tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69526322026-01-25T15:42:31.562-08:00...keeping my eye on the ball. Politics, Current Events, Law School, Life, Books, and whatever else.Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.comBlogger501125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1134756401145937862005-12-16T10:00:00.000-08:002005-12-16T10:06:41.156-08:00

Yesterday, my son threatened to throw me out the window. I told him that the word is "defenestrate." Can't wait for the note from his teacher next year.It reminds me of the time I went to Frost's parent-teacher conference, and her teacher told me that during reading time, they had been discussing what the author was "inferring" in a suggestive bit of text. I bit my tongue, but told Frost about

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1134659500401204412005-12-15T07:07:00.000-08:002005-12-15T07:16:47.846-08:00

I have approximately 27 hours until my immigration final, for which I am woefully unprepared, when I run across this article discussing a movement to mentor children to become more studiously productive. I think I may check out some of these books, after finals.Back to studious productivity.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1133236231050298712005-11-28T19:48:00.000-08:002005-11-28T19:50:31.063-08:00

Today in a class, a classmate quoted "good fences make good neighbors" from Frost's "Mending Wall" for its truth value.I didn't think it was appropriate in a law class to call a classmate out for having no sense of poetic irony.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1131942578897689092005-11-13T20:27:00.000-08:002005-11-13T20:29:38.910-08:00

Is intentional homicide legally justified in cases where the deceased was a putative partner on a seminar paper who completely failed to do a damn thing the whole semester? Would it improve my chances of beating the rap if I was coming off a week without meaningful sleep due to said individual?Let me know.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1131851070674530852005-11-12T18:55:00.000-08:002005-11-13T00:02:47.310-08:00

Nerd-Pain: (n)1. The sensation of agony you feel when, fairly late on a Saturday night, you come up with the idea of having the Secretary of Labor issue a policy statement noting a particular safety hazard in order to place employers on notice that they have a general duty to alleviate said hazard under section 5 of the OSH Act, only to realize that there is no one in your life that you can tell

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1131826701296658272005-11-12T11:59:00.000-08:002005-11-12T12:22:39.646-08:00

Althouse points us to this article about Bush's speech "forcefully defending" his Iraq policy, saying that he should do more of that.I couldn't agree more. He should defend his policy, if he can. But Althouse, who reminds me of Hitchens without the vitriol when it comes to foreign policy, seems to cite approvingly to Bush's argument about Democrats now questioning prewar intelligence. After

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1131379425802651982005-11-07T08:00:00.000-08:002005-11-07T08:03:45.816-08:00

As of last night, the final draft of my law review article is submitted for publication. That leaves a massive and thorny memorandum for my internship, a complaint and settlement letter for my part-time job, and an enormous seminar paper on new governance in OSHA.Oh, and they're all due in the next 8 days. Shoot me now.UPDATE: No, seriously. Shoot me now.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1130770959783609572005-10-31T06:56:00.000-08:002005-10-31T14:21:34.973-08:00

The Writer's Almanac has Robert Frost's "My November Guest" as its poem today. It's one of my all time favorites, so enjoy.My November GuestMy Sorrow, when she's here with me,Thinks these dark days of autumn rainAre beautiful as days can be;She loves the bare, the withered tree;She walks the sodden pasture lane.Her pleasure will not let me stay.She talks and I am fain to list:She's glad the

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1130445140720417272005-10-27T13:25:00.000-07:002005-10-27T13:32:20.760-07:00

U.S. Military deaths in Iraq reached 2,000 yesterday. In an unrelated note, back in 1999 I started a college fund for my oldest daughter. Mostly, I invested some money in S&P 500 Index funds, but I picked some individual stocks for a small portion of the fund. One of those stocks was JDS Uniphase, a Nasdaq company specializing in Internet infrastructure components.When the bubble burst, the

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1130166026988788892005-10-24T07:53:00.000-07:002005-10-24T08:00:27.033-07:00

Kay Bailey Hutchinson, today in NYT talking about impending indictments (emphasis mine):Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, speaking on the NBC news program "Meet the Press," compared the leak investigation with the case of Martha Stewart and her stock sale, "where they couldn't find a crime and they indict on something that she said about something that wasn't a crime."Ms.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1128549263112102442005-10-05T14:47:00.000-07:002005-10-05T14:54:23.120-07:00

Any of you experienced lawyers out there able to help me clarify something?My wife has serious, chronic, but undiagnosed migraine headaches. She is finally acceding to my suggestion to see a doctor and get it diagnosed this week. Last week, she had to leave work on Thursday, and by doctor's orders, was not permitted to return Friday because of a severe, crippling migraine that left her barely

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1128111840450963732005-09-30T13:07:00.000-07:002005-09-30T13:58:47.816-07:00

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1127503988761449212005-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:002005-09-23T12:33:08.770-07:00

At 5:18 this morning I woke up from a dream. In the dream, I had gone with a friend to some sort of construction site, where, unbeknownst to me, my friend was casing the joint to steal an enormous pile of gold bricks. On the way out, there were some folding tables set up in the lobby, which looked a lot like the lobby at my high school, with little boxes of candy on them. Divining that the

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1126916412933331952005-09-16T17:13:00.000-07:002005-09-16T17:20:12.940-07:00

At what point do we admit that we lack the political will to either stop spending or start raising revenue? I'm no economist, but I know what my bank would do if I refused to work but continued writing successively larger checks.The enduring emblem of this administration will be the exposure of the political canard that Democrats are the fiscally irresponsible party. If the Dems are

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1126745805888027082005-09-14T17:52:00.000-07:002005-09-14T17:56:45.896-07:00

For my immigration law class, we are exploring the source of federal power to regulate who comes into the country. Most of the legal wrangling over this started long before Mexico had a sufficient population to worry us with immigration. The seminal cases on the subject were in the 1848 and on, when we had just finished building the transcontinental railroad.Comments now written in the margin

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1126371658250313252005-09-10T09:59:00.000-07:002005-09-10T10:00:58.256-07:00

I have, among my several classes this semester, a seminar on regulatory reform. It meets for the first time this coming Monday, so I figured to myself, "I'll do the reading on Saturday with my other homework."Uh, yeah. It's 5 full law review articles. Probably should have started that earlier in the week.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1125593064962623662005-09-01T09:28:00.000-07:002005-09-01T09:44:24.980-07:00

John Tierney, pontificating from his posterior:They're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic while the righteous fly past them in the far left lanes. Those freeway lanes used to be reserved for car pools, but they've just been opened to a new group: those of us virtuous enough to drive the right hybrids. ...But even if these new privileges put more fuel-efficient cars on the road, I'm afraid the net

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1124903989446795092005-08-24T10:18:00.000-07:002005-08-24T10:19:49.453-07:00

I got this as part of an e-mail forward recently:When you receive this, please stop for a moment and Say a prayer for our servicemen. There is nothing attached.... This can be very powerful.... Just send this to all the people in your address book. Do not stop the wheel, please.... Of all the gifts you could give a US Soldier, Prayer is the very best one.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1121904556295835392005-07-20T17:09:00.000-07:002005-07-20T17:12:23.896-07:00

This picture ran on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today. As I looked at it more and more, I thought:Wow, this guy's getting nominated for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and his kid is doing a funky dance. Look at the mom! Mortified! Roberts himself seems to be watching the kid rather than listening to the president. I can't feel too bad about my kids in a restaurant

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1117134752481388512005-05-26T12:07:00.000-07:002005-05-26T12:12:32.496-07:00

A preemptive strike.As I mentioned, I've been working lots of nights and going to bed between four and six A.M. My daughter Frost still has to get up for school at 6:30, and getting her ready was always my job during the school year, a job which Sharon graciously took over so that I could sleep for more than an hour at night.This morning, though, the alarm was going off and I woke up first,

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1116445269789600332005-05-18T12:29:00.000-07:002005-05-18T12:41:09.806-07:00

In a desperate move to make some cash to pay my rent this summer, I became a prostitute a drug dealer a waiter at a pancake restaurant. It's a 24-hour place, which means that the only shift they had available was late, late, nights.I've been sleeping all day in an attempt to adjust to the late nights. It's weird to me, going to bed as it's getting light outside. Most of the bleary-eyed people

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1115746707025355232005-05-10T10:35:00.000-07:002005-05-10T10:38:27.386-07:00

I had my last exam yesterday, Civil Procedure II (or CivPro2 for those in the know). It was alright. I'm particularly proud that I managed to avoid a blog post talking about relationships in terms of the rules for joinder of parties.I would tell (both of) you that this means life will return to normal, but after two years of law school, I'm not sure I'm qualified to identify normal any more.

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1115486567749729362005-05-07T10:08:00.000-07:002005-05-07T10:30:08.896-07:00

Thursday I had my Admin Law exam. Hard.It was a three hour exam, and out of roughly fifty students, two finished before the last five minutes. We'll see how that ends up going. As I'm taking an advanced seminar on Admin Law next semester, I hope it went well, or I'm going to feel pretty stupid.Speaking of next semester, I get to do a for-credit internship through our judicial internship

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1115225028869369562005-05-04T09:27:00.000-07:002005-05-04T09:53:58.990-07:00

Will Baude, discussing opposition to Wal-mart, says:In other words, these unnamed critics ask why Wal-Mart cannot spend 65% of its profits on paying its workers above-market wages. I mean, I suppose Wal-Mart could decide to spend its profits that way (corporate law problems notwithstanding) but that seems like rather extraordinary philanthropy. And even if Wal-Mart were interested in spending

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952632.post-1115188469367834262005-05-03T23:23:00.000-07:002005-05-03T23:34:29.733-07:00

Had a fairly strong deja vu while reading this today:A new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows that 48% of Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president. But when the poll-takers asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of the way President Bush is handling six specific issues, the results weren't as good.This reminds me of the West Wing where Josh gets some

Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01114575469951919257noreply@blogger.com0