Legal Commentary

Just Blawg, Baby

Posted on May 05, 2008
You know, I've been happily involved with the Blawg Review project as a reader, contributor, and sherpa for several years now and I can't recall midwifery every coming up in the carnival of legal blogging. Well, now it has. Boldly going where no man has gone before is The Mommy Blawger, who hosts Blawg Review #158 today on International Midwives' Day...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (165)... The Sequel!

Posted on May 02, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Star-Telegram.com (via QuizLaw) (from Tuesday, April 29; links good at time of posting):An aspiring record label owner is singing the blues after he was arrested last week for allegedly trying to pass a $360 billion check at a Fort Worth bank...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (165)

Posted on May 02, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Times Online (from Tuesday, April 29; link god at time of posting):Ronaldo, the AC Milan forward, was questioned by police yesterday after an altercation with transvestites in a Rio de Janeiro motel...

Friends don't let friends create Jar Jar Binks.

Posted on May 01, 2008
Friends don't let friends drive drunk, saith the original Star Wars cantina barflies in this classic public service announcement unearthed (or untatooined, as the case may be) by the io9 blog.io9 has several others also worth a look, including advice from He-Man and She-Ra for the sexually-molested...

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Posted on April 30, 2008
From The Register:Residents on the Greek island of Lesbos have declared that they alone have the right to call themselves lesbians, and yesterday launched a legal action against the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (Olke) designed to wrest back control of the word from aficionados of Sapphic luuurv...

If God insists on resting on the seventh day, He's never going to break Ripken's record.

Posted on April 28, 2008
The With Leather sports blog offers a bit of insight into the increasingly-strange trademark dust-up between Little League Baseball and the upstart Christian Little League. Confronted by Little League's lawsuit, With Leather reports that the founder of Christian Little League, Jay Kaplanresponded the only way a righteous Christian jackass knows how: by being a righteous Christian jackass...

I hear that the third time's the charm, although the first two were already pretty charming.

Posted on April 28, 2008
Professor Eric Goldman is pulling together another gathering of the legal bloggers here in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. I've been fortunate enough to have made it to the first two and I've already calendared this third meet-up. My favorite part of these events is the opportunity to meet people with whom I've corresponded for the last few years; making virtual friends into real ones is one of the treats of our digital age.

Deep Thoughts

Posted on April 28, 2008
Michael Fitzgibbon is one of my favorite legal bloggers; his blog, Thoughts from a Management Lawyer is a great, consistently informative, no gimmicks legal site. This week, he's hosting Blawg Review #157. Highlights of this labor and employment law-centric edition include a few dos and don'ts -- micromanaging employee expenditures (do), waterboarding your employees (don't), conducting a proper workplace investigation (do), and bringing your baby to the workplace (don't -- at least in Britain)...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (164)

Posted on April 25, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Reuters (from Wednesday, April 23; link good at time of posting):Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft...

Random Thought (10)

Posted on April 22, 2008
I blog under my real name because I don't want people to know my pseudonym.[Previous Thought]

Why turn a blind eye when you can turn an all-seeing one?

Posted on April 21, 2008
It's not difficult to join the crowd in criticizing Microsoft for their product, security, and strategic choices. The company's done a lot right, though, and it's a genuine pleasure to recognize that Microsoft can not just display a leadership mentality from time-to-time, but also bring to bear the resources necessary to lead; I congratulate them for leading on security issues at the ToorCon security conference in Seattle recently...

Kickin' Back, Keepin' It Virtual

Posted on April 21, 2008
One of the more focused and interesting legal blogs around is Benjamin Duranske's Virtually Blind. For those of you who've not yet found this ongoing discussion of the legal issues associated with the virtual world (e.g., Second Life, World of Warcraft), this week's Blawg Review #156 offers a great opportunity to get a real education about all things virtual...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (163)

Posted on April 18, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of KITV (via Quizlaw) (from Monday, April 14; link good at time of posting):The Honolulu Police Department asked for the public's help in Monday in tracking down a man who tried to rob a bank...

It's not a bird or a plane... it's a "superhero lawyer-turned-CEO"

Posted on April 16, 2008
Andrew Feinberg at the Capitol Valley blog has more of the wonderful response of Blue Jeans Cable's CEO to bullying competitor Monster Cable, which I posted about yesterday. That letter should be required reading in every law school. Tremendous. Thanks to Blawg Review's anonymous Editor for pointing this post out to me.

"Cease and Desist" is Legalese for "Please, Make Me Look Like an Ass"

Posted on April 15, 2008
Via Slashdot:[Monster Cable] sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable over a supposed patent violation. What the Monster folks couldn't have known was that Blue Jeans president Kurt Denke used to be a lawyer. His response is as humorous as it is thorough...

An Ode to Blawg Review #155

Posted on April 14, 2008
Comes now a Blawg Review hostTo whom I'll offer this toast:He's gathered great links,But his poetry stinks.We're waiting for Giacalone's post.Greg May hosts Blawg Review #155 at The California Blog of Appeal. From legal-themed poetry to the stress it causes, May has things ably covered this week...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (162)

Posted on April 11, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Techdirt (from Wednesday, April 9; link good at time of posting):It appears Marilyn Monroe's estate didn't think all the way through its strategy of posthumously moving the famed star to New York...

Mac gives lawyers the best of both Words.

Posted on April 10, 2008
Fellow attorney and Mac enthusiast David Sparks has taken a look at the Word for Mac 2008 and found it to be a vast improvement -- with room for further improvement -- over its 2004 predecessor:I have not always been kind to Microsoft Word on the Mac...

A Moment of Panic This Morning

Posted on April 10, 2008
The following was a headline on Professor Jack Balkin's Balkinzation blog this morning (and cross-posted on Slate's Convictions blog):Say It Ain't So, ColinBefore I managed to confess all of my misdeeds, I read further and found, much to my relief, that former Secretary of State Colin Powell was the "Colin" in question...

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but this week's Blawg Review will keep him entertained.

Posted on April 08, 2008
David Harlow hosts this week's Blawg Review #154 at his HealthBlawg site. Harlow's Blawg Review was posted yesterday in honor of the World Health Organization's annual World Health Day. I don't know about you, but I felt pretty good yesterday, so it must have been a success...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (161)

Posted on April 04, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Wednesday, April 2; link good at time of posting):When Roslan Ngah took a second wife, he might have wondered if she would get along with his first.He need not have worried...

Random Thought (9)

Posted on April 01, 2008
None of the people I've fired this morning will believe me. I swear, April first is, without a doubt, the worst possible day to execute a headcount reduction.[Previous Thought]

Piracy is not just a software, music, or film industry concern any longer.

Posted on March 31, 2008
Pirates come ashore to herald the start of Seafair each year. When I last went to Disneyland, I found that pirates had taken over what used to be Tom Sawyer Island. Now, my beloved Blawg Review has fallen to buccaneers. Fortunately for us all, Blawg Review #153 demonstrates that they know how to produce an entertaining round-up of the best legal blogging from the past week (with just a bit of assistance from George M...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (160) . . . The Sequel!

Posted on March 28, 2008
This week's bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Reuters (from Wednesday, March 26; link good at time of posting):Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary's famed acumen and self-confidence briefly deserted him when he failed to back his own horse Hear The Echo to win the Irish Grand National at odds of 33-1...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (160)

Posted on March 28, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the (Eureka, California) Times-Standard (via QuizLaw) (from Monday, March 24; link good at time of posting):A Crescent City woman is heading back to prison and her friend also is facing two years behind bars after a botched attempt at stealing a urine sample from a delivery van...

Blawg Review's e-book cousin comes for a visit.

Posted on March 26, 2008
Neil Squillante hosts Blawg Review #152 at his TechnoLawyer blog. Squillante, who publishes the widely-read BlawgWorld e-book, observes that he's in familiar territory as a host:Blawg Review is similar to our BlawgWorld eBook.The former contains links to Posts whereas the latter reprints entire Posts...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (159)

Posted on March 21, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Greenville News, via QuizLaw (from Wednesday, March 19; link good at time of posting):Tauris Maurice Hart was supposed to stand trial on Monday, but authorities say that at the same time he was scheduled to be in court defending himself against a robbery charge, he was out on the streets committing the same crime...

On March 17, everyone is both Irish and a member of a bar association.

Posted on March 17, 2008
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, Irish legal blogger Daithí Mac Sithigh hosts Blawg Review #151 at his Lex Ferenda blog. For those of you struggling today to find your way back to a fully-upright and locked position, #151 offers the best of last week's legal blogging in a single compact post...

TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (158)

Posted on March 14, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Register (from Thursday, March 13; link good at time of posting):You've got to feel a bit sorry for German VoIP phone outfit snom, which has asked customers not to call it following an evidently troublesome office relocation...

TGIS: Thanks God It's Schadenfreude! (157)

Posted on March 07, 2008
This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of Metro.co.uk (from Wednesday, March 5; link good at time of posting):A policeman alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth - despite the fact it does not exist.Pupils and parents at 80 schools in Oxfordshire were warned of the possible risks of the fruit-flavoured drug, also known as Strawberry Quick, by the unwitting officer...

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