Legal Commentary

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (202)

Posted on January 16, 2009
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Saturday, January 10; link good at time of posting):Five of the pirates who hijacked a Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a $3 million ransom, a relative said Saturday, the day after the bundle of cash was apparently dropped by parachute onto the deck of the ship...

A post for those who prefer their legal blogging and their birds well-done.

Posted on January 13, 2009
I'm not certain why the following didn't get posted on Sunday evening, but no matter... Susan Cartier Liebel's Blawg Review is just as good two days later:Not since I attended the Seattle Mariners' spring training in Phoenix, Arizona in 2001, the year they set a major league record with 116 wins, have I enjoyed a "Phoenix" this much! The Phoenix is the theme of Susan Cartier Liebel's Blawg Review #194 and celebrates innovation in the practice of law, something which will be the salvation for firms which hope to survive in the present economic climate...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (201)

Posted on January 09, 2009
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Daily Mail (via Unprofessional Foul) (from Tuesday, January 6; link good at time of posting):Shola Ameobi has scored an own goal after telling police his home had been burgled, then realising it was just a tip...

It's named after a bull, so perhaps it's suited to these bullsh-- commutes?

Posted on January 05, 2009
I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for after a nearly two-hours-long commute this morning in stop-and-go post-holiday traffic -- myself or the guy beside me the whole way in a Lamborghini Gallardo. At least my car was built for this at one-seventh the cost of his...

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Misrule and Unreason Make for One Hell of a Blawg Review

Posted on January 04, 2009
The inimitable Charon QC has posted Blawg Review #193, the first -- and first great -- Blawg Review of the new year.Coming on the eve of the Twelfth Night holiday, this week's review celebrates the annual reign of the "Lord of Misrule," or the "Abbot of Unreason," a master of ceremonies for the holiday...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (200)

Posted on January 02, 2009
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Little Green Footballs (from Tuesday, December 30; link good at time of posting):[Previous TGIS]

100 Things I Didn't Know Last Year

Posted on January 01, 2009
At the start of last year, I came across a very interesting article from BBC News Magazine Monitor. Each week the site's writers compiled a list of ten things which they did not know the previous week; their list published on January 1, 2008 pulled together one hundred of the more notable items from those weekly lists...

Blawg Review Nominations

Posted on December 30, 2008
In response to the anonymous Editor's call for nominations, the following posts are, in my humble opinion, the best of the best in what was an outstanding year of Blawg Reviews. As I did last year, I've limited myself to just five posts more-or-less arbitrarily; there were certainly many other Blawg Reviews which deserve serious consideration as "Blawg Review of the Year...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (199)

Posted on December 26, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of CityNews (from Wednesday, December 24; link good at time of posting):You can hire someone to clean [snow] off for you. Or you can wait for it all to melt in the spring. But under no circumstances should you do what a man in New Bedford, Massachusetts thought was a good idea...

Brilliant in Every Sense

Posted on December 22, 2008
Ron Coleman hosts a href="http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/?p=1745"Blawg Review #191/a at his span style="font-style:italic;"Likelihood of Confusion/span blog. Today is the start of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and Coleman's Review takes its theme from this celebration...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (198)

Posted on December 19, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Star (Malaysia) (Via Legal Juice) (from Saturday, December 13; link good at time of posting):A burglar entered a house-turned-grocery shop, thinking he was in for a killing. He nearly got himself killed instead...

It's the one bill we never mind paying for time and again.

Posted on December 15, 2008
Marc Randazza and the Satyriconistas at The Legal Satyricon commemorate Bill of Rights Day in high style with Blawg Review #190. This is a particularly impressive Blawg Review for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they managed to find a Third Amendment-related post to round out their tour of all ten amendments...

He prayeth well, who loveth well/ Both man and site and tweet.

Posted on December 12, 2008
Thank you to the many who publicized Blawg Review #189 online and on Twitter:3 Geeks and a Law Blog (Greg Lambert);Above the Law (Elie Mystal);Antitrust Review (David Fischer);Blawg Review (Ed.);Build A Solo Practice (Susan Cartier Liebel);Charon QC;Chicago IP Litigation Blog (R...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (197)

Posted on December 12, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Tuesday, Decmber 9; link good at time of posting):Police said a woman was arrested after asking a state trooper whether she could smoke - and then trying to light up a marijuana joint...

Tweet of the Ancient Mariner

Posted on December 09, 2008
Toward the end of Blawg Review #189, I mentioned a list of practicing lawyers, legal academics, legal professionals, and law students who microblog on Twitter. That list, maintained by Adrian Lurssen, is available here.Interestingly enough, each and every one of the attorneys whose posts were linked in the section on legal communications ("The Tale") are on Twitter, as are the Blawg Review Editor and both of his Sherpas...

Blawg Review #189

Posted on December 08, 2008
For my first three Blawg Reviews, I've let Dante lead me through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Inconsiderately enough, however, Il Maestro never completed a fourth cantica for his Divine Comedy, leaving me stuck for a theme this time around. Finding that theme was an albatross around my neck until a friend made a timely and much-appreciated suggestion -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (196) . . . The Sequel!

Posted on December 05, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The New York Times (via Diane Levin) (from Wednesday, December 3; link good at time of posting):In the annals of great crime getaways, the two men who beat and robbed a 70-year-old woman at a housing project in the Bronx on Wednesday afternoon are unlikely to earn a mention...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (196)

Posted on December 05, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of New Zealand's 3 News (via Boing Boing) (from Monday, December 1; link good at time of posting):A thief who stole thousands of dollars worth of electrical gear may want to go into hiding after his picture appeared on billboards around Auckland...

Forget about takeaway; you'll want to stay awhile at this restaurant.

Posted on November 30, 2008
Eric Turkewitz has become known in the legal blogosphere for his excellent New York Personal Injury Law Blog and particularly for last year's Blawg Review of the Year runner-up, Blawg Review #134. This year he returns, describing a Thanksgiving holiday with Arlo Guthrie in Blawg Review #188...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (195) . . . The Sequel!

Posted on November 28, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Bendigo Advertiser (via Techdirt) (from Friday, November 21; links good at time of posting):TIMOTHY McCORMACK produced four excellent character references to persuade a judge to give him a lighter sentence for faking his engineering credentials to work on Qantas aircraft...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (195)

Posted on November 28, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Reuters (from Monday, November 24; link good at time of posting):A panda at a zoo in southern China attacked a student who snuck into its pen hoping for a cuddle with the endangered bear, state media said Saturday...

Thanksgiving is special.

Posted on November 27, 2008
What other day of the year do I look forward to seeing the Detroit Lions play? What other day of the year does the wife look forward to getting up early to watch people walk with balloons down a street in New York? Ah, Thanksgiving.In this, the calm before the culinary storm to come, consider a more noble purpose for this day...

Random Thought (16)

Posted on November 25, 2008
I'm not entirely certain whether I've ever spoken of the pompatus of love.[Previous Thought]

Only the fittest legal blogging survives.

Posted on November 24, 2008
Well, not really, as the continuing existence of this blog attests. There isn't a natural selection principle at work in this week's Blawg Review; instead, Joshua Fruchter of the LawyerCasting blog has been hard at work selecting the best legal blogging of the past week for inclusion in Blawg Review #187...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (194)

Posted on November 21, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Weekly Standard (from Tuesday, November 18; link good at time of posting):Hugo Chavez Faces Political Challenge From Ex-WifeShe divorced him, got custody of their daughter, married a tennis instructor, and so as to prevent a descent into divorce cliches, she thought outside the box and worked to defeat constitutional reforms he proposed in 2007, which would have made him president for life...

Blogging and Other Social Media

Posted on November 19, 2008
Blogging and Other Social Media has been published and is available from both Amazon US and Amazon UK. The book was written by Alex Newson and Deryck Houghton, who established the IMPACT legal blog at Freeth Cartwright (Alex is now at Shoosmiths), and by Justin Patten, a mediator who blogs at Human Law and who hosted Blawg Review #78...

Take a break from the War, put your feet up, and enjoy Blawg Review.

Posted on November 18, 2008
While the "Twitter War" in the legal blogosphere was gleefully reported by some, enthusiastically participated in by others, and studiously ignored by many, Benson Varghese of the Res Ipsa blog probably got things right - his Blawg Review #186 covers it along with the rest of the best from the past week in legal blogging...

West London Man Returns

Posted on November 16, 2008
Charon QC's always entertaining West London Man series returns today with an episode which spans the big pond. West London Man (23) finds George in desperate straits as he attempts to forestall a planned visit by his distant American cousin, with whom we're all familiar but with whom George is eager to deny any connection...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (193)

Posted on November 14, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of TimesOnline (from Thursday, November 13; link good at time of posting):Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty?s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles...

Veteran's Day Need Never End

Posted on November 12, 2008
Sure, the calendar shows Veteran's Day as occurring only yesterday, on November 11, but our military personnel continue to sacrifice for us the year round. Major Chuck Ziegenfuss advises this morning that Project Valour-IT, an effort I've proudly championed in the past (see here, here, and here), is in dire financial need; consequently, an urgent fundraising effort is underway and will continue for the next couple of weeks...

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