Law Students

Destroying Public Education in California

Posted on August 06, 2009
So let's say you're in charge of one of the most successful university systems in the country. You're state is in a budget crisis, held hostage by a small but strategically vocal minority that are so against taxation (while their "free market" has caused the crisis) that they'd rather see the entire state go bankrupt than to actually do something to solve the problem...

Finally back!

Posted on June 23, 2009
I went to visit my parents for a week to attend my nephew's high school graduation and to be exploited for free child care. For some reason, the entire week I could not access Blogger. I could access blogspot blogs, but not the "create a new post" homepage...

Things that make you feel old.

Posted on June 15, 2009
My nephew is graduating from high school on Wednesday.

My relationship with illicit substances.

Posted on June 11, 2009
I don't drink coffee every day. One cup can work if I'm not too exhausted (I have been known to drink it like warm milk and feel like a nap), two cups make me jittery but awake for a few hours, three cups give me arrhythmia and clammy hands and I can't sleep later that night...

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Culture Clash

Posted on June 11, 2009
One giant organization (The United States) attempts to reform the insular organizational culture of another (GM).:But it will be up to the federal government, which will own a majority of General Motors when it emerges from bankruptcy, to tackle what is perhaps the most difficult challenge in Detroit: transforming G...

Stay away, Belle

Posted on June 09, 2009
This is exactly like the type of movie that would have appealed to my 20 year old self, yet I have the vague feeling that I should stay away from its twee sense of superiority:Verona?s question may or may not be disingenuous, but the answer provided by ?Away We Go,? the slack little road comedy in which it arises, is unambiguous...

Joyce Carol Oates on Salinger's Love Letters

Posted on June 08, 2009
And on intimacy in the public sphere, in general:The Hawthornes' devotion to each other, and to the idealized image of each other they presented to the world, would seem to be a powerful rebuke of the debased and exploitative nature of intimacy in our time, in which lovers routinely betray each other in salacious ''memoirs'' (the most despicable of which must be James Hewitt's memoir of his love affair with Princess Diana, at a time when she was distraught over her failing marriage with Prince Charles) and by the peddling of intimate love letters (the most recent, 14 letters by J...

the ups and downs of married life

Posted on June 08, 2009
If you didn't cry (or sob uncontrollably, in my case) at the wordless montage of a happy marriage punctuated by sadness and unfulfilled promises set to Michael Giacchino's song "Married Life" in Up, you sir/madam, have no heart.I loved the movie and alternately laughed and cried and felt grateful for every day adventures.

sociability index

Posted on June 05, 2009
Progress: last night I went to a dinner party hosted by a friend in which I made more friends. And it'll be a semi-regular thing, because she wants to start up a semi-weekly support group for her friends taking the bar. What a lovely idea. Since I'm not doing anything super stressful this summer (well, other than ongoing dissertation work, which is its own nightmare), I was glad to be invited...

I don't want to die watching baseball like that guy's mom did in A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Posted on June 04, 2009
Why can't I ever remember that character's name, when this was my favorite book my sophomore year in high school (shut up)? Anyway, update on the muffled hearing/ringing tone/ear ache situation: I just have to wait it out, and this fluid in my ears should go away after a few...

Cheapness Studies, the blog

Posted on June 04, 2009
A new interdisciplinary blog by me, Miss Self-Important, and Phoebe Maltz! We all have introductory posts up. Because nothing conquers blog exhaustion like starting another blog. Check it out!

California's Crisis

Posted on June 03, 2009
At the LSA, I attended the "Many Faces of Constitutionalism" panel, for which Sandy Levinson was the chair/discussant. Among his remarks about the short life of most constitutions (the average is 18 years, I believe, correct me in the comments) is that some constitutions render states ungovernable, and thus should be rebooted...

I need more people to talk to so that I can tell whether I'm going deaf.

Posted on June 03, 2009
I called the Advice Nurse about my left ear, which is the first step to obtaining health care at my school. She suggested taking decongestants, and if my hearing/feeling of stuffed-upness doesn't improve, to call for a same day appointment to see if it's not something more serious...

Things I learned at the LSA

Posted on June 02, 2009
I'm back! I had a productive and overall good experience. I presented and got some good feedback, I attended panels and learned interesting things about new research projects and developments, I schmoozed a bit, talked to really nice people who are interested in my future, and explored a bit of the city...

LSA and Sotomayor

Posted on May 27, 2009
I'm at the airport en route to the LSA. I'm stuck here for a couple of hours. Ah, free wi-fi and plugs in airports. I'm moderately excited about the conference and learning new things and seeing old friends, but I also have grown to hate traveling and I never was that comfortable with schmoozing...

I see Belle's Glee and raise her Petra Haden

Posted on May 22, 2009
Because... 1) Petra Haden is all kinds of awesome2) She is the daughter of Charlie Haden, who is ALSO all kinds of awesome3) She is the sister-in-law of Jack Black, who is occasionally all kinds of awesomeAnd I am also partial to this Petra Haden cover as well.

It's like The Wire, but in real life!

Posted on May 21, 2009
This guy sounds even more unscrupulous than Maury Levy (although I'm only done with Season 3, so who knows): [Former prosecutor Paul Begrin] went on to become one of the state?s most prominent defense lawyers, representing clients as varied as Abu Ghraib defendants, the rap stars Lil? Kim and Queen Latifah and members of Newark?s notorious street gangs...

fill your heart with glee

Posted on May 20, 2009
OMG, it's like they wrote this show especially for me. Bring it On meets Election meets Freaks and Geeks, with my favorite song as a finale:

random roundup with no commentary

Posted on May 18, 2009
Gah, too busy, such that I'm eating Cheerios out of the box and pre-shredded mozzarella out of the bag (I am disgustingly grad student-y when I'm on my own and eating alone).1. Kept from a partner's dying bedside.2. Alec Baldwin on the Rise and Fall of Detroit...

The NYT is full of cautionary tales

Posted on May 17, 2009
1. Be careful of lead when you plant your urban garden.2. Beware of DIY-madness! It can result in DISASTER. There's a reason I won't cut my own hair!3. Don't play ridiculous Dada-esque "art sports" or else I will mock you. Okay, maybe that wasn't the point of this article...

I can't watch horror movies either

Posted on May 16, 2009
I generally refuse to watch rape and/or torture scenes, or violent killings. At the very least, I will turn away and ask "is it over yet?" Occasionally, I will abstain from watching the movie/show at all, if the violence is prolonged and too much a part of the overall work...

Oprah Sucks

Posted on May 15, 2009
And not just because her O magazine has her on every cover. That's just too much of anyone.She sucks because she puts anti-vaccine, pro-hormone replacement therapy quacks on her show, and she's so influential that women will listen to her. And this is dangerous stuff! Hormone replacement therapy is one of medicine's most controversial subjects...

a spirited defense of amateurism and in-group cliqueishness

Posted on May 15, 2009
This negative review of Thomas Keller's restaurant Per Se by Ezra Klein was meant to invite the blog drama. My favorite comment, by a chef:As for the dissing of the IFA, I must say that most of my hate wasn?t directed as Ezra. However, I do think that this isn?t a typical blog...

double x

Posted on May 14, 2009
Slate's new feminist magazine is pretty good.Favorite links:Get your kid off your facebook profile picture.The new language of feminism.Make feminism work!Feminism's problem with race.Katha Pollit's "Still the Second Sex"Linda Hirshman, being Linda Hirshman, on "The Problem With Jezebel...

Random Roundup

Posted on May 13, 2009
1. The always brilliant New Kid on the Hallway on how academia and law school can negatively impact your personal relationship (academia is worse). It's vaguely comforting to read, because while it suggests things will be hard and get harder, it also says "we'll get through this together...

Fidelity and betrayal

Posted on May 12, 2009
There is hardly anything you can read about Elizabeth Edwards's book Resilience that will add any insight or value. Most of it, in fact, will be appallingly insensitive and just plain wrong (really, Randy Cohen? You can be bad if the execution is really good?)...

Star Trek, Reviewed (no spoilers)

Posted on May 11, 2009
(Well, no spoilers except minor framing plot details that were already discussed by the NYT and Slate)My initial reaction: IT WAS AWESOME.My secondary reaction: Except for the parts that were not!Yes, the action can be a little schlocky. An extended scene where Kirk has to be separated from the Enterprise to meet Old Spock seemed nonsensical and unnecessary and dude, writers, you could not figure out another way around this problem? The use of portentous opera music was heavy handed...

Knights Out

Posted on May 11, 2009
From Salon:On March 19, 1st Lt. Dan Choi, an infantry leader with the New York Army National Guard, appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and stated, "I am gay." Choi is a West Point graduate, Iraq combat veteran, and Arabic language specialist. He is also a founding member of the independent organization Knights Out, a group of LGBT West Point alumni who, in openly declaring their sexuality, are actively fighting against the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy...

AUGH. I may as well have told that Nigerian prince my social security number when he asked me.

Posted on May 08, 2009
Dear Associate of Your University,We are writing to you because Your University's healthcenter recently learned that criminal computer hackers brokeinto electronic databases containing personal information belonging tosome clients and their parents or spouses...

I hate clowns, but I like this song.

Posted on May 08, 2009
So cute! So Belle!

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