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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.
The Fifth Circuit rules in the Skilling appeal
Posted on January 07, 2009In this current anti-business climate, not many folks were expecting that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would set aside former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's conviction. On the other hand, not many folks expected this decision, either. In the...
As the Rockets' World Turns
Posted on January 06, 2009With the football season winding down in these parts, folks are finally noticing that the Houston Rockets are approaching the halfway point of the NBA seasons and again look like an also-ran in the playoff race. It's now been...
2008 Weekly local football review
Posted on January 05, 2009(WRMSOX photo; previous weekly reviews are here) Rice 38 Western Michigan 14 As expected, the Owls (10-3) rolled to an easy win in the Texas Bowl last Tuesday as star QB Chase Clement (30-44/307 yds/3 TD's/12 carries for 72...
How much did you say he made?
Posted on January 04, 2009Except for the incredibly large amounts, there are no surprises at the top of Golf Digest's annual list (H/T Geoff Shackelford) of professional golf's top 50 money earners from both prize money and endorsement income. Tiger Woods ($117 mil...
Football or P.R. Genius?
Posted on January 03, 2009Richard Justice has already deemed him a genius. Earlier this month, he visited President Bush in the White House and, on Sunday night, he will be profiled on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes. Even Michael Lewis has bought in to the...
Summing up the New Year's Day Bowls
Posted on January 02, 2009Says TigerHawk: "Until I witnessed Brent Musburger's love of USC, I did not think it was possible for a journalist to love a subject more than Chris Matthews loves Barack Obama. Now I am not so sure."...
Check out A&M's new indoor track facility
Posted on December 31, 2008Track and Field Videos on Flotrack...
Those pesky unexpected consequences
Posted on December 30, 2008On the heels of this post from a couple of days ago that addressed Tyler Cowen's recent NY Times op-ed that speculated that expectations generated from the 1998 government bailout of Long Term Capital Management hedge fund were not...
2008 Weekly local football review
Posted on December 29, 2008(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews are here) Texans 31 Bears 24 Well, at least this time, the Texans (8-8) beat the Bears' (9-7) first-string rather than the Jags' junior varsity to achieve only the franchise's second non-losing season...
Lessons of LTCM
Posted on December 28, 2008Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen makes a similar point in this NY Times op-ed about the 1998 federal bailout of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund that this earlier post made about Enron and the current Treasury bailout: At the...
Are you ready for some football?
Posted on December 27, 2008The football rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners is one of the most passionate in college football. The intensity of that rivalry has led to some highly competitive recruiting battles between the two schools for the best...
Hayes Carll is back
Posted on December 26, 2008The Woodlands native Hayes Carll (earlier post here) is back in town for the holiday season, playing tonight in downtown Houston at Warehouse Live and on Tuesday the 30th at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. If you have not had the...
Merry Christmas from the Family
Posted on December 25, 2008Back by popular demand is Texas singer-songwriter and Houston native Robert Earl Keen's classic Texas Christmas carol and video, Merry Christmas from the Family. Happy holidays and thanks for reading HCT!...
Playing fair
Posted on December 24, 2008So, now Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is finding out that some federal prosecutors do not play fair (H/T Doug Berman). Of course, we've known that for quite some time down here in Houston. Oh well, at least the mainstream...
Enduring Gladwell?
Posted on December 23, 2008Charlie Rose interviews Malcolm Gladwell in the video below in regard to his new book Outliers, but it does not appear that the Financial Times' Clive Cook will be watching: Since the first chapter of #8220;Tipping Point#8221; I have been...
2008 Weekly local football review
Posted on December 22, 2008(AP Photo/George Nikitin; previous weekly reviews are here) Raiders 27 Texans 16 Amidst the Chronicle cheerleaders becoming enraptured again during the Texans' (7-8) first four-game winning streak, the local team reminded us today against the Raiders (4-11) why they...
The Big Picture -- 2008
Posted on December 21, 2008Don't miss Boston.com's Big Picture's collection of the best photos of 2008 here, here and here....
Any connection?
Posted on December 20, 2008As Bill Henderson notes, many big law firms are going to have trouble surviving in these turbulent financial markets. Financial markets aside, though, I wonder whether this type of news is an even larger part of big law's problem?...
Wallstrip does Cramer on Wall Street
Posted on December 19, 2008Watch Cramer Weekend on Wallstrip in Funny Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com...
Making sense of Madoff
Posted on December 18, 2008Loren Steffy, the Houston Chronicle's business columnist, has been having a hard time lately. You will recall that Steffy was one of the leaders of the mainstream media lynch mob that embraced the myth of the Greed Narrative in...
A tuna wins a small lottery prize
Posted on December 17, 2008As a result of the Buffet Rule, the federal government decided to land a bunch of tuna rather than the barracuda in regard to an AIG-General Re finite risk insurance transaction that was not clearly illegal, much less criminal....
Blago blogging
Posted on December 16, 2008The criminal troubles of an Illinois governor would not normally be one of this blog's topics, but this Michael Barone op-ed on the Rod Blagojevich affair is just too good not to pass along. Barone is well-versed in the...
2008 Weekly local football review
Posted on December 15, 2008(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews are here) Texans 13 Titans 12 The Texans (7-7), who most everyone in these parts had left for dead a month ago, won their fourth straight game for the first time in...
Project Barkley
Posted on December 14, 2008Hank Haney has done some really good work in helping Tiger Woods modify his swing plane over the past several years. But what he has done in helping Charles Barkley fix his golf swing is nothing short of miraculous....
That's a solution?
Posted on December 13, 2008As Congress and the mainstream media continue their muddle over the current downturn in financial markets, one of the ubiquitous "solutions" that Washington and the MSM have already decided is needed to prevent another such disruption is more and...
Would you buy a car from Congress?
Posted on December 11, 2008The W$J's Holman Jenkins continues what should be Pulitzer Prize-winning commentary on the problems of the U.S. auto industry: None of [Congress' complicity in the auto industry's problem] was mentioned at four days of congressional bailout hearings, because Detroit...
From waiting tables to the Tour
Posted on December 10, 2008There really is nothing quite like the PGA Qualifying Tournament (commonly know as "the Q School") for sheer sporting drama. After six nerve-wracking rounds (108 holes), the 25 low scorers get the treasured fully-exempt status to play in PGA...
225 Miles High
Posted on December 09, 2008Check out these magnificent Mail Online photos of the Endeavour astronauts completing the recent repairs on the International Space Station....
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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...








