and influential people at a place like Yale, no? But generally I agree: Law school is not much more likely to make you a better or more successful writer than anything else you could do w/your life. Sure, you write in law school and law practice, but 95% of your writing is going to be highly structured and artificial and so not great practice for good fiction. It might be good preparation for poetry, structurally speaking, maybe, but not necessarily. However, one great thing about law school/practice in terms of being a writer seems to be the stories you learn along your way. Every case is a story of life and conflict, and that's what good fiction is generally about. So a legal career could be good fodder for writing. Maybe. At least theoretically.Posted by mowabb at 01:54 PM
Washington Syndrome: Something To Believe In
http://www.washingtonsyndrome.com/2006/02/one_nation_under_bryant_gumbel.html You ignore commands from William “the Refrigerator” Perry at your own peril!Posted by mowabb at 09:35 AM
February 11, 2006
Half-Cocked: A Warning to Shaving Enthusiasts
http://blawgcoop.com/half-cocked/archives/2006/02/a_warning_to_sh.html Secret? For men? Does this exist or are you guys running around smelling like flowers? But thanks for clarifying this chaotic consumer landscape. I've been seeing those snazzy Fusion displays at the local drugstore and wondering what all the fuss is about. I'm really surprised to hear how much you like the M3, though. Perhaps I'll have to give it a shot. Usually I can't stand how long it takes to shave w/a regular razor alone and all the shaving cream and all the hassle, so I've pretty much settled on an electric razor pre-shave, followed by a quick scraping with the trusty old Gillette Sensor as the final act before exiting the shower. The electric pre-shave means the regular razor shave takes about 10 seconds. A relatively quick, close, and hassle-free shave is a good thing.Posted by mowabb at 07:44 AM
Arbitrary and Capricious: WA: area residents dazed, confused by warm shiny object in sky
http://skellywright.blogspot.com/2006/02/wa-area-residents-dazed-confused-by.html Whoa, Anonymous, that's a big question for a little blog comment. Good luck with that. But Skelly, these photos are gorgeous. No wonder you love it there so much!Posted by mowabb at 07:36 AM
Jeremy Richey’s Blawg » Fewer Law School Applications
http://www.jeremyrichey.com/2006/02/09/fewer-law-school-applications/ Yeah. Same here -- everyone said “don't go!” So what this means is law students and lawyers are pigheaded idiots who won't listen to good advice. No wonder we are a reviled species.Posted by mowabb at 07:33 AM
February 10, 2006
Scoplaw: Blawgging Pause
http://scoplaw.blogs.com/scoplaw/2006/02/blawgging_pause.html#comment-13840304 Sometimes when a single subject takes over your blog, you let the mundanities slip. And when they slip, it’s hard to return to them (for the contrast makes them seem trite) and it’s hard to compile them as they start to slip out of immediate memory. So true. I feel this way all the time. A blog can be sort of schizophrenic when it jumps from serious to light and everywhere in between all the time, yet that's how life is, isn't it? Your rarebit sounds yummy, if a little complicated. I'm more of a “open microwave, insert dish, press 5 minutes” kind of cook, myself.Posted by mowabb at 04:31 PM
Mackenzie's Weblog: February 2006 Archives
http://www.macknzie.net/blog/archives/2006_02.html Congrats on law review! It doesn't exactly sound “fun” to me, but it should be some great experience.Posted by mowabb at 03:23 PM
February 07, 2006
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Instead of prison, you'll come here. Are you through?
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2006/02/instead-of-prison-youll-come-here-are.html This is in the running for best title of a post ever. Or this year, at least. I feel you exactly on the sort of loneliness or some little animal gnawing away at your happiness constantly. And I think you're exactly right -- it's *anxiety.* Where the hell will we live and what will we do and, well, you didn't say it so I will: How am I going to pay those damnable loans!!!? Confidence? None right now. About anything. But hey, at least we're not alone in this. Either you and I are screwed up (ok, I admit that's highly probable), or a lot of other 3Ls w/out jobs are just playing “strong silent type” right about now.Posted by mowabb at 11:33 AM
February 05, 2006
Arbitrary and Capricious: CA: from cop to p.d.
http://skellywright.blogspot.com/2006/02/ca-from-cop-to-pd.html But here's the best part: Since the article was published, Obayashi has used it in court. On two occasions judges allowed him to use the article to impeach – or try to discredit – the testimony of police officers, asking them if they read the article and if it has biased them against him. *And* the police union payed Obayashi's law school bills. Gotta love that.Posted by mowabb at 10:48 PM
Arbitrary and Capricious: A good answer
http://skellywright.blogspot.com/2006/02/good-answer.html Amen to that. When people ask me why I want to be a public defender I always like to say, “It's the only job I know where I can get paid by the state to fight the state.” At least it gives them something to think about. p.s.: Sorry about the Seahawks. I was cheering for them but to no avail. The refs, man, the refs!Posted by mowabb at 10:15 PM