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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

A culture of abuse

Posted on February 22, 2010
The big legal news over the weekend is the Department of Justice?s decision not to recommend disciplinary proceedings against Cal-Berkeley law professor John C. Yoo and federal appellate Judge Jay S. Bybee for their participation in a series of DOJ memos that provided the dubious legal basis for the...

Not in this weather

Posted on February 21, 2010
Mercedes-Benz contributes to the ongoing series of posts on creative commercials. Enjoy....

Justice Kennedy notices a couple of troubling issues

Posted on February 05, 2010
Overcriminalization of life and the appalling condition of our country?s prison facilities have been frequent subjects on this blog over the years. At least one member of the U.S. Supreme Court has taken notice: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy criticized California sentencing policies and crowded prisons Wednesday...

Different eras, similar swings

Posted on February 04, 2010
Ben Hogan and Anthony Kim....

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How to complete a census

Posted on February 03, 2010
2010 is a census year, so it?s a good time to recall one of the best Saturday Night Live skits ever, Christopher Walken answering a census taker?s questions. Enjoy....

Running into the abyss

Posted on February 02, 2010
17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal observed in his Pens�es that ?we run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it.? Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, observed something similar in his quarterly report regarding the...

The Thrilla in Manila

Posted on February 01, 2010
As we prepare for the media tedium this Super Bowl week, it is a good time to appreciate the SI Vault, Sports Illustrated?s wonderful web archive of outstanding sports stories from the past. For example, check out this article by Mark Kram chronicling 1975?s Thrilla in Manila, the epic...

Lone Survivor

Posted on January 31, 2010
I recently finished reading Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Little, Brown and Company 2009), Marcus Luttrell?s engrossing story of his experience in surviving a vicious battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan...

At one time, the NY Times was an interesting place to work

Posted on January 30, 2010
From Big Think, Guy Talese wonders how on earth he and his co-workers at the New York Times ever got the paper to publication:...

Tales of Two Lives

Posted on January 29, 2010
Wednesday?s Congressional testimony of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Department of Justice?s incredible shrinking case against former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling got me to thinking. Geithner has made his share of dubious decisions over the past several years...

The DOJ's Merits Brief in the Skilling Appeal

Posted on January 28, 2010
On the heels of last month?s filing with the U.S. Supreme Court of Jeff Skilling?s brief on the merits of his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Department of Justice filed its brief on the merits of Skilling?s appeal earlier this week. A copy of the brief is...

Positively 4th Street

Posted on January 27, 2010

Checking in on the Rockets at the halfway point

Posted on January 26, 2010
The football season still has two weeks to go and the NBA season is already at the halfway point? The always interesting Dave Berri posted his wins produced/productivity stats for each NBA player through mid-season yesterday. As usual, the statistics reveal some interesting developments: Unsurprisingly, LeBron James is the...

Visiting Florence

Posted on January 25, 2010
Regular readers of this blog know that I've been traveling to Florence, Italy frequently over the past year to visit my son Andy, who is attending the Angel Academy of Art there. Here is slideshow of photos from that beautiful city with musical accompaniment from Alison Krauss and Robert Plant...

Winter Golf in The Woodlands

Posted on January 24, 2010
The following are recent photos of the Tournament Course at The Woodlands that I recently took during a brilliant Texas morning in January with my buddies, Jerry Sagehorn and John Stevenson. The Tournament Course is still known to most Houstonians as ?the TPC,? from the days when the course...

There's a Light Beyond These Woods

Posted on January 23, 2010
The incomparable Nanci Griffith....

Sharp cheddar

Posted on January 22, 2010
In our continuing series of splendidly creative commercials, check out this one for Norm?s Cheddar (H/T Bill Hesson):...

2009 Weekly local football review

Posted on January 04, 2010
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here). Texans 34 Patriots 27 The Texans (9-7) finished off their eighth season in grand style by beating the mostly-trying Patriots (10-6) with an impressive 21 point 4th quarter comeback...

Is it time for hoops yet?

Posted on January 03, 2010
After all the mediocre bowl games over the past several days, it's time to turn to the basketball season. A good way to start is with one of the best hoops scenes in the history of cinema, Jimmy's winning shot from Hoosiers. Enjoy....

The Duke

Posted on January 02, 2010
A good way to start the new year -- Duke Ellington and Take the "A" Train....

The Dude abides in academia

Posted on January 01, 2010
Somehow, it's comforting to know as we move into 2010 that analysis of The Big Lebowski has moved into academic circles. Of course, these emerging academic treatments have a ways to go before they can rival Rob Ager's work on the film, the first installment of which can be...

The Mike Leach Train Wreck

Posted on December 31, 2009
After what happened earlier this year, no one should really be surprised that Texas Tech University elected to fire Mike Leach yesterday. But we still are. Just how does someone as successful and intelligent as Leach lose one of the 20 or so highest-paying jobs in big-time college football?...

The risks of health care finance

Posted on December 30, 2009
A ran across a couple of particularly good articles yesterday regarding the current national debate over reform of the American health care finance system. First, Canadian Mark Steyn does not believe that Obamacare's drift toward universal coverage will even be as effective as the underachieving Canadian model: ...

Thinking about security theater

Posted on December 29, 2009
Given the Homeland Security Department and Transportation Security Administration's typically over-the-top reaction to the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a jet flying into Detroit from Amsterdam, one wonders at what point the government's elaborate "security theater" will finally...

2009 Weekly local football review

Posted on December 28, 2009
(Doug Benc/Getty Images photo; previous weekly reviews for this season are here). Texans 27 Dolphins 20 The Texans (8-7) continue to have a remote chance of gaining an AFC playoff spot with their 27-20 victory over the Dolphins (7-8),...

Accord Perfection

Posted on December 27, 2009
In the continuing series of remarkable commercials, Honda chips in....

Again, why bother with a trial?

Posted on December 26, 2009
The popular view is that R. Allen Stanford is a crook and should spend the rest of his life in prison. But doesn't the U.S. Constitution -- not to speak of simple human decency -- provide him with the...

The Light in the Darkness

Posted on December 25, 2009
Every Christmas since 1949, The Wall Street Journal has published the following op-ed -- In Hoc Anno Domini -- from the late Vernon Royster. Royster's piece reminds us not only the the brutal nature of life in the Roman...

Merry Christmas from the Family

Posted on December 24, 2009
It wouldn't be Christmas in Texas without taking a moment to listen to Texas singer-songwriter and Houston native Robert Earl Keen's classic Texas Christmas carol and video, Merry Christmas from the Family Keen is playing the House of Blues at...

To Everything There is a Season

Posted on December 23, 2009
Still sounding darn good in 2006, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and David Crosby sing Pete Seeger's classic that The Byrds made famous in the 1960's, Turn! Turn! Turn!...

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