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This is where the cowboy blogs away…

"Publicly judging whether a particular line is longer than a particular rock is heavy since 2005."
By Doug Hass

Post Frequency: 0.4/day

Last Entry: July 27, 2008 at 14:06:00

Law School: Help. Full Brain. Must Disgorge.

Posted on July 27, 2008
And on that note, I think I'm going to stop trying to cram things inside it. Good luck to all of my friends, and all of the other full-brained people out there taking the bar exam this week. I hope you have a clear and focused mind that instantly recalls all of the stuff BarBRI, PMBR, and whoever else crammed inside it over the past 6-8 weeks...

Politics: The news within the news on Iraq, and the U.S. position

Posted on July 26, 2008
The New York Times front page (of their Web site at least) ran an article today entitled 4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images. The article discussed noted independent photojournalist Zoriah Miller. For those who have not been following this story (and I'm among them), the Marine Corps banned Miller from his embed position with Corps units after Miller posted on his blog several

Politics: Today's not news (but still interesting)

Posted on July 26, 2008
ABC's Political Punch blog posts a conversation they captured today between Barack Obama and David Cameron, the Tory leader, in London. One thing I'm kind of sick of hearing is about how Obama has an ego or, the alternate line, that McCain is domineering, rash, and angry...

Law School: Adventures in Contracting -OR- When Marketing Campaigns Go Awry

Posted on July 25, 2008
Today, while surfing Breitbart's Web site to watch a news video, I saw this banner advertisement: I guess this explains why the "e-Research Council" also resorts to spamming me to try and get me to sign up for their "offers."* This reminds me of another silly promotion going on...

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Law School: Deer Park Management n Bloomington has horrible ratings

Posted on July 24, 2008
Given the latest account from Pete, Bess Courtney and Deer Park Management here in Bloomington, Indiana are really reprehensible. The reviewers over at Apartment Ratings (even on other Deer Park managed properties, like Bart Villa) seem to agree wholeheartedly...

Law School: Only on the Internet (but at least this could be useful)

Posted on July 24, 2008
Law school--no, life in general--has two drawbacks. First, you always have a lack of time. It's the ultimate non-renewable resource. No matter who you are and what you do, you never have enough time to do it. Somewhere around the age of 12 or 13, I lost the ability to do everything...

Politics: Wall Street drunk, Congress was bartender

Posted on July 23, 2008
Apparently, President Bush said something at a private fundraiser that has the chattering classes all atwitter. He boiled down the housing crisis to "Wall Street got drunk" and said that the country is feeling the hangover. That's a pretty apropos analogy, if you ask me...

Politics: Veep updates

Posted on July 23, 2008
Time reports today that former senators John Edwards and Sam Nunn are on the short list for Barack Obama's VP choice. The former disappoints me, and I hope Edwards' earlier denials hold true. I have to say, the latter excites me (no, not that way, Chutch)...

Politics: The rich now pay 97% of all income taxes, so we should...um...take...more???

Posted on July 21, 2008
In case you've forgotten what I've discussed at length in the past, I'll say it again. One of the most distorted, unfair partisan political games is the one Dems and Republicans play over taxation in this country. The U.S. already places among the highest tax burdens on its corporate citizens among OECD countries, and our personal income tax has become increasingly progressive over the years.

Politics: Life imitates art--the silly season continues

Posted on July 17, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a political cartoon of a small McCain being crushed by a massive newspaper whose front page was covered in ridiculous blow-by-blow coverage of everything Obama did upon waking up in the morning. Life imitates art. Are we seriously going to make a story about how much Obama works out? Come on...

Life: Fun with voice mail the YouMail way (and, darn you, Skype)

Posted on July 16, 2008
Are you sick of your cell phone carrier's voice mail service? Wish you didn't have to pay $3-$4 a month just for the privilege of a longer message and keeping your messages longer than a few days? Try YouMail! It's free (ad-supported) and only requires you to set up a simple conditional call forward on your phone...

Life: Fun with Blogger Widgets

Posted on July 11, 2008
Google has added a new widget recently--and by recently, I mean last month--that makes blogrolls even more fun. I'm not quite used to it yet, but the blogroll down on the right side will update as posts update, and you (well, I) can see what everyone has posted right from here...

Politics: Right-wing media hide-the-ball games on Afghanistan

Posted on July 11, 2008
I would like to note two things about MRC's coverage of the Iraq issue that I mentioned yesterday. The Washington Post ran a front-page article on troop shortages in Afghanistan on July 2nd. The MRC laments that this is a shift in the "bad-news spotlight...

Politics: In case you missed it (and you probably did)

Posted on July 10, 2008
In case you missed it last week, because you don't tend to read Page 8 of the Washington Post, there's more positive progress in Iraq. As part of one of the war funding authorizations last year, Congress required the White House to report progress on 18 separate benchmarks...

Politics: What church is he Reverend of again?

Posted on July 09, 2008
I wonder how Jesse Jackson will explain away his latest statements. Apparently, Fox News and Sean Hannity have a tape of Jackson disparaging Obama after an interview. One of the microphones was still up, and he said--among other things--that he was angry that Obama was "talking down to black people on matters of faith" and wants to "rip Obama's nuts off...

Law School: So BarBRI has it's moments...

Posted on June 30, 2008
Moments like this morning: In explaining the rule for ameliorative waste (tearing down an old mansion to make the property more valuable, despite the holder of a future interest objecting): Professor: Can the life tenant tear it down? Yes! Why, because of the American rule that we'd rather be rich than happy!

Life: Epic Fail

Posted on June 25, 2008
I've seen this before, but it's still worth posting, if for no other reason than I can say the words "epic fail" in a post. O.k. Back to those fun Fed Jur essay questions from BarBRI. The rest of you can go to the Fail Blog for more epic failures...

Law School: Published is published!

Posted on June 24, 2008
Congratulations to my fellow IU alum, Pete, for getting his article on Alabama football published. Pete says he's no me. I disagree! Published is published!

Life: Do they think I'm desperate?

Posted on June 23, 2008
Apparently, some people think Craigslist posters are desperate to feed a crack habit, to get more singles for the strip club, to get some cash to buy scratch-offs, or just plain stupid. A few days ago, I posted a Craigslist ad for a generator that I have for sale...

Business: Skype finally gets it together; How to create a truly "mobile" company with Skype, TrustFax

Posted on June 18, 2008
I've been a Skype user for several years, but only here-and-there because of its limited usefulness for any serious business purpose. I liked saving some money on international calling when I was stationary out of the country, but it was missing a major feature for me to use for serious purposes...

Media: Going overboard for Russert

Posted on June 17, 2008
Hal Boedecker of the Orlando Sentinel writes about NBC and the rest of the MSM: Here's one thing you can say about journalists: Surely no one loves us as much as we love ourselves. That's one lesson of the Tim Russert coverage. A friend told me Sunday: "I now know more about Tim Russert than I do many members of my family...

Life: Renewable Petroleum, the Bush Administration, and Stupid Tax Policy

Posted on June 16, 2008
Pete has a post up from yesterday afternoon that bears a few comments. I'm right with him on the ability of the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and market forces to produce some truly extraordinary advances. The London's Times' article on LS9's oil-pooping bioorganisms seems to be getting some renewed play for the company, but the story isn't a new one...

Sports: U.S. Open Finale and IBM's failures

Posted on June 16, 2008
Hopefully, you got a chance to see the thrilling playoff round in the U.S. Open and see Tiger Woods win for the record 7th time at Torrey Pines. Tiger blew a three shot lead, but Rocco Mediate was fantastic in keeping the pressure on. Tiger stopped hitting putts, and Mediate hit when he needed with birdies on 13, 14, and 15...

Politics: Not all politics is stuffy

Posted on June 15, 2008
Barack Obama made a cliched remark at a campaign fundraiser on Friday: "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." Kudos to the McCain campaign for their witty response. In a statement, the campaign praised Obama for abandoning his opposition to the manufacture, sale, or possession of handguns, but concluded: [W]e're having second thoughts about our proposed series of town halls.

Life: Surreal

Posted on June 15, 2008
If you were looking for a photo that captured the meaning of the word "surreal" for a person who had never heard the word before, you might well choose this one: (Credit: AP/Jeff Roberson) Those are houses that have washed up against a train bridge...

Politics: Global (Jupiter) warming

Posted on May 23, 2008
NASA reports today that Jupiter is undergoing global warming: Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.Of course, this contradicts what NASA and other researchers predicted in 2004, when they said Jupiter would lose most of its red spots...

Media: More Google hypocrisy

Posted on May 21, 2008
Maybe I'm a little torqued that Google took six weeks to fix their Google Apps bug that prevented users from verifying e-mail addresses, but I am pretty sure this would have jumped out at me right away anyways. Remember when Google agreed to censor search results for the Chinese government? Now comes the news that Google--under the rubric of "free speech" and a "right to express unpopular

Politics: Update on important legislation

Posted on May 20, 2008
Speaking about Congress and passing bills, Congressman Paul Ryan introduced a bill earlier this month that would take care of the problems with the Fed: Five: Stop stoking inflation Additional responsibility for our current state of affairs rests with the Federal Reserve, whose dramatic interest rate cuts since last fall have pushed crude oil prices to new heights and stoked inflation...

Politics: And they say BUSH is the stupid one

Posted on May 20, 2008
Congress has record low approval ratings, and today they showed why. By a 324-84 vote, the mental giants learned representatives passed a bill permitting the Justice Department to actually sue OPEC over the price of oil. OPEC. Over the price of oil...

Politics: Stop the presses!

Posted on May 14, 2008
Yet another sign that the Democrat primary has jumped the shark (please, please, please Hillary--give up already!): You may have missed it on account of John Edwards finally getting off the fence and backing Obama, the College Democrats of America have decided to *drum roll* endorsed Obama...

Politics: A short note about Guantanamo

Posted on May 03, 2008
Those of you who have clicked on links on the side of this blog know that I wrote an article last year explaining why I believed the Military Commissions Act was unconstitutional. That doesn't mean I think the detainees should necessarily be released automatically...

Law School: Hearsay, confrontation, and...oh who am I kidding

Posted on April 27, 2008
I am actually doing work this week, despite classes being over and my incredibly intelligent decision to avoid scheduling any exams this semester (genius!). Having learned next to nothing in my Evidence course--the professor actually said on numerous occasions that there was no hearsay rule in the world of litigation*--I decided that my first in-depth encounter with hearsay should NOT be BarBRI

Sports: Oh, you DO pay attention!

Posted on April 23, 2008
Congratulations to the Tigers for recognizing what anyone who watched even one Marlins game in the past couple of years already knew: Miguel Cabrera is slow, not in the greatest of shape, has no range, and a suspect glove. The Tigers announced that they'll switch Cabrera to 1B and Carlos Guillen to 3B, swapping the two players...

Law School: Next generation wireless

Posted on April 22, 2008
An IU news release today notes that Indiana will have "next generation wireless" on campus starting in the fall. Selection of the HP ProCurve wireless infrastructure will at least give the campus something uniform and functional--unlike the amalgam of oft-broken Proxim junk and other off-brand equipment they use now...

Life: Hooked on Crack(berry)

Posted on April 14, 2008
My 7-year-old Sony Ericsson T600-series phone has finally begun a decline into non-functionality, which means that it was time to get something new. For a number of reasons--mostly because I want something with Wi-Fi that will work worldwide--I bought the newly released RIM Blackberry Curve 8120 from AT&T...

Barcelona: Where to go, what to do

Posted on April 06, 2008
I was sending a group of friends here at IU Law some things to do in Barcelona, and I thought I ought to just post it for posterity. The list of things to do in and around Barcelona is virtually unending--I felt as if I had barely scratched the surface in 6 weeks...

Law School: Losing your phone

Posted on April 05, 2008
I won't name any names, but a certain 2L here at IU has gotten into the habit of losing their phone lately--or, rather, leaving it at game sites during our Beer Pong League games. What made leaving it at the bar yesterday funny was the last text message this person sent on it: "Sorry for not getting back to you...

Life: Practicing what you preach?

Posted on April 05, 2008
Headline on CBS 2 (NYC) Web site yesterday: DiCaprio Buys Eco-Friendly Condo on Hudson The actor recently added an eco-friendly apartment in New York City to his impressive list of earth-healthy possessions, which already include a hybrid car and a solar paneled home in Los Angeles...

Life: Just in case you have too much money

Posted on April 03, 2008
I really wish I had seen this product on April 1st. It would have been a perfect April Fools joke, except it, er, isn't one. Just in case you're rolling in cash--maybe you just took that new BigLaw job, or won the lottery or got that big settlement from the accident...

Politics: Meth bill moves forward

Posted on April 01, 2008
Last month, I commented on an Arizona meth bill that would scarily put Arizona Child Protective Services in charge of more lives and allow them to have meth-addicted women be taken into custody and involuntarily held in treatment programs. The bill moved out of the Senate committee in late February and was moved to the majority and minority cacuses on the 25th, where it will likely be up for a

Politics: I'm no fan of Daily Kos, but...

Posted on April 01, 2008
...this is pretty good: JedReport posts that Hillary Clinton's vow to stay in the race is "[a] leading indicator of a doomed candidacy." He has links to Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani, Edwards, and Richardson speeches where they vow to stay in until the bitter end...

Sports: 2008 Major League Baseball predictions

Posted on March 31, 2008
It's Opening Day, and its time for me to make some picks. I think the National League is wide open, and the cream of the crop in the AL are a pick 'em when it comes to the playoffs. This should prove to be an exciting year! One note, however, about Opening Day...

Politics: Math question

Posted on March 30, 2008
I know that I'm going to attempt to bring logic to politics, but hear me out. I'm sick of hearing from Hillary Clinton about how the DNC and Obama are "disenfranchising" voters in Michigan and Florida. If those voters--or the Clinton campaign--want to point fingers, they should point to their state parties for moving the primary dates up...

Law School: Should we change our training?

Posted on March 27, 2008
An anonymous commenter writes about my job post the other day: I'd love to know where we rank as far as non law firm practice preparation. Not too high, I would wager.Well, Anonymous, I guess you'd have to explain what you mean by "non law firm practice preparation...

Politics: It really IS silly season

Posted on March 27, 2008
Despite the heated battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it's still silly season in the Presidential race. April always seems to be that way. To wit, Joe Klein says we need a Gore/Obama ticket--and maybe that's just the ticket, given my post yesterday about Clinton's appearance on Greta van Susteren's show on Fox News...

Politics: Silly season has arrived!

Posted on March 26, 2008
It's almost April, which means it's silly season! The Washington Times worries, in an Inside the Beltway article set for tomorrow, if Elton John's appearance/performance at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton violates campaign finance laws. Grrrr...Doesn't the FEC have better things to do? Greta van Susteren interviewed Hillary Clinton on Fox News tonight, and elicited this juicy nugget: VAN

Law School: I have a job (finally), you have a job (I hope), we all have a job (eventually)

Posted on March 25, 2008
I have a few half-finished posts that I'll put up time-permitting today, but job-hunting season is upon us again, and I'm already gearing up for appellate clerkship applications this summer and in the fall. My girlfriend has a fantastic job with the Migrant Farmworker Law Center, an offshoot of ILS, that is a plum among 1L public interest jobs...

Politics: The Republicans still aren't serious

Posted on March 14, 2008
In further evidence that the Republicans aren't serious about winning in the 2008 election, less than half of Senate Republicans voted for restrictions on earmarks offered by John McCain. So much for the idea of limited government, folks. According to Taxpayers For Common Sense, only 16 members of Congress, including McCain, didn't sponsor earmarks last year...

Sports: Things you don't want hear

Posted on March 14, 2008
The Cardinals signed Kyle Lohse to a $4.25 million, one-year deal today. Lohse has no control, doesn't really throw that hard, and finished a full year with an ERA of nearly 6.00 in 2006. He has given up over 1300 hits in his 1164 major league innings...

Sports: Can Scoop Jackson write an article and NOT mention race?

Posted on March 14, 2008
In re The title: Apparently not. Time for a little rant about the race-baiting Scoop Jackson over at ESPN. In this article, Jackson says that Larry Bird has hurt the Pacers as much as Isiah Thomas has hurt the Knicks. It wouldn't be a Scoop Jackson article if he didn't strive to blame it all on race...

Law School: Spring Break Pop Quiz

Posted on March 14, 2008
Q: How can you tell if you've had a good night on Spring Break? Answers: A. You send a 2:30 a.m. text message to your girlfriend that says "Mess you babe! I'm drunk or would ok" B. Upon returning home at 3:30 a.m., you receive a text message from another person in your party that says "FYI...

Politics: Insult, wink, nod, repeat as necessary

Posted on March 12, 2008
I could alternately title this post as "Clinton's politics of personal destruction." Once again, her attack machine is out supporting/encouraging personal attacks against Obama. Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984 and a fundraiser for Clinton, said in an interview with the Torrance, Ca...

Politics: Arizona in a lose-lose situation with meth bill

Posted on March 04, 2008
In reality, I just needed a reason to post this picture. Arizona took another step toward involuntary custody of pregnant meth-addicted women. This is a real lose-lose situation: on one hand, taking involuntary custody of any person because of a drug addiction gives the libertarian in me a scare...

Business: FCC still meddling with net neutrality

Posted on March 03, 2008
Net neutrality is back in the news again this past week. I had a chance to touch on this in a training conference in Indianapolis this past week. I warned the attendees that the session I was about to give--how to establish quality of service and prioritize/de-emphasize certain types of traffic in order to give a better, more scalable service to customers--was in danger of being outlawed by the

Law School: Update on diversity

Posted on March 02, 2008
I meant to post this earlier in the week, but I need to update my post on the diversity issue from last week. The diversity committee deserves a little credit for hearing the criticisms and making a good adjustment to what they're seeking. From the ILA this past week: Stories from the Margins In an effort to encourage a greater appreciation for the obstacles our peers have overcome to reach