Law Students

The Racial Tipping Point and Title VII

Posted on March 20, 2008
Yale Law professor Ian Ayres blogs for the Freakonomics blog!:1. African-American cab drivers, on average, were tipped approximately one-third less than white cab drivers.2. African-American and Hispanic passengers tipped approximately one-half the amount white passengers tipped...

i'm glad i hitched my apple wagon to your star

Posted on March 20, 2008
Some people hate and denigrate YouTube posts. I am writing paper proposals today, and reading bunches for class tomorrow (yes, class on Friday!) and then I am taking a red-eye to D.C. So give me a break!This is the band The Boy Least Likely To. I got this from The Journalist...

Why Not Heavy Gas Taxes? Why Carpool Lanes?

Posted on March 20, 2008
Someone explain this to me, because I do not get it at all.We have these things, carpool lanes (HOV lanes in the east), that are supposed to encourage people to drive less often, and share cars. They impose a cost on people who drive alone (in the form of lost time and additional burned gas), and transfer some -- but not all -- of that amount to people who drive in carpools, in the form of gained time and (presumably, since gas burns faster in traffic) less burned gass...

PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND SCIENCE: LET'S WRITE OUR OWN DAMN MOVIE.

Posted on March 19, 2008
As everyone by know nows, this "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" movie is coming out soon. If you want to be really, really angry, watch the absurd, idiotic trailer. It's a paranoid conspiracy flick written by Ben Stein, claiming that something called "big science" is suppressing scientists who question Darwin...

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Obscure Amendment Day

Posted on March 19, 2008
Could Hillary Clinton (please, people, either use her full name or refer to her as Clinton, the way you do "Obama." Don't go by first names as if she were a Barbie doll. Not that I'm voting for her, and her own damn campaign does the Cher thing, but it is annoying) select Bill Clinton as her Vice President?Calvin Massey discusses this at The Faculty Lounge...

Critique of the Day: Erin Kelly, Discrimination Against Caregivers

Posted on March 19, 2008
Citation:Kelly, Erin L., "Discrimination Against Caregivers? Gendered Family Responsibilities, Employer Practices, and Work Rewards," in Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities, eds. Nielsen, L.B. and Nelson, R. New York: Springer (2005)...

So you think your advisor is tough?

Posted on March 19, 2008
From "Inside Higher Ed"A deputy provost at the University of New Mexico has determined that no ethics review is needed of a professor who posed with a graduate student on a sadomasochism Web site, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Some faculty members had demanded an investigation, saying that they were not objecting to the professor?s decision to pose for the site, but her decision to do so with a graduate student...

The Frequency of Awesomeness

Posted on March 18, 2008
Some awesome independent scholar dude named Ray Cha (bust down those Ivory Tower gates!) has a blog that is most awesomely about technology and policy (check it out, Madisonian.net folks), and found my cross-post about Your Daily Awesomeness on Scatterplot...

Obama on Race

Posted on March 18, 2008
I wish that I heard more speeches like this. It would be hard to believe, if I didn't believe so deeply, in the power of words and rhetoric. For once, my exhaustion with politics--its dross and dreck, the futility of it all--is overrided by the feelings of galvanization and inspiration.

Dear Phil. of Science People: How to Express the Falseness of Intelligent Design?

Posted on March 17, 2008
WARNING: I'M TALKING OUT OF MY ASS IN WHAT FOLLOWS. IT'S ALL RANDOM SPECULATION. DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY.Apropos of the discussion in the comments to my last post, I overheard a discussion about intelligent design in a coffeeshop lately. A working scientist of some sort was holding forth at some length about why ID is not scientific because it's not falsifiable...

Wittgenstein: Go.

Posted on March 17, 2008
Philosophy day continues, my dear philosophers.Same questions as before:What should I, your beloved Belle, know about Wittgenstein? Should I be reading Wittgenstein? Which works? What derivative philosophers and secondary sources? What are the merits and deficiencies of Wttgensteinian philosophy? What do you like/dislike about Wittgenstein? Of what use/purpose/meaning is Wittgensteinian philosophy to you and your scholarly work and own life?

Dear Philosophers: What Do You Like/Dislike About Kant?

Posted on March 17, 2008
There are several Kantians (pro, contra) among my readers. This is an open letter to them.Dear Philosopher Friends,I have only read the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, and that was back in college. I am not a philosopher, and do not generally read much philosophy (unless it's legal philosophy, at least), and so I don't feel too ashamed about this...

Dumbest Influential Argument Ever?

Posted on March 16, 2008
I've decided to run a blog contest for the dumbest influential argument ever, in any field in which the readers and writers of this blog have knowledge (law, sociology, philosophy, political science, humanities in general, medical ethics, economics, etc...

Awesome is...

Posted on March 16, 2008
...being in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, hiking around, and coming home to a comfy house with wireless internet, hot showers, and soft beds. And steak and ice cream.It is also being on different laptops in the same room as he drafts the worst fantasy baseball ever, and you blog and read the Legal Theory Lexicon...

And while we're at it, don't stay up too late.

Posted on March 14, 2008
Okay, I am off. Tomorrow is a long day of classes, conferencing, road-tripping. I'll be going from one thing to another, and my day will start at 6:30 am and finish at 6 pm, and that is the work part. I expect to begin to have fun around 7 pm, or at least as much fun as sitting in traffic can be...

Piling On

Posted on March 13, 2008
Again, I really don't care about the Spitzer thing, except that it's generating some interesting discussions on whether sex work should be legalized, whether it is in fact oppressive (if you take out the abusive pimps part, which you can't, so...), and whether it is a "victimless" crime, and whether, if like porn, it cannot escape its oppressive nature (MacKinnon)...

I Declare This Timothy Burke Day. Also, don't go to grad school.

Posted on March 13, 2008
Go buy Jessica Hagy's book, Indexed!I was hanging out with Wolfson last weekend, and we were talking about bloggers you'd like to meet or hang out with, present company excluded of course. I wish I could spend more time with Larry Solum, and I desperately want to shoot the breeze with Frank Pasquale, but as they are both law academics there's a good chance of this happening...

Naturally High...on Life!

Posted on March 13, 2008
(Dude, if you were as dependent on federal financial aid as I have been for the last ten years, you would also never, ever risk losing financial aid over a doobie or scooby or whatever, and so natural highs are literally the only highs I really have ever known...

Work/Life

Posted on March 13, 2008
For TD.Via Jessica Hagy, Indexed.I have three classes and ongoing research and independent projects, so the work is never-ending, but I never actually count the hours, and I take lots of breaks (but I work at least half weekends). I should, because they are roughly the same as TD's, except that his staying at the office from 7 am to midnight whenever he has to work on some complicated part of "The Deal" sounds so much more impressive...

The story behind my *real* name.

Posted on March 13, 2008
This post is dedicated to JAM, who asked why my "real" name is not like my "pseudonymous" name--e.g. it is not "Isabelle" or for heaven's sake, "Brandy." Dude. Please.[aw]Begin heartwarming immigrant narrativeI was given a Vietnamese name, Oanh. It is like "One" but not...

I don't know how to swim. This is helpful.

Posted on March 13, 2008
But yes, I can sail a boat. I have a lifejacket when I sail!This is how I need to be taught. This is not what my brothers did when they shoved me into swimming pools twenty years ago.I can float on my back and do a bad breaststroke for a few minutes, but I need to learn how to tread and really swim, at least so that if kid falls into the pool I can do something...

Legal Profession Stratification (Again)

Posted on March 12, 2008
Quick answers to one of the discussion questions sent out a few hours ago for tomorrow's class:According to the readings, what are the sources of stratification within the legal profession? Are they structural? Cultural? Institutional? All three?All three...

On Second Thought

Posted on March 12, 2008
I am so far refraining from posting the tracklist of mixes I make in which there is some sentiment attached, but this blog is and its readers are so awesome, that I have come to rely on you all for advice and good judgement. Also, TD doesn't read this blog, I swear, despite me giving him permission to read the blog...

Bacon and the Enlightenment

Posted on March 12, 2008
Via TD, who wants credit for everything, even if he doesn't read this blog.(click to enlarge)

Stuff on Spitzer

Posted on March 11, 2008
I don't care much about Spitzer's fall from grace, but I care about federalism and feminism, so here's the only things I consider interesting and worth reading:Prof. Rick Hills on Sex, Corruption, Federalism, and the Mann Act Prof. Orly Lobel on Legalizing Prostitution From Controlling Authority, a brief introduction to Catherine MacKinnon's and Martha Nussbaum's different views of prostitution(go here for more on Nussbaum and Feminist perspectives on sex markets)One of the most interesting articles on sex work is by Noah Zatz: Sex Work/Sex Act: Law, Labor, and Desire in Constructions of Prostitution , available here if you have JSTOR access...

Your Daily Awesomeness

Posted on March 11, 2008
Via the awesome Kieran Healy:1. Go to http://www.google.com/2. Type "find chuck norris" into the search box3. Press the "I"m feeling lucky" button4. Feel the awesome.(Original awesomeness from Fabio Rojas (yes, envy him his name, bitches) on Chuck Norris Meets OrgTheory)...

Law School Progress In A Nutshell

Posted on March 11, 2008
I should add this to the Wiki!Via Feminist Law Profs, Law School Progress (In A Nutshell) (but insert caveat in every year do not over-commit). I will edit this for some salient points:First Year ?.?They Scare You Death?DURING SCHOOL YEAR Take your basic law courses (Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Torts, Federal Civil Procedures, Research and Writing) If you are taking the California bar exam, be sure to register with the California State Bar Association within 90 days (starting from first day of law school) with the California Bar Association...

Critique of the Day: Kay and Hagan, Cultivating Clients in the Competition for Partnership

Posted on March 10, 2008
I know this critique sucks. I am really tired, and this is about Canadian lawyers. Like, who cares Canadian lawyers. More that I dispute the authors' contention that this is generalizable to the U.S. and how they define social capital. This is a really depressing article to boot...

Brief Reviews

Posted on March 10, 2008
Talk Cinema is such a fun thing to do on a Sunday morning, and the best, most intelligent post-film comments come from the most unlikely people, especially in a liberal college town. I love this place. Also, it is slightly weird, but also cool, being the youngest people at a uber nerdy thing...

More Facts

Posted on March 10, 2008
1. Ben Wolfson is very good company, and more than that, a good person. I am glad to know him.2. I suck at dominoes. Like, ouch. Is there any game that I am good at? I don't think so.3. Daylight savings is good for my mood in the long term, but hard to adjust to if you have sleep problems...

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