At Home

Mom and Dad have a sweet house.

And, thanks to Sis, infinite diet-coke.

Flying to Atlanta

I'm flying to Georgia today. Plane leaves from Philadelphia at 10:30, arrives 2:30 later in Atlanta.

Yay for Christmas Vacation!

Not eating crap

If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of the foods-of-my-people.

I grow concerned, however, that if I'm going to be in great shape for spring-break, I ought to be repairing the damage wrought by a full semester of late night snacks, eating crap because I was too stressed to properly dine. And, while I did make it on occasion to the gym, I failed at going regularly enough to obtain any consistent results.

Of course, last Christmastime I was also trying to eat better, as well, on the off-chance that I'd wind up on television. Oh Fruits and vegetables, why must you spoil so quickly.

Regardless, I am mightily enjoying having a few days off!

Japanese Emoticons

Check 'em out, here. Curiously, they are different than the US versions.

Word-Geek Moment

(Just a moment? sighs the peanut gallery.)

Check it out, the Merriam-Webster folks have announced the top ten 2005 words of the year:

#1 was integrity.

It's Pink

Other Law Student Experiences.

Finished

Woo-Hoo!

Last Exam for Fall term at 1:30 PM

The Semester is fast drawing to a close. The 3 hour Professional Responsibility exam will be at 1:30 this afternoon. It's an open book test, so that'll be nice. Last night was the Evidence exam, and while it was bad, it wasn't too bad.

Mmmm, I'm looking forward to selling that book back today at 3:30.

I knew going in that this was going to be one of my hardest semesters. And, in fact, this has been the hardest semester since my 1L year back in 02/03. More than once, I've wanted to throw up my hands and say that this is all too much stress, it's not fun, and I feel like crap.

To be sure, there have been delights as well. Once completed, the paper made sense, and while I wrote it I frequently had that shock of recognition when some other author said what I was thinking. Similarly, there was the joy of learning things. Brand new stuff that surprised me and made me think. And my friends have proven, yet again, a superlative blessing.

Dread dappled with joy. One may receive thankfully the last, but still rue the first.

And, for what its worth, the next semester looks far, far better. Just three classes, all of them at night (6 PM or later). Important dates in the 2006 academic calender:

January 9 First day of classes
March 6-10 Spring recess
April 21 Last day of classes
April 27-May 12 Final examinations
May 18 Commencement

And, thank you for all your wishes of luck.

New Definition

Definition: carfully
kahr"-ful-i'
Adj. Definition: Describing the level of attention and caution one employs driving a car full of baby ducks. Not to be confused with "carefully" (the adjective form of careful.)

Delaware and a "fun" fact

1. Over at ProfessorBainbridge there was a post on a topic related to my paper: what's special about Delaware's role as the site of incorporations.
(My paper dealt much with the question of whether a "Delaware" would emerge in Europe. Answer: We don't know yet.)

2. I was looking at Google's answers service, and came across this choice nugget:

Question Presented:

What fraction of Americans over 30 have never been married?
What fraction of American women over 30 have never been married?
What fraction of American men over 30 have never been married?


Answers:

10.9% of American men over 30 have never been married
7.8% of American women over 30 have never been married
or 9.3% of American men and women over 30 have never been married

So it would appear I'm in some rare company.

Blog to Check Out

Davids Medienkritik does a great job of highlighting persistent anti-americanism in German media.

Check out this entry, where he skewers a tendentious cover from Der Spiegel that manages to make the CIA look kinda cool (you know, like in the 60s.)

MPRE Results

I'm on my way to my exam, but I just checked:

I scored a 103!

(which is a minimum passing score high enough for every jurisdiction that uses the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam.)

So I won't have to take it again in March.

PS: This is the link to the MPRE log-in page.

My paper was handed in Monday Night

And I'm still recovering!

I sent a copy on to Mom and Dad (via email) so they could finally read what I've been nattering on about for the past three months.

So for comparative law, I probably won't fail (at least.)

Of course, every few hours, I still think of something I want to add to it. It's weird to suddenly not have to worry about the blasted paper. Well, I can worry about the grade, but I only have to worry about additions or modifications if I do decide to try to improve it for publishing.

Now it's on to the exams for International Law, Professional Responsibility, and Evidence. (Monday, Thursday, and Friday of next week.)

And according to the folks who run the MPRE, the scores ought to be available on-line on Monday, Dec. 12. I'm hopeful I scored well enough to not have to take it again in March.

In Six Hours My Comparative Law Paper will be Finished

My plan is to hit save the final time, and then send the final copy to the Professor tonight at 11:30. After that, I'll forward a couple of vanity copies, and then I'll go home and sleep. Of course, I only have a few days to prepare for exams, but it won't matter. So long as the paper gets credit I will be on track to graduate.

How many channels do I watch?

After reading this article on Slate, it occured to me that I really could figure out how many of the hundreds of channels I get I really watch.

Once a month: Movies on Demand
Fox
CBS
CNN
ABC
NBC
PBS
MTV
VH1
WB
UPN
TBS
Comedy Central
E!
Food
TLC
Discovery Channel
Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)
Weather Channel
CNBC
CSPAN
CSPAN2
Sci-Fi
MSNBC
Fox News
ESPN

I was a little generous, even if I don't regularly watch the channel, I added it if I could ever recall watching it. So I watch more channels than the FCC found was common on average, but not too many.

Restaurants

When in New York, be sure to visit Kerala Kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a happy Thanksgiving Holiday, and I hope you did, too!

I enjoy Zippy

I enjoy Zippy the Pinhead.

Classes for Spring 2006

Securities Regulation

Antitrust

Criminal Procedure I

And all of them are Section 051: that means that I don't have to worry about getting in to campus before 6:00 PM!

Tuesday is the New Sunday

Why am I still working on my draft?

Somehow, whenever I put aside time to do things, it all disappears. Seriously, I really have only a fuzzy concept of all of the time between last Thursday and now. And somehow I'm afraid that tomorrow, around 4, I won't have any idea where I was now either.

Awareness of passage of time

I just realized that the King of the Hill is in its has been going on now since January of 1997. That means that it has been on the air the entire time I was a student at Pitt, and the whole time I've been a student at Temple.

Adult Swim

Perfect Hair Forever sings,

"Watch out for bears, to them you are spaghetti dinner"

Sadly, the show didn't make any sense.

Also, right at the moment I hate everything. And writing.

Paper

You know that paper I'm writing. The one that consumes my waking thoughts and fills me with dread. Yeah, that one.

I told the professor I'd email the draft Saturday. Taking a page from early church practice...Sunday is the new Saturday. I've got a two-liter bottle of Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi.

Last night after work I went to my friend Elysia's birthday party. It was a blast. All cool people, and I got to take home some grub (I ate the jalapeno poppers for lunch today, matter-of-fact.)

Also, it is quite chilly outside. While the lows the last few nights have just touched freezing, I have taken no action on my Sedum 'Matrona'. During the day, when the temperature climbs above 52 or so, flies and bees visit the flowers. The southern exposure right up agains the wall seems to be creating a microclimate that's helping the Sedums. When the cold air kills the plants off I'll throw some mulch on top. I will also keep a few of the seedpods to plant in the spring.

In general I've been quite satisfied with my attempts at growing things this year. The little growing plants have been a blessing to me.

All right, back to paper-writing. I will be very happy when all of this foolishness is over.

At this point I want to take out loans so that I can Establish a Business in Denmark.

AFP Reports French Riots dissipating

See here.

Somebody was parked all day in our loading zone at work.

As my boss went to put a note on the truck, I turned to my colleagues and said, "You know, in France, they'd just set it on fire."

Bonus: Slate's Explainer on burning cars.

Lightning

It was lightning outside about a half hour ago.

Yay weather.

Bizarre Comment Spammers

Right after the last post, I got two comment spammers.

One was for seized property sales, and the other started with a head for the Pentagon's New Map, and ended with something even more irrelevant (Irrelavant to the topic of Philadelphia corruption, that is.)

But I wanted to point out that I really do enjoy Barnett's writing and analysis, although as a Republican, I frequently sense in his writing a want of charity towards the President and his advisors.

He is a strategist who wrote both the Pentagon's New Map and Blueprint for Action, and has a fun-to-read blog.

The Culture of Corruption takes a hit

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that a referendum passed yesterday here in Philly that signals voter disgust with a political culture of pay-to-play. I, too, voted for it. Our local good government types have an analysis, here.

Movies

I'm looking forward to this, this, this, this, and for the benefit of anyone who's heard me warble "Ring of Fire", this.

Exam Schedule Fall 2005

International Law
Monday, December 12th, 6:00 PM

Evidence (Rice)
Thursday, December 15th, 6:00 PM

Professional Responsibility
Friday, December 16th, 1:30 PM

MPRE

I took the MPRE on Friday, with about as little preparation as one reasonably can. (My former roommate had left a copy of his BarBri book, so I used that as my sole study aid.) It did help, though, that I am currently taking Professional Responsibility, as a number of questions did have to do with stuff we'd covered in class.

By the way, here's a hint. When you hold money for a client, make sure that you record who you took it from, and for what reason. If you don't, it's a violation.

I discovered on Wednesday that I was going to need to go to Pittsburgh to take the test--I'd been under the impression that my first choice here in Philadelphia was where I'd been sent. So I had to take the bus overnight to Pittsburgh (and then take it back yesterday to Philadelphia.)

But, it was cool to be in Pittsburgh again, and I got to see Bill and Terri and Gage! So that was fun. And I got to have a Max and Erma's buffalo chicken sandwich and a late breakfast at Pamala's (we went to the one in Shadyside.) Also, I got to check out the Apple store. Very nice, with a lot of folks in looking at all the stuff.

Pomegranate Guttation

The technical term for when my pomegranate plant produces little droplets of water on the leaf tips is guttation. Apparently, my bedroom has relatively high humidity and low winds.

More about the Buildings Going Up in Philly

Today I picked up the Temple Times, and read about this cool blog about building in Philadelphia.

And, the Philly Blog also rocks.

Where should I go for Spring Break

Recently, I've been inundated with stress. And as a consequence, have been thinking a great deal about vacations. Specifically, my (hopefully) last Spring Break next year. Classes will be out March 6 through 10 2006, So I could leave the 3rd.

But where should I go?

I might point out that I've never gone on one of the classic "debachery" style spring breaks, both out of a sense of decorum and because of a lack of funds (of course, since many of my years of schooling were while I was also working full-time, taking a weeks vacation usually seemed out of the question.)

Still, if I were going to go for a full-out spring break experience, doing my best to look like partiers 10 years my junior, where should I go? (Does Abercrombie still supply the standard ensemble for bright-eyed middle class college kids wanting to emulate porn stars?)

Of course, another alternative would be to go somewhere more adult. Europe would beckon under that scenario. First, many of the countries already have large english speaking service infrastructures in place. And second, I have retained some portion of my repeated attempts at German. And, since I've been studying the EU for years, it might be nice to see some of the places where everything actually happens.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Brussels.

The worry would be with the cold weather. Early March is probably quite cool in Mitteleuropa. So, what about Monaco? According to this page, the weather is quite reasonable, if not exactly tropical hot, in March.

Making Philadelphia Better

Let us suppose that you wanted to make the City of Philadelphia better.

I have an idea how to do it, which I frequently ruminate upon as I walk through the city.

The big idea is this: the fundamental resource of a city are people. Thus, the best way to improve Philadelphia is to create incentives for people to move to Philadelphia.

I believe that people are more important than any other available resource as to the development of a great city, but I must concede that here I cannot prove it. I assert its truth, and for now will ignore the possibility that it is wrong.

Let me also make another assertion. Right now, there are two catagories of jobs. There are jobs that are location dependant, and there are jobs that are not. Examples of jobs that are location dependant include construction, face-to-face service industries, agriculture, some transportation, retail, medicine, and protective government services. Jobs that are not location dependant include financial services, mail-order, and a wide variety of back-office functions.

Location dependant jobs will become more plentiful as the number and variety of inhabitants in a locale increase. If more people move to Philadelphia, there will be more location dependant jobs that can only be done in Philadelphia. This has the potential to start a virtuous cycle: more population leads to a larger local market in location dependant jobs. A strong demand for local labor will increase put upward pressure on wages, which will further signal to the providers of labor (i.e. individuals) to move to Philadelphia to sell there labor at higher rates.

The problem, of course, is that this could lead to inflation, and could strain public resources.

To attack the problem of local inflation, one must look at its sources, and here I believe the single biggest source of inflation, and the single biggest cost that wage-earners in Philadelphia worry about is housing. But this is a fixable problem, and it leads to my single biggest concrete suggestion.

Government should take aggressive steps to increase the population density of Philadelphia, particularly through reducing taxes and lifting zoning regulations that burden the creation of housing. The highest density housing, i.e. apartment buildings and condominiums, should be the favored creatures of the law. New buildings, as high and as dense as is practical, should be promoted. Particularly when their location would allow easy access to the legacy mass transportation network.

As supplies of housing increase, the fraction of wage-earner income devoted to housing should drop. This frees up more income to support savings, increased consumption (leading to increased employment), and the redevelopment of old or uneconomical housing stock. In turn, this will send important pricing signals to the real estate market, helping developers to recognize the highest and best uses of land.

Low living expenses and a healthy demand for service industry positions provides a key component in the development of entertainment and artistic communities. Artists need inexpensive living, as their work (at least generally in their early stages of their career) tends not to be well compensated. At the same time, artists and entertainers tend to form important communities of mutual aid, criticism, and exchange of ideas. But all of this requires that artists can find day jobs to support their art (again, at least in their early careers.)

Low living expenses and a strong demand for labor provide perfect incubator conditions for new enterprises and entreprenuerial activity. Even risk-takers weigh risks. If the personal financial consequences of a bold but risky entreprenurial idea are softened by the knowlege that the local market will always have a job for you (and you won't lose your house or apartment) then it's easier to take the risk.

Finally, for jobs that could theoretically be done anywhere (the non-location dependant jobs) Phildelphia would have a better chance of competing for them if the city became known for low living expenses and a boldly entreprenurial local culture.

My Intuitive Speculation is True

Fundraising by pretty women more effective.

(H/T Instapundit)

Now what do I do?

Great minds think alike.

Unfortunately for my paper-writing, I discovered today a wonderful journal article on exactly the points I wanted to cover in my paper. Three days before I need to have my initial drafts of some preliminary sections done.

Go to here and you can read Tobias H. Tröger's excellent, well-reasoned, well-documented paper that says almost everything that I wanted to say in my paper I'm writing, including my theories as to how big a deal the Daily Mail-Centros-Uberseering-Inspire Art Ltd. line of cases will be to the creation of a market for reincorporations in the European Union. (Quick answer: Not as big a deal as it seemed after Centros.)

I can recover by focusing more on Denmark (which should be do-able, as Tröger focuses more on Germany more than I planned to). Still, this is quite annoying to me.

I hadn't caught it because it's a foreign journal, and so my primary Lexis searches (focused on US Journals) didn't "see" it. But I hit it when I was doing a foreign periodical search trolling for economic data (my intent was to nail down how many pseudo-foreign corporations were formed in Denmark each year.)

The End of Summer

It's going to get cooler in the next few days, with a 10 degree drop coming in the next 48 hours.

The trees here in Philly are only just now starting to show color (many of them appear to have lost leaves from stress rather than from the change in seasons--I suspect that it's because early fall was unusually warm and dry.)

I've spent the night looking up Danish economic statistics, and job hunting. The latter is never fun, except for the part where you sit back and go, "Oh yeah, I could do that." For instance, I found a few scattered references to the hiring practices of Advance Publications, the owners of Conde' Nast, the magazine publishers. I'd love to grow up and be a lawyer for GQ. And it would improve my chances of dating models.

Ate a Beet

According to the weathermen, it’s going to take a cold turn here in the north (until last week, we’d had an unbroken string of 34 days with highs above 80 degrees.) So I decided to harvest one of the biggest of my beets. I also wanted to avoid it getting too large, after which there is a risk of becoming fibrous and less tasty. Before cooking it was a little sphere with a 2 inch diameter.

So I yanked the root from the ground, cut off the leaves, put a little bit of olive oil on it, and popped it into the oven (along with some frozen fish sticks.)

I washed the leaves and so I had a Beet green salad (consisting of the top of my single beet.)

The fish sticks were ready in 20 minutes, but I left the beet in for 35. The beet had gotten a little smaller, and while it was hot from the oven I pulled the skin off (this appears to be the recommended method for best taste and ease of removal.)

The beet had a jewel-red interior and was easily cut with a fork.

How did it taste? Delicious. The sweetness was definitely present (coming from the garden mere moments before, there was little risk that the stored sugar would have time to turn into starch) and the distinctive "cooked beet" smell was present, but subtle.

When I cook my next beet I'll try to take some pictures.

Pictures of Plants

Check out the Sedum. It has formed a nice head of little pink and white flowers.

The leaves still show some damage from the caterpillar attack earlier this summer. As promised, the flowers are very popular with bees and little flying insects. Relatively few butterflies, though.




Here is a picture of the Beets, also taken today.

I bought a blanket

Today was one of my long days at school. PR this morning at 9:30, then I went to a presentation at noon by Donna Gerson, an attorney and author who came to talk about finding job opportunities at small law firms (generally so classified when they have 50 attorneys or less.)

Fun fact: Our tenures at Pitt overlapped, so I asked her (after the presentation) if she ever called the Pitt Help Desk.

Anyway, I still need to write more for my introduction (due tomorrow) and I need to finalize my calender (ditto.) But I'm tired, and somewhat cranky--there was a sudden change in my housemate status earlier this week, leaving several significant issues to be resolved--such as when or if I'll ever receive payment for over 3 months worth of utilities.

So, I wanted to take a nap (in a few minutes I'll go pull the books to study for Evidence). With all the folks here during the day, it's a little crowded in the Law School building (during my regular hours there's no trouble finding a nook to sleep in) so I bought a blanket, and slept outside for an hour. Quite refreshing, although my bookbag leaves much to be desired as a pillow.

And, I'm still outside even as I write this: my batteries have sufficient juice, and I've got a wi-fi signal from school.

High School with Ashtrays

Sometimes when I hit "Next Blog" I get a gem.

Submitted for your approval: http://juniorcollege.blogspot.com/

Sample Story:

We have a translator and a ASL (sign language) person in our class. Today my teacher was doing the roll and he calls out, "Is (deaf girl's name) here?" Then he waits a minute and goes, "Oh she's deaf." And then he calls her name again.

Beets

This photo was taken about 10 minutes ago (you'll notice that in the late afternoon the sun is quite direct.). When I leave for class I'll check and see if the box outside needs more water.

And then the mint plants and the basil are on my side of the window.

Here in Philadelphia, it has stayed summertime warm throughout the month of September (Weather Channel tells me that it's 85 degrees outside, right now.) If the 10 day forecast is right, we won't be anywhere near cool weather right up 'til October.

Recall the seed packet told me that the Detroit Dark Red Beets need about 55 to 60 days to reach harvest. Since they were planted August 6, that puts harvest anytime after October 4.

At that point, I'll have to decide what to do with the windowbox the beets were growing in. I could just leave it outside and empty over the winter. Or I could try bringing it inside and grow something else over the winter.

I also have my large Sedum Pot outside. When the cold weather comes it will knock out the Sedums. By the way, as promised, the Sedums have attracted lots of little bees, but relatively few butterflies.

For the Sedum Pot I'm just going to keep the heads (for seeds next year) and top off the pot with dirt over the winter.

Next spring I may try growing the nasturtiums again in the Sedum Pot, but from seed. If I don't get a better response I won't worry about it. Potting soil may just be naturally too rich for nasturtiums to thrive.

Mints and Basil 2.0

On the Left are little mint plants, on the right is a basil plant.

Both of these pots had been used before, and so I think one of the basil seeds had never been exposed to the sun. The basil self-started in the same pot as the mint (the one on the left in this picture). Five days ago I moved the basil to the (previously unused) pot on the right. It appears that I managed to transplant it without damaging the roots (Yay!)

I generally leave the GE spot growlight on all day, as well as leave the windowshades open. Both plants show significant tropism to the light, even artificial light.

The mint plants look: the leaves are a light-green color, with very thin stems.

I'm still alive!

Well, yes, I have been remiss in posting. Nothing exciting--I've just been adjusting to the new semester. Soon I hope to start posting more plant pictures and updates on my monster paper.

Up to this point in life, I've never written anything of "publishable quality". Because, frankly, it's a lot of effort and hassle. But now, since I have to write a paper anyway to graduate from law school, (of 45 to 60 pages, fully footnoted) I figure this will be my best chance ever to write a journal article that will add usefully to the corpus of legal knowlege.

Today was my visit with my professor, who said that my proposed topic was fine, but add some more comparison to the US, and have a real introduction ready for next Friday (along with my major sources primary and secondary).

So that's it. Now it's time to hit the ground, running and the paper will be due in the first week of December. Already I'm feeling the time pressure :-)

The Chief Justice is Dead

CNN is reporting that the Chief Justice has passed away.

Belief-O-Matic

From the Beliefnet Belief-O-Matic Test.

Your Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Eastern Orthodox (82%)
3. Roman Catholic (82%)
4. Seventh Day Adventist (76%)
5. Orthodox Judaism (75%)
6. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (74%)
7. Jehovah's Witness (74%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (71%)
9. Islam (68%)
10. Bahá'í Faith (66%)
11. Orthodox Quaker (57%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (50%)
13. Sikhism (45%)
14. Hinduism (44%)
15. Liberal Quakers (40%)
16. Reform Judaism (35%)
17. Jainism (29%)
18. Unitarian Universalism (26%)
19. New Thought (24%)
20. Mahayana Buddhism (21%)
21. Theravada Buddhism (21%)
22. Nontheist (19%)
23. Scientology (18%)
24. Neo-Pagan (12%)
25. New Age (5%)
26. Taoism (3%)
27. Secular Humanism (2%)

School is Coming

I went up to school and purchased the majority of my textbooks on Thursday, spending about $300 for three classes. And there are four books to pick up for Evidence, but since an assignment hasn't been posted yet and the first class is on Tuesday, I decided to wait to carry those home.

Today I came home to discover that GQ had arrived, and is 436 pages! Nestled among the shiny pictures of people wearing nice clothes (btw, purple is the color for men this season) is the tale of Rob Shuck, undergraduate at Cornell since 1993. And he's no plans, as of yet, to make his departure.

And in gardening news, I had an attack of caterpillars
And finally, here is a picture of my beets:



And my little mint plants (they are so very tiny) are starting to appear.

Mars In the Sky as Big as the Moon

So tonight, my Mom asks me if I'd heard anything about Mars appearing as big as the moon sometime soon (she'd read about it in an email.) I said no, and that I was a little suspicious about such a claim.

So I look on-line, and sure enough there's an article here from NASA debunking the myth.

But I did learn something. The first article I found, from the Salt Lake Tribune, mentions that they investigated the rumor with the NASA Ambassador to Utah.

Now, I had never heard of NASA Ambassadors, and so I was curious.

If you're interested, go here for more information.

A Response for Paul

You may recall I was quite mad when my plant disappeared. So mad I expressed myself in verse.

Now, when I mentioned this at work, I also pointed interested folks to my statement on the web.

But one person asked a question I felt a poetic response was called for:

For Paul
August 19, 2005
(Who on reading To The Thief, asked "But how is it a poem?")

Modern verse
Stands accurs'd,
The rhymes weak,
The meter burst.

Who wastes the time
Fit word to lines?

Hallmark writers
And morose men,
Their true loves thrall,
'Til true love ends.

And folks like me,
A helpless case.
Pull pen away,
I'll rap to space.

Modern verse
Stands accurs'd.
The poems bad-
The critics worse!

Fast Growing Beet Plants

Check out these fast growing sprouts. These Detroit Dark Red beets have already jumped up this far since being planted August 6th.

To The Thief

Oh, why did you take
My pot and plants?

Only a day ago, they moved
From my safe windowsill
To the porch.

Dear thief,
Did you not think
-Or did you not care-
That you would confirm my worst suspicions of
Human nature?

You could have watched, with me
The basil grow, and bolt.
You could have watched
The green miracle against
Black soil.

Oh Thief,
You can not know, of course,
That I planted those seeds in March
Sheltering them in my window.

I planted them in defiance,
My middle finger to the tired Winter
Unwilling to surrender
To springtime.

I worried, and coaxed,
And finally when my little plants were ready
To grow beyond their first pot,
I transplanted them, and placed them on
My sunny porch.

I could curse you.
You would deserve the
Divine retribution.

What defense would you have?
If your excuse was hunger,
Why steal the pot and soil?
Will you sell them on the side of the road?
Or did you take it out of simple spite?

Save your excuses.
I am forgiven of my sins;
I will not demand justice from you.

Remember, though, that the Lord
Also comes like a thief in the night.

And He, too, will reap
Where He has not sown.

Science v. Religion: Religion Still Winning

Jacob Weisberg, writing in Slate, wants me to understand that the scientific worldview that explains the world in materialistic terms is better than the religious worldview that explains the world via the Bible.

I do not find it at all odd that the President, like most Americans, wants schools to explain controversial topics in a way that does not offend the beliefs of the students and their parents.

If I understand his claim, the fact that the vast majority of scientists believe "we're here because of random mutation and natural selection" is suffient to require the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Now, why do I find his arguement odd? Read on (cited in the article):

According to the most recent Gallup poll on the subject (2004), 45 percent of Americans believe God created human beings in their present form 10,000 years ago, while another 38 percent believe that God directed the process of evolution. Only 13 percent accept the prevailing scientific view of evolution as an unguided, random process.

So, when a majority of scientists hold a belief, it must be taught in schools. When a majority of everyone else holds a contrary belief, it must not be taught in schools?

I must admit, I am unimpressed.

And remember, the President said, quite reasonably, I think:

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

So what is he unhappy about?

The president seems to view the conflict between evolutionary theory and intelligent design as something like the debate over Social Security reform. But this is not a disagreement with two reasonable points of view, let alone two equally valid ones. Intelligent design, which asserts that gaps in evolutionary science prove God must have had a role in creation, may be—as Bob Wright argues—creationism in camouflage. Or it may be—as William Saletan argues—a step in the creationist cave-in to evolution. But whatever it represents, intelligent design is a faith-based theory with no scientific validity or credibility

So that must be it, the president knows the real truth of the matter, but is hiding it from us, the plebes, in order to stay in office.

If Bush had said schools should give equal time to the view that the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer, he'd have been laughed out of his office.

So, the President is being faulted for saying things that scientists say are untrue but are popular, and for not saying untrue unpopular things, because then he would forced out of office (appearently via a heretofore-unnoticed codicil to the grounds for impeachment?)

Oh goodness this is a mess.

Let us review politics. Politicians give the voters what they want. In a Republic, we tell politicians what we, the voters want, and expect them to generally reflect our wishes (except when it would really harm a minority.)

Weisberg's real complaint is with democracy. That schools teach the things that the local community wants is critical to democracy, and to the whole scheme of public schools as well.

It's hard enough to get people to pay for schools; how likely is it that you'd willingly pay taxes to support an organization that ridicules and minimizes your fundamental religious beliefs?

Oh wait, isn't this the exact same arguement that lead to the disestablishment of the churches? Which, like the schools, were formerly provided for by public exactions?

Now, I know my point of view is unreasonable, but so what?

If I believe the universe is less than 10,000 years old, and that God created it in 6 days (and rested on the seventh) and that the Son of God was born of a Virgin, died and was resurrected to bring eternal life, well I may be unreasonable, but I'm in good company.

And since public schools have to reflect someone's beliefs, why not ours?

***

Back in Middle School, when we hit the sex ed portion of the health curriculum, teachers handed everyone a note alerting their parents, and advising them that they could opt to have their children study other health related topics in the library.

My answer is simple: when the class comes to the creationist and intelligent design portions of the curriculum teachers should send a note home with all the children.

And if the parents want to let their kids sit in the library reading about Galapagos, the school should let them.

A Time for Bigger Pots

The last week or so, my Basil had begun to look a little sickly. The top leaves where the new growth was occuring looked fine, but the older leaves were turning whitish and falling off. At first I suspected that I'd just failed to water enough, since the leaves were also a little droopy.

But more frequent watering wasn't helping.

Next on the list of possibilities, though one I'd feared, was that the roots had run out of room to grow. I'd been dreading it because there's always a risk when transferring to a larger pot that the plant will be unable to take the stress, and die.

But gardening is always a risky enterprise. So today I transferred both my basil and my pomegranite tree into new, larger pots. The basil had indeed become root bound, with clear roots spread all through the bounderies of the old pot, and peeking through the drain-hole on the bottom.



The pomegranite, while the roots were well-developed, only had a few tentative feelers out to the edges of the pot. Still, I wanted to give it plenty of room to grow as we head into the home stretch of the summer.



Speaking of home stretches, and of the sadly inevitable end of summer, I also wanted to try something a bit more exotic. On Saturday I bought a window box, soil, and something entirely new for me: beet seeds.

The beets are supposed to need just 60 days until harvest and will tolerate a little cold weather. I searched a little on-line, and it appears that the absolute end of the growing season in Philadelphia should be the first week of November. Thus, I should have plenty of time, but there's no telling the weather. (I also looked up my zone. My zip code is in zone 6. Thanks American Horticultural Society.)

Planted on Saturday, they've already started to sprout (which is always a little miraculous.) I'll punch the first pigeon I catch munching on a sprout.



The beet seeds were sold under the name American Seed, and should only be about 3 inches when I dig them up.

Finally, you can see in the basil picture that the Sedum is growing, and in fact is preparing to flower. The nasturtiums, however, croaked. I suspect that they didn't get a good enough footing in the unusually hot summer we've been having. Oh well, something to try again next year. I think the Sedum are quite handsome so far, with a lot of red in their thick stalks. And the flowers should attract butterflies and bees when they start blooming.

Joke Product?

You're a vegetarian, or you're on a diet. So you eat some tofu, done up to taste like something recognizably edible.

But what if you're a cannibal, and don't want to run afoul of the law or basic morality?

The solution?

Hufu

Tip of the hat to the Nashville Scene's Pith in the Wind.

Part of me suspects a little Bonsai Kitten hoax...

Least Qualified Man in the Room

On Friday, before going to work, I put on the good suit and went to a meeting of the Philadelphia Bar Association's International Law Committee.

It was cool! But rather intimidating. I was the only law student; everyone else (except for the speaker) were practicing lawyers.

But I got to learn about the International Visitor's Council of Philadelphia, including the upcoming First Wednesday.

Consider for your Attention

Sure, it's fun to read my blog, but what if you want more Philadelphia-style bloggy goodness?

Law, linguistics, and politics, all stewed into one tasty meal. Served up piping hot by Eh Nonymous.

So head on down to http://unusedandunusable.powerblogs.com and get your read on.

More Clay Pot Action

As you can see for yourself.

When is a warranty a bad idea?

My HP Deskjet 3745 is great for dashing off quick text pages and, if I've got the time, surprisingly good looking photos. Indeed, with proper glossy paper and the right settings in the driver details, the output easily rivals a drugstore photos.

But the printer is approaching its first year, and so I got an email today from HP, advising me that an extended three year warranty could be had for $34.99.

The problem here is very simple: a brand-new printer only costs, from HP, $39.99.

Take it from me, a former printer technician. We have reached the era of the throw-away printer, and it is glorious. There is no reason, once it falls out of warranty, to ever have this printer repaired. Just buy a new one. Period. Don't even think twice about it. At worst, give it to a curious 10-year-old to take apart, but forget about repairing it.

HP knows which printer I bought, so I find it even weirder that they would try to sell me a warranty that costs only a few dollars less than a new machine. Indeed, the cost of paying a troubleshooter to sit down in front of the printer would easily exceed the replacement cost--undoubtedly they'll just plug in a usb cable, run a diagnostic, and if the result comes back as anything other than "jam in paper feed area" ship out a replacement "refurbished" unit.

Shorts at Work

This week I'm wearing shorts and seersucker to work.

Why? Well, first off, my legs are quite handsome, thank you very much.

But the important reason is that I'm over at the warehouse, where it's dirty and there are no customers with delicate sensibilities to offend.

But it's fun. I get to fill up boxes, and ship stuff out. It rocks. You get a real sense of accomplishment when you see a big pile of "ready to ships" and you know you were an important part of creating that pile.

Tonight, the big announcement was that the Prez was nominating John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court. For commentary, I turn to Bench Memos (Part of the NRO stable). I also go to The Volokh Conspiracy, and the SCOTUSblog sister blog The Supreme Court Nomination Blog.

Because tomorrow, of course, people are going to ask me "so, what do you think about the nomination."

Work

So, I worked three days in a row, and now I'm enjoying a day off. It'll be fun to have money coming in again. This week I'll spend mostly at the warehouse, helping to ship out computers to students.

As for the exams earlier this week, I feel pretty good about them. Civ Pro II was a good bit harder for me than Land Use, but neither gave me any horrible vibes.

And tonight, I look forward to doing some long delayed laundry while watching Adult Swim.

Unusual Payment Dispute Resolution Mechanism

Zimbabwean athlete and hermaphrodite claims that "her male organs became enlarged after a traditional healer took revenge on her when she failed to settle a bill for treatment last year"

See the BBC for more.

Research Links Comparative Int'l Law

To be addressed in two days, when I'll have the luxury of boredom for a month. (Last summer exam is Wednesday night, first day back in class for fall is August 29).

Then I'll want to fully investigate The Supreme Court of India, The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Touro's Summer Program in Shimla, the Bar Association of India, and of course the reason for the research.

Land Use Exam and Me

Tonight is the Land Use exam. Hopefully I'll do well. After the exam, not a lot of rest: Wednesday is the exam for Civ Pro II.

And, right now it's just shy of 90 degrees. Woo-hoo Summer.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Yesterday, I combined two squirts of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 1/3 cup sugar, 2 cups chopped rhubarb, 4 cups of sliced strawberries, and 1 cup of cornstarch into a 9-inch store-bought frozen pie pan and cooked it for 1 hour at 375 Degrees.

The good news is that it tastes fantastic. The rhubarb adds a great tang to the filling, and there is bounteous strawberry flavor as well. The cinnamon and lemon are in the background, right where they're supposed to be.

The bad news is that 1 cup of cornstarch was not enough. The filling tastes great but is runny. Instead of free-standing slices, my pie's consistency is more cobbler-like.

Now, last year I made a number of pies, and then I discovered that I got much more reliable results out of tapioca in my cherry pies, and perhaps the best results when I preheated the filling mixture on low heat on the stovetop ahead of time.

Regardless, I'm now off to study for exams. Monday is Land Use, so I'll be studying that today and tomorrow. Civ Pro II is Wednesday, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I'll be hitting the books for that one.

Fun Book to Read

One of the plus sides to all that time spent in airports was that I got to read some books. On Friday I purchased and read The Tipping Point, then on the way home I had Conspiracy of Fools (written by Kurt Eichenwald, a reporter with the New York Times.) Conspiracy of Fools was great, particularly in how it describes what happens when the venal are not restrained by calmer heads.

And tonight, I'm baking a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Hopefully it'll be good.

My Weekend

Well, I managed to get home to visit Mom and Dad on Saturday morning. I was the next-to-last standby passenger able to board the morning flight to Atlanta.

And, as a hint for future travellers: The US Airways Express planes at the Philadelphia F terminal are all small little jets. If you're taking a commuter hop to, oh, State College, they're fine. On the other hand, if you're flying for more than 90 minutes, I can only recommend avoiding the gate, and those flights. Further, on the two occasions I have flown on holidays (this weekend and Christmas), they have had long lines, and overburdened staff.

And there are more basic problems with the design of the airport: the Embraer's hold about 40 passengers when full. Each gate only has about 25 chairs (in the 8 hours I spent at the airport Friday, I had plenty of time to count.)

When everything is going fine, no problem, just sit in the seats next door to your gate. However, when (as on Friday) weather is stopping all flights, it leaves you with lots of people milling around without a place to sit. There is a small food court attached to F terminal, but the Euro Cafe's have a pretty good selection of newspapers and magazines and not much else. Fine for a commuter flight, torture if you're stuck for hours at the airport.

So, when trouble emerges, the F terminal is almost guaranteed to get filled with angry, frustrated people with nowhere to sit and nothing to do (well, they do have a nice art installation, but that'll kill at most 30 minutes.)

The main hallway where everyone walks is also quite narrow (for an airport). So when the golf carts come beeping and driving through, there's not enough room to move out of the way.

And, there appears to be no mechanism for handling cancellations surges. When a full flight cancels, of course, there are going to be about 40 people who all need to have their travel plans booked. This takes a while to sort through, of course. Well, think about what happens when you require people to rebook at the gate. After my flight cancelled Friday, I waited 50 minutes to get to the front of the line to get my travel plans fixed. And I heard the maddening announcement of the PA system "Gate Agents, please rebook at gate. Do not send customers to Special Services."

In other words: "Yeah, we know it sucks for the people at the gate, and we know the customers are getting angry and need help, but don't sent 'em to us."

So, to recap. Avoid flights leaving from Philadelphia's F terminal.

Anyway, on to more pleasant topics:

So I got to see the new house. Big yard and good neighbors (I met some of them). And on Sunday, I got to go to church, where again I was impressed by the friendly folks.

The travel, and the uncertainly associated with it, has left me a bit tired, but otherwise I feel pretty good about my classes (exams are next week, so this weekend will be full studying.)

The Airline Industry Makes Me Cry

Originally, I was supposed to leave at 2:55. I am on the standby list for tomorrow, but the earliest actual flight out that I can be booked on is Sunday Afternoon.

What's most frustrating is that I remember when the system had excess capacity. I remember when it was inexpensive to fly. I remember when, if there was a problem, there were enough staff that the gates weren't overwhelmed with frustrated travelers. I remember when there were more than enough chairs in the waiting area, so that you didn't have to sit on a planter, like I did this afternoon.

We'd entered the plane, and then, per a dispatcher order from Atlanta, the flight was cancelled. Then, I had to wait in a 50 minute line for the lone gate agent to rebook everyone. She was never relieved the whole time. No managers came to help, and nobody went to the big desk, located just feet away, where they could easily man 3 or 4 lines. US Airways is not providing enough customer service staff. This is the same frustration I had back at Christmas (when I was similarly delayed overnight).

So tomorrow, 'round 6:00 AM I'll go back to the airport, hoping that a lot of people oversleep and miss their flight. And then I'll snap up one of their seats and fly to Atlanta, to see Mom and Dad.

Fall 2005 Class Schedule

Temple Law's fall class schedules were posted today:

This is my overload semester, 12 units, instead of the normal 11 unit max for evening students after the first year. I also had to take a day class, in order to get Professional Responsibility out of the way. On Thursday, I will have a 7 hour gap between the end of my first class, and the beginning of my second.

Professional Responsibility with Glennon
Mondays and Thursdays 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM

International Law with Dunoff
Mondays 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM
Wednesdays 7:30 PM - 8:45 PM

Comparative Law with Porrata-Doria
Tuesdays 4:00 PM - 5:50 PM

Evidence with Rice
Tuesdays 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM
Thursdays 7:30 PM - 8:45 PM

Here's to you, Cognitive Psychology in Theory and Practice

Hey folks it's the Stroop Effect, in German! (From Der Spiegel Online)

In Deutch-glish:

(Thanks Babelfish!)

Illiterate by Hypnose
By Christian Stoecker

By Hypnose psychologists their test subjects have a reading cure. These could not suddenly designate no more, which stood on the multicolored boards written. The researchers also found out: Who is well gelaunt, can be affected less.

Stroop effect: Successfully hebetates?

We cannot at all differently. If a word stands printed before us, we must read it whether we want or not. The advertisement about takes advantage of this effect again and again. And everyone, which with the breakfast times to the Mueslipackung festgelesen themselves has, knows it from own experience.

In addition, the phenomenon can lead to conflicts in the head: If we are to designate the ink color for instance with the word printed with red color "blue", that costs trouble. The read mechanism pushes the word meaning in such a way into the foreground that it becomes difficult to seize and above all express the color information. "Stroop effect" psychologists call this priority of the word in relation to the color, after his discoverer John Ridley Stroop.

"The effect is a well-known and very durable example for the fact that sometimes we can suppress irrelevant information with difficulty", explain Wilfried Kunde, psychologist at the University of Hamburg, in the discussion with MIRROR ON-LINE ONE.

In the meantime is however clear: Hypnose can change the data processing in the brain so strongly that such perception conflicts do not arise to no more or only reduced. Amir Raz of the Columbia University in New York and its colleagues describe in the technical periodical "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", like one the Stroop effect with Hypnose out-cheat can - and which happens thereby in the brain (on-line first publication).

"like characters of a foreign language"

Wildly Inaccurate Job Opportunity Notice

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If you are interested in applying for this position, please click here or to view other positions click www.jpmorganchase.com/careers.

I need a new Mug

I didn't watch the President's speech in real-time, but I did see clips on MSN. No surprises, but the President laid out his vision, yet again, of what we're doing in Iraq, why he believes it's important, and why America should support his policies.

And, regarding Kelo, (via the Volokh Conspiracy) I may need a new coffee mug.

My weekend was blissful.

And, this weekend, I'm looking forward to heading to Atlanta to visit Mom and Dad in their swank new digs. They moved in March from Vancouver, Washington (just outside Portland, Oregon) to Georgia.

So, I will be out of town for Live8, but I don't recognize that to be much a loss.

Thoughts on Kelo

Bill inquired, (reasonably):

Did you accidently smoke some of the plants you're growing?

Yesterday, the ruling of the Supreme Court came down in a case called Kelo v. City of New London. I'll skip the legal analysis, but we've been waiting to hear the outcome in Land Use Planning class.

As the court writes:

Petitioner Susette Kelo has lived in the Fort Trumbull area since 1997. She has made extensive improvements to her house, which she prizes for its water view. Petitioner Wilhelmina Dery was born in her Fort Trumbull house in 1918 and has lived there her entire life. Her husband Charles (also a petitioner) has lived in the house since they married some 60 years ago. In all, the nine petitioners own 15 properties in Fort Trumbull--4 in parcel 3 of the development plan and 11 in parcel 4A. Ten of the parcels are occupied by the owner or a family member; the other five are held as investment properties. There is no allegation that any of these properties is blighted or otherwise in poor condition; rather, they were condemned only because they happen to be located in the development area.

In other words, unlike a blighted neighborhood, or a house that's falling down and hazardous, these houses are just fine. The working class families that live there don't want to leave. The city is using its power of eminent domain in order to assemble a large parcel of land, with nice views, for new development. Yet, the plan has no specific use in mind for part of this land.

[One Parcel] is slated, mysteriously, for " 'park support.' " At oral argument, counsel for respondents conceded the vagueness of this proposed use, and offered that the parcel might eventually be used for parking. (cites omitted)

So, how would you feel if your home was condemned just because a developer promises to the town that it thinks it can earn higher returns on the property? Again, this wasn't to build a hospital, or a road, or a park. This condemnation takes property from one person, to give to another.

One of the most important aspects of property ownership, its "settledness," is thereby wiped away. As Justice O'Connor wrote in the dissent:

In moving away from our decisions sanctioning the condemnation of harmful property use, the Court today significantly expands the meaning of public use. It holds that the sovereign may take private property currently put to ordinary private use, and give it over for new, ordinary private use, so long as the new use is predicted to generate some secondary benefit for the public--such as increased tax revenue, more jobs, maybe even aesthetic pleasure. But nearly any lawful use of real private property can be said to generate some incidental benefit to the public. Thus, if predicted (or even guaranteed) positive side-effects are enough to render transfer from one private party to another constitutional, then the words "for public use" do not realistically exclude any takings, and thus do not exert any constraint on the eminent domain power.

So, I suspect, there will be political fallout from this, probably much more than the Court expected. The question becomes, other than a constitutional amendment, what mechanisms do the representative branches of government have in order to correct this wayward court. And that's the research I'll want to do when I have the time.

And finally, as to the phrase "Black Robed Masters." In his syndicated column for June 30, 1996 on the VMI decision, George Will famously described the Supreme Court as "our robed masters." The "robed masters" part stuck, and over time "Black" got prefixed to it (since, of course, the Supreme Court Justices do wear black robes.) Nixon was accused of running an "Imperial Presidency," the equivalent accusation for critics of the Supreme Court emphasizing their overreach is to describe them as the black robed masters.

Note for later

Right now I'm engaged in a frenzied cleaning of the apartment. But, so that I don't forget, I'm leaving a note here to myself to remember to examine mechanisms to correct our robed masters. That is all.

First Day of Summer

According to the Astronomers, yesterday was the first day of summer.

Personally, I go by the Memorial Day - Labor Day definition of summer, and whine mightily if it's chilly in June or hot in September.

And, via Instapundit, I came to The Carnival of the Vanities, and thence on to the Opinionated Bastard. And there I got to read an excellent entry on the War on Terror, which generally mirrors the arguments I make when I explain my support for the administration.

And Furthermore

Oh, and I have it on good authority, through a delightful coincidence, that someone is also growing Italian Basil in a clay pot. When will we see photos, eh?

Insomnia

Now, even under the best of circumstances, I am a bit of a night owl. The combination of stress, evening classes, and no work during the day, however, has lead to an egregiously fouled up circadian rhythm.

Yesterday, I slept well into the afternoon. And now, at 7 AM, I am still completely unable to sleep. (I laid awake, fretting at my inability to sleep, from 2 to 4, at which point I gave up and read through some Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan.)

I also read up on sleeping disorders, which is a blast. Mostly a blast because I don't have any of the nasty ones, which I imagine are awfully rough for the folks who've got 'em. Still, I think I could make a good case that I've suffered from Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome since adolescence.

Regardless, maybe I can still get a rehabilitating nap in before noon.

Oh, and don't forget, from the clay pots

The Basil has a significant tropism towards the light. The camera is showing the face that was facing the window earlier today. The pomagranite does not appear to grow towards the sun.

Now, in researching my plants yesterday, I came across some fascinating information.

First, the nasturtiums are edible. While it's unlikely I'll snack on them, pretty much the whole thing can be eaten--the seeds are peppery, the flowers and leaves are milder in flavor. A search on the web suggests a number of recipes for nasturtium infusions of various sorts. And, it appears that their name includes a derivation from the latin word "tort" which is a delightful connection with my classes.

In addition, the nasturtiums are extremely tasty to black aphids. The Sedum is appearently resistant to everything.

Further, I also learned that pomegranites do not grow true from seed. Thus, while the seed packager may have tried to include a seed for one of the dwarf varieties, there's no guarantee that a dwarf version will grow from it. So I could wind up with a plant that wants to grow to 16 feet tall.

New Plant Based Purchase

Today I decided I was tired of having an empty front porch. I went to 10th and South Street, where a wonderful woman at All Occasions Flowers helped me pick out a big plastic pot, and some plants to fill it.

I carried the pot and one bag of soil one time, and then came back to the store where I picked up my plants and the other bag of soil.

Pictures:

My Pot and Plants in Context


Overhead Shot



Third Photo



Finally, the details. The taller plant is a Stonecrop, specifically Sedum 'Matrona'. It grows from 18 to 24 inches tall, and should bloom from late summer into midfall. I bought four of them, and they are clustered in the middle of the pot. The smaller little plants are Nasturtiums. I purchased 5 of those, and the goal is to get them to drape over the edges of the pot.

I put 3 inches of styrofoam packing peanuts in the bottom, and then filled the rest of the pot with two bags (16 quarts each) of Miracle Grow potting soil. Both plants are drought resistant, but I'll be watering them quite a bit for the first few weeks just to make sure they get started okay.

And finally, I know I live on a street that sees a lot of pedestrian traffic, but hopefully nothing untoward will happen to my plants. To reduce the risk of losing flowers to passerby, I didn't choose anything with really big, showy flowers.

What Philadelphia Deserves

In more corruption news:

On Tuesday, a jury convicted Imam Shamsud-din Ali of a number of crimes. As the Daily News put it:

MUSLIM CLERIC Shamsud-din Ali yesterday was unmasked as a crook, a conspirator, a racketeer, thief, a briber, an extortionist and a liar.

He cheated the taxpayers.

He ripped off the Muslim community, particularly shivering students forced to wear overcoats in the freezing Sister Clara Muhammad School - which he headed - by stuffing his pockets with school money.

He betrayed pols - Mayor Street, Council members Jannie Blackwell, Donna Reed Miller and others - who trusted him and paved the way for him to obtain city contracts.

Mayor John Street, from a press release, dated June 14, 2005 entitled "The Mayor's Statement on Imam, Christmas Verdict"

My administration has always had a zero tolerance for corruption.
It is important for all Philadelphians to have confidence that their government is protecting the integrity of its programs and providing the highest levels of quality service for its citizens.

And he closes with this line:

As Mayor, I will ensure the public gets what it deserves: honest and open government.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an editorial thursday called "Be mad; be very, very mad"

The ongoing federal probe of Philadelphia's insidious pay-to-play culture started with the FBI wire-tapping phone conversations of Muslim cleric Imam Shamsud-din Ali in a 2001 drug investigation. Ali, a fund-raiser and close friend of Mayor Street, was found guilty Tuesday of 22 federal charges, including 20 counts of fraud in which he used his influence to get city contracts that paid him even when his company did no work.

Juror Arlene P. Medearis rightly expressed what should be the feelings of all city residents. "As a Philadelphia taxpayer, I was angry how our own money was being spent and misused," she said.

Mayor Street ought to have been just as angry. Instead, he meekly voiced his respect for the jury's verdict while claiming he has "zero tolerance" for corruption and offering condolences to Ali's family.

Street has not been charged with any crime in the federal investigation, but the mayor nonetheless deserves criticism. He should have kept campaign contributors and political friends such as Ali and the late super-lawyer Ronald A. White out of City Hall's no-bid contract trough.

Folks, it's bad here in Philly. City Council and the Mayor's office need to come up with some way to really crack down on this corruption. A well-connected crook helped raise funds for our Mayor, and the best the mayor can say is:

This case was extremely troubling because it involved a recognized community leader and long-time friend. It is clear that the jury carefully considered the evidence and reached its verdict. We respect this decision and my condolences go out to the family of Imam Shamsud-din Ali.

Irony is not dead - but it ought to be

On TV, famously described as a cool medium, irony and sarcasm "work." If you, as the audience, don't understand the implied distance between the dialog and the fictional context, you just wait for the plot to explain it to you.

In person and on the web, however, I have consistently found that irony tends to demand too much from the audience.

Now, ironists frequently complain that the reason people don't understand what they are saying is because, well, the audience is dumb.

In reality, irony is only an appropriate rhetorical form when you know for certain that your audience either shares your values or is so familiar with you (as speaker) that if you start spouting something different they'll know you don't really mean it.

In spoken language, you express an ironic viewpoint through choice of emphasis in language and body language. But remember, in most of the examples we see on television of irony, we've already been primed to expect irony. Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" bit, for example, depends upon our knowledge that it's a fake news show.

Conveying and sustaining an ironic tone through text, however, is fantastically difficult, and frankly should be discouraged. Authors, unless you're an exceptional writer you are more likely to confuse your audience, rather than entertain and communicate with them, through the use of irony.

All irony depends upon the use of a fictional persona, which is itself suspect in personal interaction. Again, if you're on a stage, I've got the cue to expect the dramatic presentation of a fictional persona. In the workplace, or on the street, or really anywhere we're not surrounded by people who know us very well, the risk of miscommunication is too high.

More generally, in personal communications, irony (along with sarcasm) are rhetorical strategies of the weak. A consequence of ironic distance is that it allows people to say things with "deniability". That is, if I say "I hate your mother's meatloaf," and you look hurt, I can quickly follow up with "in fact, I hate it so much I'll take another slice."

I enjoy irony on the small screen just fine (in fact, when I could watch more TV, I loved David Letterman.) But if someone I'm not especially familiar with starts using an ironic tone, I start wondering what it is they're trying to hide.

Do I think The Onion is funny? Of course. But at least once a year, there will be a report that somewhere, someone has cited an article originally published in "America's Finest News Source". The same thing happens with the annual April Fool's Day hoaxes. When The Onion apes the format of a real newspaper, is it really so surprising that some people will not realize that it is a parody?

As a proud son of the great southern rhetorical tradition, I may be unusually cautious about the power of words to obfuscate. But this is my little plea to the world: consider saying what you really mean. Let your 'yes' be 'yes', and your 'no', 'no'. Your readers will appreciate it.

Late Night Excitement

So, I discovered today that they were going to have a midnight showing of the new Batman movie. Turns out it does indeed rock out in a mighty fashion. Dark, genuinely spooky, at turns gothic.

The theater I went to The Bridge Cinema Deluxe, is located in West Philly, at Penn's campus (and not far from where I work). There was a fairly good crowd, but it didn't look like the whole theater was full. Although the Bridge has some reserved seating available, all I could get online was General Admission, but arriving 20 minutes early easily ensured me a center seat in the third row.

I walked down to 30th Street Station to pick up a Taxi. Unfortunately, my driver got up to Carpenter and Broad and turned left. That's the wrong way down a one way street. A cop pulled us over, so I had to kill 10 minutes as they made sure my guy had a license and such. Looks like his record was clean, 'cause they let him go with a verbal warning.

So now I'm going to go to bed, happy that my classes that don't start until 6 PM.

More Clay Pot Blogging

Okay, so I'm excited about the new Batman Movie. From all indications it eschews the cartoonishness, and embraces the noir.

Oh, and I have a new picture of my growing little plants.

Star Wars Personality Test

Well, thanks to Bill, I've now confirmed that my "outfits and makeup are always fantabulous."

Quick notes on my home decorating

Tuesday I went to finish up my shopping at IKEA. I picked up a long mirror, roman blinds for my window, and a new table lamp to brighten my room. As a consequence, after having lived here for 2 3/4 years, it finally looks like I've finished moving in. The only thing I'm missing is some shelves to put books on. And I'll get them, eventually.

It's been fantastically warm and humid, making it a delight to go outside. Ah, reminds me of running around Nashville during my first summer job.

Anyway, tonight is the last night of class for the week. Woo-hoo Land Use Planning and Civil Procedure II!

New Bed

When I travelled, long ago, from Nashville back to Pittsburgh, I needed to bring a bed with me. Given that Dad and I were travelling in a rented van (if I recall correctly) we needed something small.

Enter my cousin-in-law Jason's waterbed. Back when Jason was a swinging bachelor (that is, before he married my cousin Angie) he had a waterbed. After getting married, the waterbed led a second, unused life, in his garage, and so he kindly loaned it to me.

That bed did fine service in my care from October 1996, until this February, when the mattress (an unbaffled vinyl shell, and therefore utterly transmissive of the slightest motion) began to leak from the bottom (hence nowhere easy for me to patch). So I was presented with a conundrum: was the time to buy a new mattress, or was it time to buy a new bed.

So in March I decided to retire the waterbed, and I threw out the mattress and stowed the frame in my basement.

Yesterday I bought the new bed.

Careful attention to chronology suggests a problem.

And, indeed, for the past two months I've been sleeping on the floor, propped up on pillows.

So, I've just spent two hours putting together another fine product from the folks at IKEA, and am looking forward to going to sleep in a proper bed again.

Neologism Ahoy!

So here I am, minding my own business, when suddenly I was accosted by a neologism!

The word?

AMSTERSLAMMED

Which I sighted at Spiegel International, here.

Now, certainly, it could be misused to describe the consequence of downing too many of these, but in reality, I think this new word belongs in the political science lexicon.

First, I find it euphonious.

Second, it fills a need for a synonym for "coup de grâce" that applies particularly to the political context.

Example (fictional):
Congress amsterslammed the sugar subsidy bill yesterday, defeating the measure in the House by a surprising margin (300 to 20) just hours after a non-binding Sense of the Senate vote had suggested that the bill was in trouble on the other side of the Hill.

Amsterslams signal that a previous unexpected electoral result was not just a fluke, but a real signal that politicians only ignore at their peril.

The Netherlands

Also voted against the EU Constitution. Yay!

Look, it's Eurocrats eating crow!

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I saw Revenge of the Sith on last Thursday, and I was very impressed. It was a very good movie, and I left the theater feeling quite sad over the fates of Anakin and Padme.

In thirty years, when the series is remade, the future director and writers will undoubtably have fun fixing the six films to actually flow together properly.

[Let me hasten to point out, there's no evidence anyone is clamoring to remake the movies right now. But Lucas created a durable myth, and the nature of myths is that they are remade over and over again. Recall that the Greek tragedies, which Lucas is certainly writing in the shadow of, were rewritten frequently by the ancient dramatists.]

In Philly News

For those of you who wonder "what does go in in Pennsylvania politics between elections?" I've added links to Keystone Politics and Politics PA. And, while perusing Keystone Politics, I came across this story about Mayor Street and City Council.

As if on cue, Hizzoner is looking like a champion of Good Government.

Vive la France!

Today I was at work, and I literally danced when I learned the news: The French voters have rejected the European Constitution by a stunning margin. For the full details, click here to read the AFP's take. My thoughts from April are here.

First Week of Classes...Tiring

Now, as my Land Use Professor noted, it's one week down, only 6 more to go. Which is reassuring. Then I'll really have a break until late August, when the Fall term starts back up.

Which reminds me, sometime this weekend I've got to plug in my final choices for classes.

Classy, Like School in the Summertime

The summer session began this week! Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights from 6PM to 9:50 PM I'm learning Civil Procedure II and Land Use Planning. Both classes are cool, if a lot of work (this should get better over time, since I can read ahead on the weekends.)

Since I'm working today and tomorrow, though, it means I've got a pair of 11 hour days in a row. Oh well, it'll be over soon-specifically, the second week of July.

Non Lettuce Salad Green Choices

Once upon a time, I went to visit an allergies about my lifelong and deeply annoying allergies. I underwent a series of subcutaneous prick tests, where we established that I was, in fact, allergic to cats, dogs, trees, grass, and mold spores.

One time, with 10 little red bumps rising on my arm, the allergist tech told me that they'd have to throw out the results--the control they were using turned into an angry welt on my arm. The control agent, selected because it was an extremely rare for someone to react to it, was lettuce. Yes, I was allergic to lettuce.

So, I've been looking at ways to get greens into my diet without lettuce. Collards, of course, are always an option. As is spinach (the local convenience store chain, Wawa, carries a spinach salad that I can eat that's quite tasty.)

And, now a new green. Day before yesterday, I stopped by Whole Foods, and got two bags of mache, aka corn salad or lamb's lettuce.

Verdict: Tasty. Quite tasty.

I also have discovered that it only takes a small amount of cheese or salad dressing to really wake up the flavor of the greens. I belive this is because the tounge's ability to detect flavors is vastly improved when a fat is available to carry them.

"Down with Fidel"

I read the happy news on NRO that the long-suffering Cuban people have demonstrated against their tyrant.

And, the President made a statement, too.

Oh and...

I found this blog about Philadelphia through the GeoURL link at the bottom of my page.

Class of 2005

I went to the Law School commencement for the Class of '05. I knew about 30 of the folks graduating tonight, so I came out to clap and cheer.

It ran from 6 PM to about 8:30, and then I headed home. In the interest of boring you with the details of my exciting dinner, I'll tell you what I had. America's Choice thin-sliced chicken sandwich on wheat breat, baby carrots, yogurt, potato chips, and some cupcakes for desert. Tomorrow they want me in for work by 8 AM 'ish. That'll take some effort, so I'm going to try to hit the sack early.

In blogging news, I noticed that Omri is taking a break. And I got this update that the Temple Law Federalist Society now has a blog (with pictures!). Also, although he doesn't post very often, I realized the other day that Professor Post is also a member of The Volokh Conspiracy. Which is pretty cool.

If you've been paying attention to men's fashion, like I have (but in a strictly manly way) you know that lime green is big this year. So yesterday, I stopped in at Brooks Brother's to replace a coffee-stained shirt, and left with a bright green tie and "Non-Iron Tattersall Button Down Dress Shirt" with green stripes.

Something astonishing happened: I got stopped by women on the street to ask me where I got it.

I repeat...women were stopping me.

I was dressed so sharp, these people wanted royalties.

Election Day

Yep, today is election day here in Philadelphia. Specifically, primary elections, mostly for judges.

The full list is here.

And, yet again, I felt the loneliness of the urban (R) voter. For the Republicans, there was no contest for any of the positions.

Sunday Night Television

I'm watching The Simpsons, and in this episode, Flanders is renting out a room (He's a land-fella, cause there's only one Lord.) Milhouse and Bart hit a banner ad for http://www.sexyslumberparty.com.

Hilarity ensues.

Academic Regalia

Today I was back at the Computer Connection, doing my retail thing. Because of the pre-commencement celebrations, a number of people were running around in their caps and gowns. Now, as it turns out, I've always thought that the formal regalia is pretty cool. Number one, you can identify on sight who's studied what. Number two, easy wardrobe selection. To this day, actually wearing the things everyday is done at one school.

I'm looking forward to donning the purple myself in a year.

A week of resting up

This week I spent resting up.

On Tuesday in celebration of finishing my finals, I took a day trip to NYC and checked wandered around Times Square some more. Which is great fun. I also went and watched "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" at the AMC in Times Sq. Which was also cool. The only downside to the trip was that Greyhound was running a little behind.

Oh, and on the way home to Philly, a mother with atrocious parenting skills was yelling at her children every few minutes, including such tender words as "Shut up! If there weren't so many people around I would beat you."

The rest of the week I've spent working, and cleaning the house. If you spend a month stressing over exams, and generally ignoring housework, you'd be surprised how much gunk will appear.

I also will be sending off a load of bills tomorrow. I've run out of stamps at home, but there's an atm style stamp machine close to work.

Today was very warm, humid, and sunny. I loved it.

Jubilation!

Woo Hoo! I am so happy.

However, I was also so exhausted after handing in my last exam that, instead of partying as was my original goal, instead I went home and fell promptly asleep. I'll get on the party later, I guess.

In Philadelphia political news: guess what, our city is, in fact, corrupt. My theory is that Mayor Street should get out in front of this story, with a hard new anti-corruption drive. Why? Because he's starting to look a lot like President Grant-personally decent, but unwilling to cull the hanger-on's from his administration.

Politicians who manage to get soundly reelected start worrying about their legacy. President Clinton was playing to the gallery of future Arthur Schlesinger Jr's with his desperate "Middle East Peacemaking" because of his naked ambition to be accorded historical greatness. When Mayor Street decides to become Citizen Street again, the approbation of goo-goo's will become very important to him. How better to ensure a bronze statue and plenty of cushy commission gigs than to be known as "The Mayor who stood for Good Government."

Could he do it? Sure. For Street, the only danger is that, if he begins publicly talking up anti-corruption, some new revelation might make him look like a hypocrite. But remember, hypocrisy in the defense of virtue is no vice. (Note to Teenagers: You'll understand when you're older.) A clever politician, like Street, will simply jump on new revelations as evidence of the need for his "Bold New Anti-Corruption Initiative".

The other worry is that, if Street embraces the clean, companies that paid big in the last election will feel they aren't getting their money's worth. But of course, there's no reason Commerce Bank, for example, shouldn't also come out in favor of honest government. They don't have to admit they donated for bad reasons last election, they can just start talking about how much they love working for positive community change. So long as they don't ask for their money back, they can put any spin they want on their political contributions.

It's a win-win-win. Mayor Street gets to change his public persona from aloof beneficiary of corrupt shenanigans to incorruptable honest politician fighting for the little guy against corruption. Street contributors weren't buying the Treasury, they were just early standing in line to support reform. And Philadelphians might just get more honest government.

I'm leaving for School, again!

I've already been on campus once today (well, okay, twice). Now it's time to deliver the final final!

And then there shall be jubilation abroad in the land. Vast quantities of jubilation. Hmm. Jubilation.

Just you wait. When next I post, there will be jubilation.