8/3/2010"What was once a moral issue has morphed into an illness. Now sins are called 'bad choices', and redemption comes not in the form of personal growth but from rehab. Don't worry about Tiger. He will be back, as big as ever, and we will all be able to tell Earl Woods what we have learned: Anyone can act like an asshole and get away with it, provided he has a doctor's note." Just got home from New York about two hours ago. The plane was almost 2 hours delayed. Got home and saw that my stuff was out of order and had been moved around by the guy who was covering for me while I was gone. It's annoying to see your stuff moved and not where you left it. Or maybe I'm just cranky from having been gone.
I'll write about the trip at some other point. 7/13/2010From the June 12th issue of the Economist (of all places):
"During the row over health care, the right demanded smaller deficits but refused to countenance any cuts in medical spending on the elderly. Cutting back military spending is denounced as surrender to the enemy. Tax rises of any kind (even allowing the unaffordable Bush tax cuts to expire as scheduled) are evil."
A man walks into his accountant's office and asks him "what is two plus two?"
The accountant leaps out of his chair, closes the window blinds, leans toward the man, and says in a hushed tone "What do you want it to be?" 11/4/2008In keeping with tradition in 2004 and 2006, this is the Federal election blog:
There really isn't much to write here. I haven't really been paying attention to this race since back around the middle of September. This disinterest corresponds roughly to 1) The torts professor stepping up the pace of the readings and 2) Obama opening up a big lead.
This race is going to be anti-climatic compared to 2000 and 2004. Much is being made about the parties gearing up for possible lawsuits, etc but it won't matter. John McCain is going to lose big tomorrow (my favorite quote so far has been on commentor on Fark saying he was "going to get curb stomped").
Popular vote prediction:
Obama: 54
McCain: 46
Electoral College Prediction (said curb stomping, 280 votes needed to win):
Obama: 341
McCain: 197
In short, it won't be a good day to be a Republican.
The far more interesting discussions will come in the days and weeks after when the GOP soul searching begins. Conservatism as we know it is dead. Bush knew it back in 2000 when he adopted his "compassionate conservatism" mantra. George Will called it six years ago, and then again in a Newsweek column back in March.
It is an ideology that is arose in the early 1960's as a cultural and political response to the social upheavels of the time and in response to the Soviet Union. As an ideology, it has run its course and is no longer resonating with the voters of today. The election results will prove that.
After the loses in 2000, the Democratic leadership huddled down and reexamined the party's values. What emerged from that was a more moderate and centerists Democratic party. If the Republicans wish to remain viable, then they will need to do the same.
On the local front, I'll be voting yes to Prop 4 in Irving which will allow alcohol sales in the stores. It is amazing here that you can't walk into a 7-11 or a grocery store and pick up a six pack.
Any opportunity, no matter how miniscule or abstract, to stick my right index finger in MADD's eye is alright with me.
/Readies the flaming bag of poo..... 10/26/2008From Hill v. Gateway 2000, Inc.
United States court of appeals, 7th circuit, 1997
Writing about the legality of a 30 day return period on new purchases: "Customers as a group are better off when vendors skip costly and ineffectual steps such as telephone recitation, and use instead a simple approve-or-return device. Competent adults are bound by such documents, read or unread. For what little it is worth, we add that the box from Gateway was crammed with software. The computer came with an operating system, without which it was useful only as a boat anchor." Hey Robby, just confirming this weekend.
Look for me around 2:00. Let me know if you need me to bring anything.
(could also use a costume idea or two) From ProCd v. Zeidenberg, U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Cir. 1996.
Talking about the enforceability of shrinkwrap software licenses:
"Only a minority of sales take place over the counter, where there are boxes to peruse....Much software is ordered over the Internet by purchasers who have never seen a box. Increasingly software arrives by wire. There is no box; there is only a stream of electrons, a collection of information that includes data, an application program, instructions, many limitations ("MegaPixel 3.14159 cannot be used with BytePusher 2.718"), and the terms of the sale."
Nice. I wonder if Justice Easterbrook ever checks his email?
10/7/2008The format for tonight's town hall debate has been announced. Included in the restrictions are gems like:
1. All questions will be submitted a head of time.
2. Follow-up questions from the asking audience member and the moderator are not allowed.
3. After the person asks the question, their microphone will get turned off.
4. Cameras will be allowed to show the audience member when they're asking the question, but they won't show the reaction to the answer.
etc, etc.
So basically this is going to be two candidates getting up there and delivering mini-versions of their pre-canned stump speaches. One blog I saw earlier today called it "the equivalent of two parallel press conferences." That just about sums it up.
I'm surprised that McCain would go along with this. The town hall format is his favorite style and it's where he seems to feel the most comfortable. Plus the campus that they'll be on tonight (Belmont University) is a conservative religious school. I'm guessing it will be a McCain friendly crowd with softball questions all around (town hall debates use questions from "normal people", so the inquiries to the candidates tend to be notoriously easy).
Tonight is crucial for McCain. Momentum is shifting against him in the battleground states. He has to come out and shake things up. It's probably worth breaking a debate "rule" or two as well. This is his format. If he has any hope of winning he needs to cash in on it. 10/5/2008After all that political drama over the bailout last week, there are rumblings now that the targeted financial institutions may not actually participate. Seems the big complaints are complaining about 1) The cap on executive salaries and 2) They don't like the increased regulations that accepting the money would entail.
So the financial institutions go to their buddy, SEC head and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, and ask for some help in the form of an injection of public funds. Did they expect that it would be given with nothing asked in return? Of course, there is also the possibility that this is all merely a bargaining ploy to sweeten the deal. Only time will tell.
It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that those whose institutional greed was a leading cause of some of this are now trying to protect their personal compensation packages. Then again I don't know what they're complaining about. Unless the Fed. has some sort of cool contract negating power we don't know about, the cap would only apply to successors, not to the current executives.
----
A friend commented that there are now Dunkin Donuts popping up in Dallas. I hadn't really thought about it, but it does seem that this area is a Krispy Kreme stronghold.
I haven't been in the new Dunkin Donuts, but I'm sure it's nothing like the east coast ones I remember from way back in day: They always were housed in some dilapidated former gas station that was one strong wind away from collapsing. Inside it was dingy....grimy....poorly lit....with the same four old dudes in the corner drinking coffee and smoking like chimneys.
The new one in Hurst that I drove by the other day looked like a modern art masterpiece.
----
This week in torts we'll be continuing our discussion of negligence. If your acts are negligent and you hurt someone then you "take the victim as they are." That is, you're responsible for the damages even if the act wouldn't have hurt the "normal" person. Thus leads me to the so called "thin skull" rule. That means that if the victim had a freakishly soft skull and you accidently lightly tap it in the right spot and the dude's head caves in causing death.....*Fonzy* Heeeyyyyy! *Fonzy* Yourestillliableforhisdeath.com.
So a companion rule to that (and the payout to mentioning the former) is the "Shabby millionaire". Suppose you're driving down the street and you run a red light and hit a dude dressed in rags and smelling like ass (we'll just go ahead and call him a bum). But hey ho! He wasn't a bum at all! He was really a millionaire that liked to roll around in rags and worn out shoes (emo?). Your restitution isn't based on bum levels (a refridgerator box and a bottle of wild turkey). You get to pay out at the "dead .com millionaire" rate ($$$).
So the end result is that you don't get to get out of responsibility for negligence just because they didn't "look" sick or poor or emo or whatever.
That last part really had nothing in common with the other stuff. I just thought it was amusing. |
|
|
|
|