Legal Commentary

It's Friday, and cats are on the blog

Posted on September 05, 2008
I know it's late on Friday, but there's still time for some catblogging -- so I'm going for it. Big Silver has found a nice place to sleep. One that's blessedly free of puppy distractions. I suppose one of the reasons Silvs has been getting along so well with the little puppy is that, for now, the biggie cat can always turn the puppy knob to "off" by going somewhere in the apartment where the puppy can't follow...

Lamb shoulder and purple amaranth

Posted on August 18, 2008
Dinner tonight: lamb shoulder, rare, served with purple amaranth leaves sauteed in butter with shallots, pearl onions, sherry vinegar, and walnuts. Yum!

Moving

Posted on August 16, 2008
Moving from one apartment to another is a pain in the ass. But at least moving can remind you of how much crap you really have. It may induce you to finally get rid of some of it. Best, though, would be if moving all of that crap reminded you not to accumulate so much of it in the first place.

Friday catblogging

Posted on August 15, 2008
It's Friday, which means it's time for catblogging! Today we have my big cat Silver. Alias: Mr. Snuggles. As a bonus, here we have the Big Silv with my new little puppy. Twice the fun! About the cuteness of that little puppy: no comment.

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Neighborliness vs. business relationships

Posted on August 13, 2008
I've always vaguely believed that being an asshole now and then is somehow part of being a good businessman. Here, Rick Saenz explores the relationship between business practices and neighborliness, and provides a historical argument to support my vague belief...

An ambulance crashes, and I'm not surprised

Posted on June 18, 2008
I'm surprised we don't see this more often. During the year that I drove an ambulance, I had to deal with a) oblivious drivers, for whom my lights and sirens were like the sound of falling golf clubs to Tiger Woods, and b) crazy-ass Denver Health paramedics who drove like nutjobs...

FISA "compromise" bill a Democratic surrender to George W. Bush

Posted on June 12, 2008
As is often the case, Glenn Greenwald's latest blog post must be read:The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau has a long, prominent article today on the pending debate over FISA and telecom amnesty -- headlined: "Return to Old Spy Rules Is Seen as Deadline Nears" -- that features (and endorses) virtually every blatant falsehood that has distorted these spying issues from the beginning, and which is built on every shoddy journalistic practice that has made clear debate over these issues almost impossible...

Academics and politics

Posted on June 10, 2008
There's an excellent discussion going on over at Stanley Fish's NYT column about the role of political beliefs among college professors. I tend to agree with Fish. The University of Colorado's attempts to recruit conservative faculty members are misplaced and should embarrass all Coloradans...

Got bass?

Posted on June 06, 2008
Waiting for my girlfriend's plane from L.A. to land, I listened closely to Stool... uh, Tool, in the parking lot at O'Hare airport at 5 am after I'd worked all night in the ER. It was sublime: And then this always makes me think of those cold nights camped under the stars in Wyoming:

Obama, the Chicago guy

Posted on June 05, 2008
Via Michael Froomkin comes this great piece from Rick Perlstein, the author of Nixonland. Anyone doubting that we've made some progress in race relations should read some of these letters written by white Chicagoans during the civil rights era. Read their letters, feel their fear...

Why Chicago wants the Olympics

Posted on June 05, 2008
Chicago Stays in Running After Early Vote to Decide Host of 2016 Olympics . . . . The transportation along Lake Michigan, where some of the Olympic sites would be located, needs to be improved because there is no link to rail lines, the evaluation said...

The winner of the popular vote is...

Posted on June 01, 2008
Here's a great post on the Daily Kos that sorts out the controversy over who's winning the popular vote.

Why old white working-class people voted for Hillary

Posted on June 01, 2008
After eight years of George W. Bush, almost all of us want some kind of change. Unsurprisingly, then, Barack Obama?s campaign theme of change has been more successful than Clinton?s theme of experience. What surprises me is the number of Democrats who have voted for Hillary Clinton nevertheless...

Another civics lesson

Posted on May 24, 2008
Glenn Greenwald says he used to be a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. But he doesn't need that background to make the following obvious point: . . . a court striking down a law supported by large majorities is not antithetical to our system of government...

Pygar, RIP

Posted on May 16, 2008
John Phillip Law, the actor who played the well-tanned angel Pygar in one of the most absurd movies ever made, has died. Read the L.A. Times obituary. Oh, and if you haven't seen Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy, you should. Have you ever wanted to see a sci-fi movie about the sexual adventures of a hot chick who travels the galaxy in a spaceship with brown shag carpet that actually covers the walls? I thought so.

Barbara Ehrenreich gets the gender thing right

Posted on May 15, 2008
Hey Mom, look at this! (I call out my mom because I always have my best discussions about gender differences with her. I'm pretty sure my mom will actually agree with this piece by Barbara Ehrenreich. Even if I'm still not sure whether she supported Obama or Clinton for the Democratic nomination...

Heroes at home

Posted on May 15, 2008
We hear people throwing around the word "hero" a lot these days, mostly in reference to our soldiers fighting in Iraq. Heroes these soldiers may be, but let's also recognize some other heroes serving our country, even if they aren't lauded by the Hugh Hewitts and Rush Limbaughs of the world...

What makes a perfect book?

Posted on May 13, 2008
I was talking about perfect books with a friend of mine the other day. Most of you can point to a few books that sit at the tippy-top of your all-time favorites. Books that have become almost sacred for you. But what is it about these books that separates them from the merely brilliant? My friend said something about a perfect book commandeering her brainstem, whereas a brilliant book can only take control of her cerebellum, or her bilateral parietal lobes...

Noble and worthy people... who need their ass kicked

Posted on May 01, 2008
Writing about the college admissions process, Yale law student Amelia Rawls repeats the truism that successful people aren't always nice. Her article is worth reading because she also points out that noble, concerned, and committed people aren't always nice, either:I'm saying that sometimes some of these students will denounce world hunger but be unfriendly to the homeless...

Paul Krugman's bizarre assertions

Posted on February 12, 2008
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes that "the bitterness of the fight for the Democratic nomination is, on the face of it, bizarre."  Actually, the only thing that's bizarre is why Krugman would say this about a contest that has been astonishingly civilized and free of rancor...

Clinton vs. Obama on telecom immunity

Posted on February 12, 2008
In a few days I'll post the reasons why I think Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, should be the democratic presidential nominee. For now, please note what happened today.I'm not talking about the potomac primary, I'm talking about the vote in the Senate to strip retroactive immunity from civil liability for telecom companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping of American citizens without a warrant...

Modern infantilism -- does Benjamin Barber have the solution?

Posted on February 09, 2008

We don't need a President McCain

Posted on February 07, 2008
John McCain, the certain Republican presidential nominee, sees the 2008 elections like this:Often elections in this country are fought within the margins of small differences. This one will not be. We are arguing about hugely consequential things. Whomever the Democrats nominate, they would govern this country in a way that will, in my opinion, take this country backward to the days when government felt empowered to take from us our freedom to decide for ourselves the course and qualityof our lives; to substitute the muddled judgment of large and expanding federal bureaucracies for the common sense and values of the American people; to the timidity and wishful thinking of a time when we averted our eyes from terrible threats to our security that were so plainly gathering strength abroad...

How democracy works

Posted on February 06, 2008
The New York Times editorializes about "how democracy is supposed to work":In an interview with ABC?s ?Good Morning America,? on Monday, Mr. Obama?s wife, Michelle, was asked if she would work to support Mrs. Clinton if she won. ?I?d have to think about that,? she replied...

Where I stand on the Hyde Park question

Posted on February 05, 2008
Warning: what follows is actually just a long-winded plug for a blog I stumbled upon today: Hyde Park Progress. Is the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park a good place to live, or is it a place to commute into because you wouldn't dream of actually living here? From 1989 until early 1993, I lived in Hyde Park...

Emergency medicine's body of knowledge

Posted on January 30, 2008
As you already know from my previous posts, I don't often blog about my job. If you want good blogging about emergency medicine, I suggest you read the EM folks on my blogroll. Panda Bear has been especially hilarious lately. Obviously, I disagree with Dr...

Blind pigeon

Posted on January 30, 2008
A brilliant essay on caring for a blind pigeon.

Re-reading Garrett Hardin in light of Wendell Berry

Posted on January 22, 2008
My dad recently reminded me of Garrett Hardin's essay "The tragedy of the commons", which I've read five times or more in school at various times.  Re-reading it now, it struck me how central the idea of responsibility is to that essay.The central problem for Hardin, of course, is that people acting in their own self-interest will overuse things that are held in common...

Best agrarian blogs

Posted on January 18, 2008
Dry Creek Chronicles, by Rick Saenz, has consistently been the best agrarian blog out there.  I don't mean to endorse all of Saenz' opinions, but I do mean to say that post for post, his blog describes the agrarian viewpoint and wrestles with its consequences better than any other blog I'm aware of...

Cloned cow and dead wolf

Posted on January 16, 2008
Two interesting items from Goat, the blog of the wonderful magazine High Country News:Thanks to a Food and Drug Administration decision made this morning, you might soon be able to order a McClonewich at the drive-through or spread a smear of low-fat clone cheese on your morning bagel...

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