Archive for 2011
August 9, 2011
HOSTILE WITNESS: Anonymous lawprof blogger disses legal education.
EDUCATION UPDATE: Study Shows Schools Perform Better Without Collective Bargaining. “The issue of collective bargaining rights for teachers was a huge issue on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill. Now the Associated Press has taken a close look, comparing how school systems do with or without collective bargaining rights. The AP discovered school systems without teachers’ collective bargaining rights performed slightly better than those with negotiated contracts.”
HOW TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF YOUR OWN LAW SCHOOL: Sue Your Critics.
Sigh. I’ve warned people about this before, but they never seem to learn.
HEAVY TURNOUT for the Wisconsin recall elections.
YOU KNOW WHO’S HAPPY? Tenured Law Professors! What can I say, it’s a good gig.
AT AMAZON, it’s the toy outlet sale.
WHAT IT TAKES TO GET AN MSM COLUMNIST TO embrace personal responsibility.
INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Visit Bill Quick’s discussion page.
Related: Pre-Post-Apocalyptic Survival Gear. More here.
POLITICO: Obama Plan: Destroy Romney.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Flash mob attacks: Rising concern over black teen involvement. “If not an outright trend, organized mobs of mostly black teens who target whites are catching notice of police – and are raising uncomfortable issues in cities like Milwaukee, one of the most racially segregated in the nation.”
A DISARMED SOCIETY is a violent society.
UPDATE: “Text From London Riot: We’re Not Broke, But Who Says No To Free Stuff?”
Also, Oratory.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Medicare Regulation Causes Shortages Of Cancer Drugs.
SECURITY RISKS FROM hacked computer chips.
CHANGE: Gallup: Obama loses three points overnight, economic confidence plunges to 2-year low.
Not much of a speech, was it?
REASON TV ON CALIFORNIA OPEN CARRY: Guns, Laws, and Panics: How Fear, Not Fact, Informs the Gun Rights Debate. About California open-carry and more. I suspect that things like the London riots and the various urban flashmob attacks are going to encourage more interest in carry, both open and concealed.
CARRINGTON EVENT UPDATE: Severe Solar Storms Could Disrupt Earth This Decade: NOAA. Read the whole thing, which is fairly scary. We should be hardening systems against this sort of thing, but there’s less margin for this kind of precaution when you’ve bankrupted yourself with “stimulus.”
FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Discover Possible Genetic Route To Killing Pain.
IS THE ECONOMY stressing out your family?
SO. Is Marriage For White People? What about the “stayover” trend?
A WATERSHED MOMENT, OF A VERY SMALL SORT: So I’ve now written an entire law review article, though a short one, using OpenOffice. Over the years I’ve used various word processors for writing columns, etc., but I’ve always stuck with WordPerfect for law review articles because I like its footnoting, and I like that it lets you get under the hood and edit codes. I’ve never cared for Word. Pages is nice, but I thought I’d go free and try OpenOffice for this piece, an essay on the new Second Amendment jurisprudence’s likely penumbras. It worked fine. I felt like it was slow going at first as I got used to things — not so much anything in particular as just it being different — but by the end it was fine.
USA TODAY: London Paralyzed By Fear, Shock As Businesses Smolder. “Graham Reeves, 52, stood dumbstruck in front of the smoldering ruins of his family store, the House of Reeves on Croydon in south London. The store is a local landmark that had been run by his family for decades — he said his 80-year-old father was hysterical upon hearing the news. ‘No one’s stolen anything,’ Graham Reeves said. ‘They just burnt it down.'”
UPDATE: Reader Jay Brinker emails from London: “In London, staying next to Scotland Yard HQ and 4 blocks from Parliament. Picture is of pub that was packed on Sunday. It and other restaurants in area are closed this evening due to riot fears. Each street corner seems to have 3 officers. Heard that 16,000 officers are on duty tonight up from usual 3,000. Watching riot footage of burning and looting of stores, and hearing reports of police inability to respond, I can only think how a few gun toting shop keepers could have quelched most of the problem. Instead, the government thinks that the use of rubber bullets is a drastic measure.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Treacher: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll riot for free fish.”
Plus this: “New events have just been announced for the 2012 London Olympics: the Molotov throw, synchronized looting, and the 400-metre dash for your life.”
Related: “Class warfare has consequences.”
PHOTO ESSAY: Deconstructing SlutWalk. “Looksism is unfair and patriarchal / See how gorgeous we are?”
A RECENT WIDENER LAW FACULTY MEMBER SPEAKS OUT ON DEAN LINDA AMMONS’ DEBACLE:
I don’t think, ultimately, the case speaks to the use of hypos as much as the dangerous abuse of power by a vindictive administration. And, perhaps, a rather sickening case of the inability (or refusal) to recognize error once it has been made. . . . I can only hope those responsible for this travesty resign, but it appears they are instead digging themselves ever deeper into their imaginary fantasy land. This is most unfortunate because, again, there are some really good people at Widener, and they are getting dragged through this mud that is not of their making. Not to mention what it must be like for students. It is getting to the point, however, if it hasn’t already long been there, where everyone at the school should take a firm stand.
Entire item at the link.