Houston's Clear Thinkers: Legal Commentary

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Legal Commentary

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.
By Tom Kirkendall

Post Frequency: 4.2/day

Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 03:01:00

Hank's Thank-You Note

Posted on September 11, 2008
Mr. Juggles over at Long or Short Capital passes along this fictional thank-you note from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to American taxpayers after this week's seemingly inevitable federal bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (prior posts here): Dear...

Justice fumbles again

Posted on August 28, 2008
Even when chronically-wrong Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice gets something right, he immediately follows it with more poorly-reasoned blather. In this blog post, Justice pays a nice tribute to former Texas Tech football coach Spike Dykes, who is truly...

The genesis of a mortgage fraud hotspot

Posted on August 27, 2008
Dealbreaker's essential Opening Bell yesterday included the following note about the connection between the state of Florida and mortgage fraud: Florida tops 1Q mortgage fraud list (AP) This is not surprising... Florida is already a key location of the...

Glass houses

Posted on August 26, 2008
Dan Slater of the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog notes the Kremlin's recent refusal to grant parole to former OAO Yukos CEO Michael Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia for tax evasion and fraud. Khodorkovsky's...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Joe Cocker, captioned for the clear-headed

Posted on August 25, 2008
Come to think of it, I always have wondered what lyrics Joe Cocker was singing during his famous rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends" at Woodstock in 1969 (H/T Craig Newmark)....

The Quad reviews UT and LSU

Posted on August 24, 2008
The Quad -- the NY Times' excellent college sports blog that has been the subject of these previous posts -- continues its excellent review of each of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ("FBS") football programs by profiling...

Stros 2008 Season Review, Part Four

Posted on August 23, 2008
After falling apart during the third fifth of the 2008 season, the Stros (64-64) made an unexpected rebound during the fourth fifth of the season, going 20-13 over that stretch. Although the Stros' recent play was more fulfilling to...

Metro's sleight-of-hand

Posted on August 22, 2008
Kevin Whited passes along this Bellaire Examiner article that reports on Metropolitan Transit Authority CEO Frank Wilson bragging to a couple of local Chambers of Commerce about the economic impact that Metro's new light rail projects will have on...

The NFL's next flagship stadium

Posted on August 21, 2008
Reliant Stadium in Houston is a nice and comfortable place to watch sporting events, but this Wired Magazine article reports that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington looks to take the stadium experience to an entirely new level. "The...

Martin Wolf on Capitalism

Posted on August 20, 2008
The new Creative Capitalism blog created by Bill Gates, Michael Kinsley and Conor Clarke is quickly making an interesting corner of the blogosphere. Today, Martin Wolf, the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, pens this...

Say what, Doc?

Posted on August 19, 2008
Inasmuch as my family and social groups include a large number of medical doctors, I've noticed that the slang that the docs use when they are talking shop can be incomprehensible at times. That's why this comprehensive list of...

Richard Justice's Kumbaya Weekend

Posted on August 18, 2008
Allow me to ask the following question again: Why is Richard Justice allowed to write about sports for a major metropolitan newspaper? This weekend's Justice missives were particularly banal, which is saying something when it comes to his writings....

Fashion trends

Posted on August 17, 2008
Check out Esquire's slideshow (on the left below) illustrating the evolution of men's fashion over the past 75 years. Then, take a look at this Time Magazine slideshow (on the right below) exhibiting the worst of golf fashion over the...

Dr. Ralph Feigen, R.I.P.

Posted on August 16, 2008
In this recent post on the death of Michael DeBakey, I noted that a substantial part of Dr. DeBakey's legacy was his involvement in the massive importation of talented medical professionals to Houston over the past 60 years. That...

Mapping Olympic Medals

Posted on August 15, 2008
The New York Times has the best Olympics online coverage page that I've seen. Particularly well-done are the daily schedule and the Olympic Medals page, the latter of which maps the medals as they are won and provides a map...

Cowboy business

Posted on August 14, 2008
The Texans are the toast of their local cheerleading team, but the unquestioned NFL team of Texas remains the Dallas Cowboys. This Glenn Hunter/D Magazine interview of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confirms that the Cowboys business model is performing...

Beijing = "People's Republic of Houston"?

Posted on July 17, 2008
"Beijing is flat and sprawling and smoggy and jammed with traffic and nearly all new, which is why an American friend who’s been working there for the last couple of years calls it 'the People’s Republic of Houston.'" That's...

Southwest Airlines' legacy of good news

Posted on July 16, 2008
Gosh, it's such a drag reading about business and the economy lately. So, what the heck, let's take a quick look at a perennial source of good news, Clear Thinkers favorite Southwest Airlines. Southwest's discount model of operation has...

Stros 2008 Season Review, Part Three

Posted on July 15, 2008
Inasmuch as Major League Baseball is taking a break for the All-Star break, I decided to post the third part of five periodic reviews of the Stros' 2008 season a game or so early (previous parts for the 2008...

Be careful, Mr. Wagoner

Posted on July 14, 2008
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner made some interesting public comments this past week in Dallas regarding the besieged automaker's bankruptcy prospects: "Under any scenario we can imagine, our financial position, or cash position, will remain robust through the rest...

Dr. Michael DeBakey, R.I.P.

Posted on July 13, 2008
Dr. Michael DeBakey (previous posts here), who was one of the most influential men in Houston's history, died late Friday at the age of 99. Two of the Chronicle's finest reporters -- Science reporter Eric Berger and Texas Medical...

Incompetence masquerading as demagoguery

Posted on July 12, 2008
University of Houston finance professor Craig Pirrong (blog here) does a nice job in this Wall $treet Journal op-ed on Friday of explaining how speculation in oil and gas markets helps all of us deal with rising energy prices:...

An Enron "hero" is looking for work?

Posted on July 11, 2008
This JoAnn Greco/Portfolio.com article bemoans that "famed Enron whistleblower" Sherron Watkins is having a hard time finding a job. Those dastardly employers just don't trust honest employees such as Watkins, now do they? On the other hand, perhaps the reason...

Which Starbucks stores are closing?

Posted on July 10, 2008
When Starbucks announced last week that it is closing 600 stores and laying off 12,000 employees, the company did not disclose which stores would be shuttered (got to get those lease buyouts finalized). However, that hasn't stopped word from...

The NFL confronts the Mismatch Problem

Posted on July 09, 2008
The pathological way in which National Football League teams annually evaluate college football players has been a common topic on this blog. So, I thoroughly enjoyed this New Yorker video (H/T Guy Kawasaki) of a recent talk by Clear...

The latest Enron book

Posted on July 08, 2008
Harvard Business School issued this press release and interview yesterday of Malcolm S. Salter, the Harvard professor who has written the latest book -- Innovation Corrupted: The Origins and Legacy of Enron's Collapse (Harvard University Press) -- in what...

American ingenuity

Posted on July 07, 2008
It's not all bad news out there on the business front. Over this past holiday weekend, Cirrus Design Corporation successfully completed the first 45-minute flight of the company's innovative "The-Jet" (H/T James Fallows), which is a five-plus-two seat aircraft that...

An excellent primer for the political season

Posted on July 06, 2008
The Heritage Foundation provides this outstanding series of charts (example to the left) reflecting various issues relating to federal revenue and spending. Recommended reading before listening to any candidate during the upcoming political campaigns...

CNET visits the JSC

Posted on July 05, 2008
CNET's Road Trip 2008 blog visits the Johnson Space Center in the Clear Lake area of Houston (photos here). The article and accompanying photos are a good primer for the always interesting visit to the JSC....

Nice job, but what about that other case?

Posted on July 04, 2008
This Wall Street Journal editorial pats itself on the back justifiably for swimming against the mainstream media tide in opposing from the outset former New York Attorney General Eliot's Spitzer's popular but dubious litigation and propaganda campaign against former New...

Previous | Next