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Houston's Clear Thinkers 

Wide-ranging observations on law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to members of the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
Post Frequency: 4.2/day Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 03:01:00 Recent Entries: 746
By Tom Kirkendall
Go to Houston's Clear Thinkers, find other Legal Commentary blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Conan O'Brien's Greatest Guest Moments
Posted on March 07, 2009Conan O'Brien - Great Guest moments - watch more funny videos...
The Making of the Godfather
Posted on February 26, 2009Don't miss Mark Seal's wonderful Vanity Fair piece on the making -- and particularly the war over casting -- of The Godfather: With The Godfather, the era of the $100 million blockbuster had begun, and its creator was the...
Greed in perspective
Posted on February 25, 2009In market economies, people who create jobs and wealth often generate great wealth personally. During periods of market unrest, those wealthy folks are often demonized as being greedy. During a period of economic malaise in1979, the late Milton Friedman counsels...
Judge Kent cops a plea
Posted on February 24, 2009As most local lawyers expected, U.S. District Judge Sam Kent entered into a plea bargain on the courthouse steps today that derailed what would have been an extremely ugly trial on sexual abuse and obstruction of justice charges and...
The Journal's curious case of myopia
Posted on February 23, 2009Bully for the Wall Street Journal for running this editorial last week decrying the prosecutorial misconduct of the Justice Department in obtaining the conviction of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on ethics charges. However, where was the nation's leading...
A civilized routine
Posted on February 22, 2009Check out Winston Churchill's entirely wonderful daily routine from the quite interesting blog, Daily Routines: Despite all this activity Churchill’s daily routine changed little during these years. He awoke about 7:30 a.m. and remained in bed for a substantial...
Quotes of the Week
Posted on February 21, 2009Emanuel Derman: "The market wants Churchill and they keep tossing it Chamberlains." John Nash (via David Henderson) on his progress out of mental illness in the late 1980's: "Then gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced...
IMG's bad week
Posted on February 20, 2009The late Mark McCormack must be spinning in his grave. His baby has had a very bad week. McCormack was the attorney who parleyed his friendship with PGA Tour star Arnold Palmer to create the world's leading management firm...
Stanford blows up
Posted on February 18, 2009Well, that certainly didn't take long, now did it? As noted here this past Sunday, Stanford Financial Group has been well-known around Houston as a smoke-and-mirrors investment outfit for quite awhile. Joe Weisenthal over at Clusterstock has the best...
It's tough following sports in Houston
Posted on February 17, 2009As noted earlier here, given all of the incredible disappointments over the years, there must be a special place in Heaven for folks who continue to follow Houston sports teams. The latest example The Stros haven't even held their...
What are Leach and IMG thinking?
Posted on February 16, 2009This earlier post noted the fascinating contract dispute that has arisen between Texas Tech University and the most successful coach in the school's history, Mike Leach. Now, with the university and Leach at loggerheads, and a university-imposed February 17th deadline...
Houston's Madoff?
Posted on February 15, 2009The mainstream media has finally begun to notice the unusual circumstances surrounding the Houston-based investment firm, Stanford Financial Group (the latest Chronicle story is here). Although the firm characterized the various investigations as "routine" in news reports, believe me...
An unintended consequence of drug prohibition
Posted on February 14, 2009While this post from earlier in the week highlighted the historical backdrop to the United States' failed drug prohibition policy, this Telegraph.co.uk article passes along an unintended consequence of that policy that should put to rest any concerns about...
What Not to Wear, PGA Tour-style
Posted on February 12, 2009Golf Digest fashion director Marty Hackel takes Phil Mickelson to task for wearing a white belt with his otherwise all-black oufit at the PGA Tour stop last weekend at Torrey Pines in San Diego: OK, I have had a...
Interesting historical perspectives
Posted on February 11, 2009Cato Unbound points us to a couple of articles that provide insightful observations on two of the crises that are swirling around us these days. First, William Niskanen cautions us regarding the fear-mongering that supporters of the Obama Administration's fiscal...
The real A-Rod tragedy
Posted on February 10, 2009As predicted here last year, the names of the MLB players who tested positive for steroids or other performance-enhancing drug use in MLB's 2003 survey test of 240 players are finally being leaked to the media (previous posts on...
A couple of questions regarding the proposed soccer stadium
Posted on February 09, 2009The always-entertaining Houston real estate blog, Swamplot, provided this post last week with typically pretty pictures from a KHOU-TV video of the long-proposed soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo MLS soccer team. Have we really been talking about this...
Is Leach worth it for Tech?
Posted on February 08, 2009A fascinating dispute between Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach and Texas Tech University highlights the tension in the relationship between the business of big-time college football and academia. According to this Examiner.com article, Leach and Tech have agreed...
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Dumb Texas Laws
Stupid Laws in the Lone Star State
Can I be held responsible for paying child support if I signed a birth certificate of a child that was not mine (am not the biological father)?
Get yourself some legal counsil straigth away. Explain you situation to him/her ...
What can I say without libeling?
You moral nazi. Are you kidding me? It is her personal choice, leave her alone. ...
Hi. If a woman is pregnant and the father requests she abort (because he doesnt want to be a father) and the woman refuses, can he still be made to pay child support if: 1. he IS the father 2. he IS the father but his na
Yes if he is teh father he can be made to pay.
It doesn't matter if h...
My father is aging. We both agree we need to secure property that has been in the family well over sixty years. The problem is my uncle name was previously on the property who is now deceased and also took out two loa
buy the house from him . that would pay the old loan and title the property to y...
How to prevent an arrest from appearing in the local newspaper?
Dont know the law in Minnesota but in most jurisdictions an arrest is a matter o...

Can I be held responsible for paying child support if I signed a birth certificate of a child that was not mine (am not the biological father)?
Get yourself some legal counsil straigth away. Explain you situation to him/her ...
What can I say without libeling?
You moral nazi. Are you kidding me? It is her personal choice, leave her alone. ...
Hi. If a woman is pregnant and the father requests she abort (because he doesnt want to be a father) and the woman refuses, can he still be made to pay child support if: 1. he IS the father 2. he IS the father but his na
Yes if he is teh father he can be made to pay.
It doesn't matter if h...
My father is aging. We both agree we need to secure property that has been in the family well over sixty years. The problem is my uncle name was previously on the property who is now deceased and also took out two loa
buy the house from him . that would pay the old loan and title the property to y...
How to prevent an arrest from appearing in the local newspaper?
Dont know the law in Minnesota but in most jurisdictions an arrest is a matter o...








