Begging the Question: Miscellaneous

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Miscellaneous

Begging the Question

Two anonymous lawyers discuss law, politics and pop culture (in a manner reminiscent of the Foreign Service Board cheating scene in the classic 1985 Cold War spoof "Spies Like Us").
By "Milbarge" and "Fitz-Hume"

Post Frequency: 1.9/day

Last Entry: March 19, 2010 at 00:00:01

ThunderCats!

Posted on March 19, 2010
What defines a "cougar"? This discussion came up at work. We (a mixed-gender group of varying ages) came up with something of a formula that defines the cougar parameters.One person suggested if a woman is 10 years or more older than the guy, she is a per se cougar...

Under Construction

Posted on February 17, 2010
It appears that the Haloscan deadline is upon us, with Blogger's FTP execution coming up soon as well. I'm in the process of trying to figure something out. But the comments may disappear for a bit. I'm still very open to any offers of technical support/redesign help...

The real question: Why am I reading this?

Posted on February 16, 2010
I stumbled across this list of "50 Questions For Men We Want Answered ASAP." For about half a second, I thought about making a post out of answering them. But then I realized how dumb they were, and how most, if not all, of them could be boiled down into two categories:1...

If I had my way, I would tear this whole building down

Posted on February 05, 2010
I feel like the End Times are upon us. First Haloscan sends me a "Your money or your comments" ultimatum email. Apparently, they've decided to get out of the comments game, and are forcing me to switch platforms and/or lose all the old comments. I know nothing about other commenting platforms except that they tend to be havens for spam...

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Good enough for government work

Posted on January 21, 2010
Here's all you need to know about federal habeas corpus review of state-court decisions. It comes from the transcript of the Supreme Court's oral argument in Berghuis v. Smith (available here at SCOTUSBlog).Under the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), federal courts reviewing state-court rulings for constitutional error are supposed to grant deference to the state courts' decisions, and not throw out those holdings unless they are -- not just wrong -- an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law...

The Me Decade (for the right price)

Posted on January 10, 2010
I don't really understand all the consternation over what to call the last decade. I agree that there doesn't seem to be much consensus on the right name, but I fail to see why this is much of a problem. Whether you say "the zeros" or "the aughts" or some other name, people pretty much know what you're talking about...

Cautiously Optimistic About 2010

Posted on January 04, 2010
Happy new year from an old friend of the blog. She's nicer than she appears.

50 Book Challenge

Posted on December 28, 2009
I've decided to take the 50-book challenge again in 2010. I have tried this a few times before and come up short. I'm sure I made it well past 50 in my youth, when I had more free time, and although I always seem to lose count nowadays, I think the best I've done in recent years is probably in the 35-40 range...

Read something I wrote somewhere else!

Posted on December 02, 2009
I'm a big fan of the blog and podcast from the Stuck in the '80s guys. I follow it pretty closely, and I was surprised a couple of weeks ago when the blog didn't mention the death of actor Edward Woodward. Woodward was most famous for the work he did in the 1980s, especially the tv series The Equalizer...

Minority Rule?

Posted on November 23, 2009
I write not about politics. I'm talking about a much more important subject. Light.Background. I work in a relatively small company. My group occupies a section of the 3rd and top floor of your average office park building. There are 20 people on our floor...

We put your diploma at the end of this obstacle course

Posted on November 22, 2009
Via Deadspin, I found this story about a college in Pennsylvania, Lincoln University, with an interesting graduation requirement: students with a body mass index over 30 have to take a physical education class. They don't have to actually lose weight or body mass, but they have to take the course, which consists of "walking, aerobics, weight training and other physical activities, as well as information on nutrition, stress and sleep...

The robes probably smell like mothballs, too

Posted on November 22, 2009
A little sports story in Mississippi has turned into quite the hullabaloo. The University of Mississippi (or "Ole Miss") band had been playing a song during football games called "From Dixie With Love." At the end of the song, a contingent of students and fans recently started chanting "The South will rise again!" Anyway, long story short, the school administration banned the song, hoping to quell the chant...

Controversy = Page hits

Posted on November 11, 2009
I'm about to post a thought that occurred to me about the House health care bill, and more specifically the Stupak amendment that secured its passage. I'm not going to weigh in on abortion as a practice. Honestly I doubt it's even in my top 10 issues I care about when it comes to politics, and I think the bill is horrible regardless of how it's dealt with...

I will see your cheesy prop gag, and raise

Posted on October 25, 2009
So recently several DNC members bought mops and took them the RNC headquarters in response to Obama's call for healthcare critics to "grab a mop" and help clean up the mess. I'm all for gag gifts. The Democrats have shown a penchant for them recently as well, especially with Hillary's Russian Easy button...

Man on a Mission

Posted on October 24, 2009
I was noodling around Wikipedia for strange minor league baseball team names and learned that players for the San Antonio Missions are themselves called "Missions," and not what, to me, would be the obvious name, "Missionaries." Sadly, this deprives fans of hearing discussions about their favorite "Missionary position players...

I'mma let you finish but...

Posted on October 18, 2009
Can't believe I never thought of this before: Blegging the Question.Please read my pitiful bleg at my usual place. If you don't want to click over, basically it says someone needs to buy me some See's pumpkin spice lollipops, which are already sold out and I just cannot wait another year to get some...

Better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt

Posted on October 07, 2009
This week marks the opening of another Supreme Court Term, and Court-watchers have been eager to see how new Justice Sonia Sotomayor settles into her role. I've read a few of the early transcripts, and have noticed (as have others here and here; links via How Appealing) that Justice Sotomayor had no problem asking plenty of questions during the arguments...

Eat Mor Ethix

Posted on October 02, 2009
Recently, I had a craving for some Chick-fil-A. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday, and as everyone knows, Chick-fil-A is always closed on Sundays. I won't get into the merits of that decision, but it doesn't seem to be hurting the business. But anyway, the whole thing prompted a discussion between me and a friend about whether Chick-fil-A franchise owners can (or do) drop in on the occasional Sunday, turn on the fryer, and enjoy a nice after-church chicken sandwich...

Time for Footbaw!

Posted on September 03, 2009
For some reason, I'm inordinately excited about the start of college football season this fall. My plan for this weekend is to tailgate at two games and attend at least one.Feel free to treat this as an open thread, football-related or otherwise.

Statutory Trivia Question: UPDATED with answer

Posted on August 31, 2009
What federal crime is required to be reported to a judge instead of a law enforcement officer?I'll update this post with the answer later in the week.UPDATE: I got the guesses I was expecting, perjury and contempt, which are typically crimes against the judicial process, and so one might expect them to be reported to judges...

(Wet Your) Whistle While You Work

Posted on August 28, 2009
Someone asked me to go to a Happy Hour tonight, and I declined because I'm not Happy. But it got me thinking about Happy and his cohorts from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. If I had a bar, I'd have a different theme hour for every day of the week...

How would you like your meth-tini, sir?

Posted on August 25, 2009
Shaken or stirred?

Statutory Trivia Question

Posted on August 24, 2009
What federal crime is required to be reported to a judge instead of a law enforcement officer?I'll update this post with the answer later in the week.

The post wherein I ask you to support my point of view, just so I can feel like I'm right

Posted on August 19, 2009
Let's pretend I do criminal cases. Let's further pretend that a non-lawyer (let's say, a student intern) is personally familiar with a defendant and the victim. As in, he used to hang out with Defendant when he was younger. You know, before Defendant murdered his (the defendant's, not the intern's) dad...

Netbook Thoughts?

Posted on August 15, 2009
I'm thinking about getting a netbook. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations? Also, I don't have wireless at home, so what do I need to know about getting wireless for the netbook? Thanks.

And now for something completely different

Posted on August 08, 2009
There has been entirely too much politics, here and everywhere else recently. In an effort to rectify that, here is my Top Ten list of current TV shows that could be converted into a porn without having to change the name.10. Private Practice (ABC)9...

And depositions...lots of depositions!

Posted on August 04, 2009
I was amused to see that the ABA Journal chose L.A. Law as the best legal-themed tv show of all time. It reminded me of one of my favorite legal-themed Saturday Night Live skits: the one where Corbin Bernsen from L.A. Law chooses to represent himself in a trial, based on the legal knowledge he has accumulated playing a lawyer on tv...

Making Sense of Consensus

Posted on July 31, 2009
National Review's Jay Nordlinger asks, "Should one party, and only one party, impose a new regime of health care on the country -- even if that party has the votes, however narrowly? This would be a tremendously big change. Something like a consensus may be appropriate...

Catching up on All-Request questions

Posted on July 16, 2009
Sorry to be silent for a while, gang. I'm catching up on some long-pending questions from my All-Request post from a few weeks ago.1. PG asks, "What, if any, are good reasons for a government attorney not to include all non-frivolous arguments on his client (the government)'s behalf?" Well, ideally, if justice (or the constitution) is better served by not raising them...

Don't get me started, part 2

Posted on July 08, 2009
I've heard this a lot lately from public figures (or, ahem, clients) who find themselves under some form of punishment for various misdeeds: "It's not like I killed somebody!" A close cousin is the double-disbelief: "I didn't kill nobody! I didn't rape nobody!" Well, yeah, dumbass, you didn't, and you're not being punished like you did, either...

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