Thursday, August 31, 2006

Maybe it's oblong

BUD:
Ever since reading Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, I am always interested by articles like this one. It's an interesting twist -- it basically says that India's economy will eventually top China's basically because they are a democracy and China is going to struggle with its communist authority. The article gives weight to India's "institutional strengths" over the infrastructure and huge head start that China has built up. It also lists India's exploding population (in comparison to China's more stagnant growth due to the 1 child policy) as a plus for India. I'm skepitical. I had always thought that Friedman painted too rosy an outlook for India and China, and this article also seems to ignore factors such as the virtually debilitating bureaucracy in India (why do you think investors are flocking to China instead), crushing poverty, and enormous population.

Monday, August 28, 2006

If his defense was as good as this he might never have allowed a run

I will not let this die!

I guess this is a sad story, but the lawyer used my favorite law school defense. Plus it involves a minor celebrity athlete who had a kick-ass beard.

-Moose

Dying Fast

Shocker that this group is letting an interesting idea die quickly. We never had much of an attention span. But I won't give up.

I've noticed that more and more license plates are customized and some even indicate the type of car.
1) Is this necessary? I know you drive a BMW. The big clue is the large BMW letters on the trunk. Why waste you money putting it on your license plate?
http://littlevillage.com/License%20Plates/Vanity%20Plates%20-5.htm
And how did you get enough money to by a BMW being such a huge idiot?
2)If we allow this to happen, shouldn't there be a cut-off? Yesterday I saw a personalized license plate for a Honda CRV. Should you really advertise that not only do you own a Honda CRV but that you think so much of the car that you get personalized plates. And I'm not even sure what the cut-off should be. Should we let nice cars do and not cheap cars, or should we expect more from people who own nice cars?

Friday, August 25, 2006

Friday Morning Musings

Did you see that a girl read our blog and said she liked it? We are so popular. Somethings that the group should be aware of:

UC v. Miami Sept. 30th. 4th Annual tailgate. Starts early Saturday morning and goes through game time. We will have beer, food, a grill and Miami vs. UC in Cups. Last time we killed them.

UC v. Syracuse Oct. 28th -Homecoming. Another tailgate. More of the same

If you are not sure whether or not you should go take into account that Clark's son Kaden has been to every single one.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Bush v. Gore

Haven't yet figured out the link thing. Here are excerpts from an editorial on Bush v. Gore. That the case hasn't been cited isn't quite true---see Max Huffman, Judge Painter's Forty Rules, 72 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1011, 1014 n.24 (2004) (arguing that "sometimes wholly senseless legal propositions are accepted by (even the highest) courts and become law")---but it has apparently fallen into disuse. Anybody else?

Editorial Observer> Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named?>

By Adam Cohen

> At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, > there was a panel on "The Rehnquist Court." No one mentioned Bush v.> Gore . . . . When I asked > a prominent law professor about this strange omission, he told me he > had been invited to participate in another Rehnquist retrospective, > and was told in advance that Bush v. Gore would not be discussed.>

* * *

The Supreme > Court has not cited it once since it was decided, and when Justice > Antonin Scalia, who loves to hold forth on court precedents, was asked > about it at a forum earlier this year, he snapped, "Come on, get over > it.">

There is a legal argument for pushing Bush v.> Gore aside. The majority> opinion announced that the ruling was "limited to the present > circumstances" and could not be cited as precedent. But many legal > scholars insisted at the time that this assertion was itself dictum - > the part of a legal opinion that is nonbinding> - and illegitimate,> because under the doctrine of stare decisis, courts cannot make > rulings whose reasoning applies only to a single case.>

* * *

There are several problems with trying to airbrush Bush v. Gore from > the law. It undermines the courts' legitimacy when they depart sharply > from the rules of precedent, and it gives support to those who have > said that Bush v. Gore was not a legal decision but a raw assertion of > power.> The courts should also stand by Bush v. Gore's equal protection > analysis for the simple reason that it was right (even if the remedy > of stopping the recount was not). Elections that systematically make > it less likely that some voters will get to cast a vote that is > counted are a denial of equal protection of the law.

* * *

.> There is a final reason Bush v. Gore should survive. In deciding > cases, courts should be attentive not only to the Constitution and > other laws, but to whether they are acting in ways that promote an > overall sense of justice. The Supreme Court's highly partisan > resolution of the 2000 election was a severe blow to American > democracy, and to the court's own standing. The courts could start to > undo the damage by deciding that, rather than disappearing down the > memory hole, Bush v. Gore will stand for the principle that elections > need to be as fair as we can possibly make them.

((** Moose: Here's a link to the full article. **)

McGee

Heard from Shane McGee today. He's moved full time to Charlottesville, but he and Shelley still work in DC. I don't know whether they commute or tele-commute. But it sounds like a pretty cool setup, so long as they don't drive 2 hours each way.

Fair Tax

MOOSE:

Speaking of taxes, what do you guys think of the Fair Tax?

Summary:

- Eliminates withholding and income tax. You'd take home everything.
- Eliminates Social Security tax and employer's match.
- Creates a 22-25% federal sales tax on everything: homes, cars, sandwiches, legal services, etc.
- Claims to be "revenue neutral" (i.e. the economists who have studied it claim that it wouldn't add/reduce the federal debt).
- Marginally progressive: Everyone would get a check from the government on April 15. The check would be approx. $5000, which is meant to cover the tax on everyone's first $20,000 spent (i.e. theoretically the "first" $20,000 that everyone spends is on clothes, food, etc. In other words, if you earn $20,000 a year and spend it all, you'd essentially not be paying taxes.)

Law Dog

BUD:
Why does this sort of thing always seem to happen to this sort of lawyer?

I did like the fact that the feds have seized Lawson's boat (because what better way to spend your hard-earned money in Cincinnati, than on a 37 foot boat to cruise the scenic beaches and pristine waters of the Ohio River?). The boat actually looked decent, although it doesn't appear that the proceeds will make much of a dent in his tax bill.

It got me thinking about what I should name my boat. I've got to tell you that it is surprisingly difficult to come up with a cheesy and clever play on words. The best I've been able to come up with for a lawyer's boat would be the "Sue-nami." Not great. Please help.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Standing on the shoulders of giants

BUD:
Here is the blog that my brother-in-law has, and is what got me thinking that our law school class needed one. His is a good start, but it clearly suffers from the flaw that he only has one idiot posting inane comments and starting pointless discussions. With multiple posters, our blog should be able to achieve exponential levels of meaningless diatribes and time-wasting topics.

By the way, in my ongoing effort to discredit all other professions (don't get me started on teachers), here's a sample of what one does to earn an MBA. I think this constituted their thesis project.

If this kid is 12, I'm 100

MOOSE: Check out the starting 1B for KSA.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a picture of him shaking hands with other kids. Somehow he picked up one year, and is now 6-8, 256.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

TV

MOOSE:

Top 5 five TV shows currently on:

1. Rescue Me
2. Lost
3. Colbert Report
4. McLaughlin Group
5. Real World

Discuss...

Euchre Party

TC: Well I suppose the point of a blog is update others on things going on. Last night my wife and I hosted a Euchre Party. Attendance was fair, though we could only get one person with a kid to attend (my brother). I'm not sure how you get people who have kids to come out and have a good time.
Moose was not originally supposed to play. But Roddick won quickly and he and Kendra came back. That left twelve people to play. It was fun, though I would recommend that if you want to play quick, seemless euchre, do not invite Tim Ammer. The last thing on Timmy's mind was playing euchre. We managed to finish the night with a winner and a loser, all decided by the last hand played. Bjorn made a monster comeback to catch Ewald's wife Amie on the last hand. At the same time, Amie's partner Tim, used his poor play to not only bring down amy but to also win the last place prizze from Ewald. Amie ended up second.
Three single guys hung around until about 1:00am, all somewhat hitting on the only single girl at the party. I say somewhat because they knew that she was single, but none of them brought much game. At 1:00 or so I became really tired and also because a poor host. Yawning and cleaning evetually got the good-for-nothings to leave.
Christin and I will continue to host parties. By the way, we still have a ton of beer left if you want it.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Curious

CAL: I would like to add a couple things to anyone who happens to stumble upon this page. All the authors to this page either graduated in 1998 from the University of Cincinnati or they wish they had.

1)There will be little or no discussion of the law.
2)There will most certainly be libelous comments made here.
3)Everything is fair game, unless it is damaging to a person's marriage or happened in Vegas. Or both.
4)This is for fun. (remember how far the mantra "we're not here for the softball" got in Virginia.

PHOTOS

MOOSE: Why is Norwood's Ron Smith wearing a coat and tie in these photos?



UC Law Homepage

MOOSE: On the off-chance that someone stubles upon this page, this is the Law School's homepage. This post has the added value of, perhaps, teaching my co-authors how to use basic HTML and to link via hypertext.

START-UP

MOOSE: Welcome to what we believe to be the first blog about the lives and thoughts of the University of Cincinnati's Law School Class of 1998. We're reasonably sure that the only readers of this blog are ourselves.