October 2008
30 posts
People...
People can be meanies. When I was teaching fifth graders, I would create a fictional character, Bob, and have the class try to identify where he went wrong in solving math problems. The class basically made fun of Bob and called him stupid, but there were always at least a few kids who would stand up for Bob. Today we spent some time as a class orally editing an example of “bad”...
Time...
You can’t create time. It sucks, but it’s true. I don’t know if I just needed less sleep when I was younger or if I was just delusional, but I figured I could always create time by sleeping less. Now, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Now I’m just delaying the inevitable. If I stay up late tonight, I have to sleep more tomorrow. I have to be responsible. I can’t use those blunt force tools...
Humans...
Humans are designed bad. We’ve got these defects that make us much less efficient. When people get sued, instead of just trying to argue a defense, they’re likely to counter-sue as well. It’s at least partially for the same reason that I might be able to sell you a toothpick for $5 if I show you a toothpick for $100 first. Judges even (especially?) succumb to it. Where a certain action might...
Home Stretch for Dream Village →
Screw November 4th, this is the real election. Vote for Dream Village 2008. If you voted last time, vote again. This is the new, final round. Home stretch, winner gets crowned at the end of the month. Tell your friends. Every vote counts. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. Stick it to the man!
In Studying Law
We’ve had someone say, while trying to grapple with an argument, “but, I mean, the law isn’t supposed to be fair,” and we’ve had multiple people admit to fraud. I wonder if there’s some sort of educational/professional immunity within class for that type thing.
E-mail Formats
I’ve decided to use the following format for all my quick e-mails:
Hi Bob. I would love to come to your birthday party. Thanks for the invite!
Best, Deepal
Useful Test
How would that make a kid feel?
Cheers?
It’s funny, sometimes you forget that for the candidates, politics, on one level, is just their line of work. Bill Clinton wasn’t a president, he was a colleague that was more successful then them. Obama and McCain can probably bask in their success together, “John, you sure had an easy time with the primaries, Hillary ran me good!” “Yeah, I’m glad I...
Spellcheck is Weird
Overcompensate is a word but undercompensate isn’t
Incentivize is not a word
I’m sure there’s a lot more out there
I get the general feeling that when the Democrats lose, people think it’s because of incompetence, but when the Republicans lose, people think it’s because they’re all around bigots that don’t care about poor people. Being a Republican, I think, is more high risk.
We spend a lot of time jumping through hoops. Or maybe its just me. So it goes.
An Example of an Article That is Way Too Long →
First Attempt at a Definition of "on Public Policy...
“on public policy grounds” = well, there are negatives on an individual basis, but when we look at the interests of populations to maximize societal benefit, the positives for society as a whole outweigh the negative individual consequences
So, before you can even assess an “on public policy grounds” argument you have to identify the negative individual consequences and...
The Presidential Debate
sequentialist:
GOVERNMENTACORNHEALTHCAREWILLIAMAYERSMAVERICKREFORM
DEMOCRATSFINANCIALCRISISMIDDLECLASSABORTIONAUTOINDUSTRY
SUPREMECOURTJOETHEPLuMBERFREETRADEAGREEMENTSEDUCATION
BUSHIRAQNUCLEARHOLOCAUSTENERGYINDEPENDENCEOFFSHOREDRILLING
OHIOREPUBLICANSSARAHPALINTAXPOLICYPERSONALRESPONSIBLITY
ENVIRONMENTMIDDLEEASTROEVWADESTOCKMARKETCORPORATIONS
I think there were some more words in between...
smalter:
When Obama said that 100% of McCain’s ads were negative, and McCain said, “No they weren’t,” he looked genuinely hurt. I know on the night that Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president, McCain ran an ad unequivocally congratulating Obama on his historic accomplishment.
I think McCain liked the idea of Obama in theory, but once he actually had to go against him he genuinely...
Woah
I simultaneously opened the NYTimes website and Sepiamutiny.com in my browser and thought I got them mixed up. The NYTimes had a picture of an Indian dude on the front page and Sepiamutiny had a picture of Paul Krugman. Weird. Times, they are a-changin’. Get it.
Sometimes when I talk to people, I have no interest in the substance of what they’re saying, I’m just trying to read between the lines and learn more about the person who’s talking. This, I imagine, is not that fulfilling to the person who is doing the talking.
A Whole New World
A lot of the value in a word is that it means the same thing to you as it does to me. It tends to be a problem when that’s not true. Just think of the last time you asked someone if the food was spicy and they said no and then you ended up crying.
We think like this:
Level 1 x = f(a,b,c) y = f(d,e,f) z = f(g,h,i) Level 2 M = f(x,y) N = f(x,z) O = f(y,z) Level 3, etc…
Wherever possible,...
Half-Baked Thought on the Law #1
Blameworthiness is really just an inverse measure of our empathy. The more empathetic we are to a bad act, the less blameworthy it is. Culpability is a huge factor in how much we (the law) punish people for doing bad things. Like all things that are subjective, the majority interests get represented more than minority interests so what the majority can empathize with will be the primary driver...
Check it Out and Get Your Vote On →
The Dream Village idea (2nd from the top) was submitted by a friend of mine.
Debate
I don’t get it. The town hall style debate seemed to fit Obama worlds better then McCain, except maybe when they talked about foreign policy, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the style of debate. Obama kept walking freakishly close to Tim Brokaw and McCain looked like a whimp when he started complaining about Obama not following the rules. The gross oversimplification,...
Watchsequentialist:
Speaks for itself.
HOV, ever the statesman.
Sometimes
I’m so happy that I can’t contain myself
L33T
In response to charges of elitism from the right, the left has sort of half-assed an attempt to redefine elitism as a good thing without distinguishing between elitism (bad) and knowledge (good). Then they start criticizing people’s grammar. Are they intentionally trying to make people hate them?
Life Lesson #2: Don't Drill Down, Drill Up (Speak...
We all want to be ambitious and say something really smart and we associate saying smart things with saying complicated things. Sometimes I’ll be thinking about something and then try to formulate this complicated assessment that takes everything into account. More often then not, once I’ve said it, I go, “wait a minute, that’s not right…” Then I change...
Diversity?
smalter:
I laugh whenever I hear stuff like “this election is the most important of your lifetime.” (I don’t laugh at antikris, because I would never do that because I’m in love with her.) The VP candidates agreed on pretty much everything last night (the bailout, budgets without any fiscal responsibility, increased regulation, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc). They continued to draw meaningless...
“Without a strict observance of the fundamental Code of Honor, no man, no matter...”
– Justice Scalia, dissenting in United States v. Virginia, quoting The Code of a Gentleman. (via judgedredd)
Lesson From a Crisis: When Trust Vanishes →
ESPN - 2008 Chinese gymnasts cleared, but 2000... →
smalter:
My guess is that I’ll be the only person sharing this story on Tumblr.