March 2009
22 posts
More Statements
Conversation, at least in America, is replete with (not so) subtle slights (calling adults “kid”) and caricaturizations (which are ultimately the same thing?).
All articles should start with a one paragraph summary.
Some Rich Districts Get Richer as Aid Is Rushed to... →
Basically, the NYTimes article talks about how the education stimulus package-in the name of expediency-makes use of an old formula that leads to inequitable distribution of funds. A rejigging of the formula would apparently require “months of negotiations”. If districts are just happy to be receiving funding despite the inequity, then I don’t see why they wouldn’t be...
2 Basic Life Tenets
1. You can never get something for nothing. There is always a trade-off.
2. There are rarely true either/or choices, so, if you think you’re in an either/or situation, you’re probably either missing something or need to be more creative.
Barack Obama didn’t mention lawyers when he was listing off productive members of society on The Tonight Show.
Experimenting With Punctuation
People say things just for the sake of saying things all the time. On the one hand, an innocuous comment can sometimes lead to good conversation; ex. Me: “that wall is blue”; You: “yeah, speaking of blue, have you seen that documentary Flow?”; Me: “why yes, I have …” versus Me: ” “; You: “ok, I’ll see you later”. On the...
I suspect that you can never undo something, you can only make sure it doesn’t get worse than it needs to. The only way around permanent damage is to never do stupid things in the first place, but that’s humanly impossible. Inevitably, the stupid things we do over the years accumulate. I suppose this is what they call baggage.
Scalia Interview: Part One →
Hehe. He insinuated that state court judges are unconscientious for not reading briefs before oral arguments and gave an utterly unconvincing reason to not televise Supreme Court oral arguments - that the news networks would reduce the Supreme Court to thirty second snippets.
Child Hunger Persists →
42.5% of children in India under 5 are underweight, a crucial gauge of inadequate nutrition. “[M]ost experts agree that providing adequate nutrition to pregnant women and children under 2 years old is crucial.”
At Radio City, a Showdown Between Maher and... →
“Critics from across the political spectrum have complained that Mr. Maher and Ms. Coulter are essentially operating from the same playbook. ‘They share the assumption that the most extreme formulation of an idea is its truest one,’ said Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic.”
Speaking of Regulation
“If the industries that employ standard forms do not police themselves so as to insure inherent fairness of forms, it is likely that the courts will increasingly refuse legal effect to non-negotiated terms of a contract and that standardized forms, as in the case of insurance policies, will be dictated by legislatures or administrative agencies.”
- Calamari and Perillo on Contracts
...
Rental Advisory →
“There is something exciting and pleasing about hearing a grown man lament his relationship with his parents by imparting the classically rebellious statements of teens everywhere … Hearing Poitier elucidate the grievances of youth pulls the film off of its platform of ideals and ideologies, back into the real world. No matter how strongly or perfectly Poitier portrays his character,...
No Legal Shield in Drug Labeling, Justices Rule →
This decision seems sensible. It’s sort of hard for me to stomach deference to the FDA where forcing a Company to have a better warning by imposing liability might prevent someone from losing an arm in the future. If you’re going to argue against this, your argument better be good. Alito apparently said that “tragic facts make bad law” in his dissent. If I had just lost...
What I Learned from One Year of Medical School
Sneeze into your arm, not your hand. Germs won’t spread as fast.
What I Learned from Doing Crossword Puzzles for...
The value of keeping a word in your head, but waiting until you understand how it fits into the bigger picture before committing to it.
What I Learned from A Conversation About A Glass...
It can be quite pleasant to talk about utterly inconsequential things.
For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help →
Talks about how there’s been no statistically significant movement in free throw averages over the years. Kinda neat to think about, but looking at the graphs, it doesn’t strike me as particularly surprising.
Erich Fromm
Fromm characterizes submission as masochism and the will to control as sadism. Then he goes on to say that they’re both essentially the same thing, dependence on someone else. This, of course, is in his book about the meaning of love.
Bobby Jindal, Slumdog, Fortuitous? →
The idea that Bobby Jindal’s rise (or demise I suppose) would in any way be tied to Slumdog Millionaire is hi-larious. Maybe it’s time for me to make my move?
Obama Offered Deal to Russia in Secret Letter →
Not so secret anymore.