... and a happy new year.
Best wishes to all for tremendously joyous, fulfilling, and a positive year to come. Gmar chatimah tovah.
All my love,
-A
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Baruch Dayan Emet
This man was one of the best, truest, and dearest influences on my life. He was, as I once said in a tribute to him, a great mentor, teacher and friend to me and many other of his students.
A word of advice before I retreat into my cave for a few hours: don't ever wait an extra week to do the bi-annual phonecall. Sometimes you very unexpectedly lose the chance.
A word of advice before I retreat into my cave for a few hours: don't ever wait an extra week to do the bi-annual phonecall. Sometimes you very unexpectedly lose the chance.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Front... and Right
Just another smattering of proof positive that newspapers love Obama (looking atcha, Ben). If you look all the way, way, way, way down, that would be what the NY Times considers the other presidential candidate.
Yeah, McCain's name is first in the caption (click the pic), but this is preposterous. Bush is hardly prominent in the picture and he's still running the country. Obama's the most noticeable guy in the depiction of the newest economic Justice League.
Use the wide lens and deflect the criticism, Times boys. This arrangement is just too obvious and cheap.
[Ed. Note: It has come to my attention that someone on the Corner on National Review remarked on a similar picture today. Truly I'm starting to get the hang of this punditry thing.]
[Ed. Note 2: The photo credit may go to a wire service a la AP or Reuters. I need to re-check. If it is the doing of some nefarious news giant, then the criticism goes to them for snapping the picture and the NY Times for running it in the manner that they did.]
No. No. No. Go back and do it again.
If Palin had been groomed for the veep position just a bit longer, picking her would have been an even better idea. She has yet to find her sea legs with only a short way to go until the election, and it's not like anyone in the press is going to shirk their responsibility when it comes to illustrating that where they can.
Nobody came out asking Obama substantive questions when he first hit the national stage. Some might say that the mainstream press is still shying away from doing so. Certainly where the substance of the issue has been hair-raisingly negative, they have shied away from doing so even more.
Yeah, I gripe. But the fact is that the blame here doesn't go entirely to the press, especially because they shouldn't be faulted for asking susbtantive questions (they should be faulted for extreme bias). The issue here is the stupidity of the Republican camp for throwing Palin out there as 'just as or more experienced' than Obama where it counts, while failing to take into account some very obvious and significant facts that impact her presentation.
Obama's had a couple of years to build up the stage persona, and certainly has a better team of puppeteers and speech writers behind him than Palin does. In addition, the press is almost entirely and solidly in his camp. This means that he can sit down with a Couric or a Gibson (and let's not even discuss Chris "Tingling" Matthews and Keith Olbermann) and get away with dodging questions and blatant lies. In order to come out of an interview looking 'bad', he'd pretty much have to grunt, spit, and start eating the set. And even then, MSNBC might portray his actions as a brilliant new take on the environment and a recommendation that we return to our roots.
Palin... well, other than hardcore conservative base, I'd say she's still "gaining acceptance." And that means that you don't put her in a position where she comes off looking like this because she's still in her political diapers.
Damn it, people. You make it so hard to vote with a clear conscience these days.
More later. School time.
-A
Nobody came out asking Obama substantive questions when he first hit the national stage. Some might say that the mainstream press is still shying away from doing so. Certainly where the substance of the issue has been hair-raisingly negative, they have shied away from doing so even more.
Yeah, I gripe. But the fact is that the blame here doesn't go entirely to the press, especially because they shouldn't be faulted for asking susbtantive questions (they should be faulted for extreme bias). The issue here is the stupidity of the Republican camp for throwing Palin out there as 'just as or more experienced' than Obama where it counts, while failing to take into account some very obvious and significant facts that impact her presentation.
Obama's had a couple of years to build up the stage persona, and certainly has a better team of puppeteers and speech writers behind him than Palin does. In addition, the press is almost entirely and solidly in his camp. This means that he can sit down with a Couric or a Gibson (and let's not even discuss Chris "Tingling" Matthews and Keith Olbermann) and get away with dodging questions and blatant lies. In order to come out of an interview looking 'bad', he'd pretty much have to grunt, spit, and start eating the set. And even then, MSNBC might portray his actions as a brilliant new take on the environment and a recommendation that we return to our roots.
Palin... well, other than hardcore conservative base, I'd say she's still "gaining acceptance." And that means that you don't put her in a position where she comes off looking like this because she's still in her political diapers.
Damn it, people. You make it so hard to vote with a clear conscience these days.
More later. School time.
-A
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Thoughts and the Devolving Monologue on Chemical Castration
Given that Jindal apparently did sign the bill referred to in the post below, I decided to do a little research on the matter. And by a little, I mean "Wikipedia."
So Wiki says a couple of things that leave me wondering as to the point here.
The first is that this penalty already exists in five other states, including California and Florida. The second is that people that are treated with high doses of the relevant chemical still experience sexual arousal and fantasies. This means that they need to be dosed with hella lot of the stuff, and there are potentially severe side effects.
Ok. Bad. Very bad and uncomfortably so.
On the theoretical level, it seems a pretty just punishment for the commission of sex offenses against minors (which, I think, is all that the Jindal measure targets). For me, the question is how badly and irreversibly you screw someone up when you've made a mistake. It's the same issue that presents itself with capital punishment. Life for a life seems to make sense, but only if the system works perfectly. Which our current justice system most certainly does not. If you want to learn just how flawed it is, go to law school and be amazed.
All that said, the same argument could be used when speaking about incarceration and it's not as if there are tons of advocates for scrapping the penitentiary system. It's just that someone at some point decided that inflicting jail - the deprivation of liberty, freedom, and time - was less objectionable than any physical punitive measure. I can't say that I disagree with this, personally. But the entire concept does seem to reflect a general societal queasiness rather than any inherent consensus about what is just. No one regains the time lost in jail, or necessarily rids themselves of the lasting physical and mental effects resulting from the experience. What's done is done and the consequences are relatively acceptable. I think it might have to with the directness of the damage. One is straight up - you kill, you are killed. The other is - you killed, we will put you in a place where we're safe and things may happen to you but it's not our responsibility.
This is the first time I've thought seriously about the issue, so please forgive the sophomoric rambling. It will coalesce into a point within several days.
Anyway: many of us were raised to admire Patrick Henry's declaration of "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Of course, it was said in an entirely different context and - viewed in the light of American history- certainly a much more positive one. But the current interpretation implicates freedom of decision and freedom from both physical and mental restraint (usually). The right to life, liberty and happiness calculus changes when someone violates societal norms, sure. But leave that aside for a second.
Ancestors of this nation equated liberty with life and the loss of that liberty to a fate equal to or worse than death.
Interesting how things have changed and what caused them to do so....
Late now. G'night.
-A
So Wiki says a couple of things that leave me wondering as to the point here.
The first is that this penalty already exists in five other states, including California and Florida. The second is that people that are treated with high doses of the relevant chemical still experience sexual arousal and fantasies. This means that they need to be dosed with hella lot of the stuff, and there are potentially severe side effects.
Ok. Bad. Very bad and uncomfortably so.
On the theoretical level, it seems a pretty just punishment for the commission of sex offenses against minors (which, I think, is all that the Jindal measure targets). For me, the question is how badly and irreversibly you screw someone up when you've made a mistake. It's the same issue that presents itself with capital punishment. Life for a life seems to make sense, but only if the system works perfectly. Which our current justice system most certainly does not. If you want to learn just how flawed it is, go to law school and be amazed.
All that said, the same argument could be used when speaking about incarceration and it's not as if there are tons of advocates for scrapping the penitentiary system. It's just that someone at some point decided that inflicting jail - the deprivation of liberty, freedom, and time - was less objectionable than any physical punitive measure. I can't say that I disagree with this, personally. But the entire concept does seem to reflect a general societal queasiness rather than any inherent consensus about what is just. No one regains the time lost in jail, or necessarily rids themselves of the lasting physical and mental effects resulting from the experience. What's done is done and the consequences are relatively acceptable. I think it might have to with the directness of the damage. One is straight up - you kill, you are killed. The other is - you killed, we will put you in a place where we're safe and things may happen to you but it's not our responsibility.
This is the first time I've thought seriously about the issue, so please forgive the sophomoric rambling. It will coalesce into a point within several days.
Anyway: many of us were raised to admire Patrick Henry's declaration of "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Of course, it was said in an entirely different context and - viewed in the light of American history- certainly a much more positive one. But the current interpretation implicates freedom of decision and freedom from both physical and mental restraint (usually). The right to life, liberty and happiness calculus changes when someone violates societal norms, sure. But leave that aside for a second.
Ancestors of this nation equated liberty with life and the loss of that liberty to a fate equal to or worse than death.
Interesting how things have changed and what caused them to do so....
Late now. G'night.
-A
Doth Wonkette Post Truthiness?
If I wasn't in class, I'd fact-check this. In the meantime, is there anyone else who wants to take a few minutes to clear Bobby Jindal's oddly endearing name?
Alternately, does anyone want to start funneling mohels down to Louisiana?
Alternately, does anyone want to start funneling mohels down to Louisiana?
Monday, September 22, 2008
This is Nice
I made Dean's List last semester.
Somewhere along the way, I should have realized this. But three or four months later the knowledge is just as sweet, even though learning it was a sheer accident.
Finally, I'm an 'achiever' again. Said with a touch of irony, and a massive helping of relief.
Somewhere along the way, I should have realized this. But three or four months later the knowledge is just as sweet, even though learning it was a sheer accident.
Finally, I'm an 'achiever' again. Said with a touch of irony, and a massive helping of relief.
Back in action
So it's been awhile. But for all three of you that still care about reading a generally defunct blog, I've decided to get back to the virtual scribbling.
That said, things are kinda busy, so I reserve the right to be completely irregular about posting. And anybody who hasn't yet heard about my utterly ridiculous summer and wants to hear all the gory details will have to get them from me directly.
To start off with something that is both timely and extremely neutral: I just moved to a new place and am missing the mezuzot from my last apartment. Where do I go in town to rectify this situation, other than the interweb?
Other things that I am open to comments on:
1) Looking for a legal job to enter into upon graduation. Have a few very fine people who are already guiding the search and giving great advice. Feel free to join them in doing so if you can. You will earn my undying apreciation as well as an invitation to a Shabbat meal at some point in the future.
2) Currently taking a full courseload, interviewing and applying for jobs, starting to help out with the Cookie Minyan, and teaching Kaplan LSAT prep classes in order to make some extra cash... in addition to living the rest of life. So who wants to the be the first to punch me when I start to whine about having too much work? The line starts *here.*
3) The potential to dupe GPS. Something Cheesy This Way Comes, I'm looking at you. for an idea of the implications of this... Not that you read this site or that I have the technical knowledge to further inquire on this matter. But one can always dream.
4) וְאִם-אָסוֹן, יִהְיֶה--וְנָתַתָּה נֶפֶשׁ, תַּחַת נָפֶשׁ עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן...
5) The economic crisis. If anybody wants to explain how it works (or doesn't work) in 5 easy steps, I'm all ears.
That's all for now. Best regards and such.
-A
That said, things are kinda busy, so I reserve the right to be completely irregular about posting. And anybody who hasn't yet heard about my utterly ridiculous summer and wants to hear all the gory details will have to get them from me directly.
To start off with something that is both timely and extremely neutral: I just moved to a new place and am missing the mezuzot from my last apartment. Where do I go in town to rectify this situation, other than the interweb?
Other things that I am open to comments on:
1) Looking for a legal job to enter into upon graduation. Have a few very fine people who are already guiding the search and giving great advice. Feel free to join them in doing so if you can. You will earn my undying apreciation as well as an invitation to a Shabbat meal at some point in the future.
2) Currently taking a full courseload, interviewing and applying for jobs, starting to help out with the Cookie Minyan, and teaching Kaplan LSAT prep classes in order to make some extra cash... in addition to living the rest of life. So who wants to the be the first to punch me when I start to whine about having too much work? The line starts *here.*
3) The potential to dupe GPS. Something Cheesy This Way Comes, I'm looking at you. for an idea of the implications of this... Not that you read this site or that I have the technical knowledge to further inquire on this matter. But one can always dream.
4) וְאִם-אָסוֹן, יִהְיֶה--וְנָתַתָּה נֶפֶשׁ, תַּחַת נָפֶשׁ עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן...
5) The economic crisis. If anybody wants to explain how it works (or doesn't work) in 5 easy steps, I'm all ears.
That's all for now. Best regards and such.
-A
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