News & Media
PSA: It's "website"
By J. DeVoy The Associated Press Stylebook hath spoken.
SEC sues Goldman Sachs [alternative title- :( ]
By J. DeVoy The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil suit against Goldman Sachs and one of its employees, Fabrice Tourre, for securities fraud. The complaint revolves around Goldman’s alleged misrepresentations about the quality of loans underlying a collateralized debt obligation (CDO). Paragraph five summarizes the consequences neatly: The deal closed on April 26, 2007. Paulson paid GS&Co approximately $15 million for structuring and marketing ABACUS 2007-AC1. By October 24, 2007, 83% of the RMBS in the ABACUS 2007-AC1 portfolio had been downgraded and 17% were on negative watch. By January 29, 2008, 99% of the portfolio had been downgraded. As a result, investors in the ABACUS 2007-AC1 CDO lost over $1 billion. Paulson’s opposite CDS positions yielded a profit of approximately $1
Does anyone know this chick's number?
Laura Hall, 20, has been banned from buying or drinking alcohol anywhere in England or Wales. Police applied to magistrates for the order because of the number of drink-related offences that Hall had been involved in. She had already been banned from pubs and clubs in her home town of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, under the PubWatch scheme. (source) The Legal Satyricon will gladly sponsor her for a drinking binge in the USA when she turns 21. We’ll let DeVoy chaperone her. (conditions apply)
I'm getting to the point that I may go back to using PCs instead of Macs
If Apple keeps it up with this kind of crap. First, Steve Jobs channels Andrea Dworkin by deciding that he doesn’t want us to view porn on our iPhones, and now the App Store rejected a cartoonist’s app because political cartoons mock public figures, and are thus against Apple’s policies. Yeah really.
National Day of Prayer Unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled that the National Day of Prayer is a violation of the Establishment Clause. (source). The case was a no-brainer. I haven’t seen the decision yet, but if it followed any precedent at all, I am sure that I can predict its content. Under Lemon v. Kurtzman, a government action is a violation if it fails the following test: The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose; The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion; The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion. If any of these three conditions are violated, then the action is
Hell Freezes Over — Glenn Beck Makes Sense!
This is going to be one bizarre day… I watched a segment from Glenn Beck and not only did it not make me want to puke, but I agreed with him. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vv-yzFL190]
The Bare Breasted Truth
By Tatiana von Tauber Envision spending a nice sunny Saturday downtown when suddenly a crowd of women come at you – topless! Do you gasp? Quickly grab your children and cover their eyes? Do you think, WTF, laugh or grab your camera? Portland, Maine had plenty of diversified reactions to just such an event. About two dozen women participated in a march on Congress Street to bring attention to breast equality: women can go topless too and in Maine it’s legal. Of course this half-naked public and free event sparked a lot of onlookers and unsurprisingly, amateur photographers yet the coordinator of the march, Ty MacDowell, 20, was upset about its progression: “I’m amazed,” she said, and “enraged (at) the fact
Should the Academy Require Public Service Experience?
by Christopher Harbin A White House administrator recently spoke to a seminar that I’m in and floated by an interesting idea. Her idea was that universities should require candidates for the academy to have some public service experience in order to be considered. Personally, I think it’s a great idea — especially for law profs — who would most likely have to get a license to practice prior to entering the ivory tower. Hear that sound? That’s the sound of the professoriate screaming in terror. Even a year of experience in the real world could bring a much needed practical focus to law school curriculum. Perhaps hiring would stop centering on “what have you published?” to “what have you done.”
Time to Rethink the Libel Process
by Charles Platt I don’t much care for libel laws. If someone seriously defames me, my classical recourse is to engage in a lengthy and expensive court battle which is a huge waste of resources. When a writer I know pursued such a battle, more than five years elapsed before he finally made it into court, and even with an attorney who took the case on a contingency basis, the value of the time that my friend spent on depositions, the process of discovery, and other legal maneuverings was greater than the damages than he won. Because posting to online forums has become a widespread recreational activity, everyday people are now more likely to find themselves being defamed. All you
According to poll, Teabaggers are not poor white trash
Despite the fact that Teabaggers seem like an unwashed mass of poor white trash to me, it seems that the data conflicts with my anecdotal perspective.
Fireball lights up the midwest
By J. DeVoy I was wondering what the huge, bright streak across the sky was last night. The event lasted for several seconds and lit up the 10 pm sky as if it were dusk. Things returned to normal shortly thereafter, largely because none of this stuff happened. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr76hNngqts&hl=en_US&fs=1&] UPDATE: CNN has video of the event.
Tax day arrives!
By J. DeVoy Dear the top 10% of income earners: Thank you! Because of your toil as business owners, doctors, lawyers and financial service experts, you are able to subsidize the lifestyles and safety of people like me – somewhat literate, moderately intelligent lifetime students – by paying more than 70% of all Federal income taxes. My dirty secret is that for all my striving, I’m woefully below average at something — being a taxpayer. Despite scrupulously filing my taxes every year, I haven’t been able to break median or even come close to it. I fall into the group that contributes less than 3% of all Federal income taxes. This disparity arises as a function of our progressive
Alan Grayson wins a muzzle
By J. DeVoy Alan Grayson, the Democrat Congressman from central Florida, has been on a hot streak for bad PR. In December, Marc broke the story about Grayson’s poor reaction to constituent outcry over his childish antics. I truly admired Alan Grayson. I think that his policies are good for America. I think that his style is exactly what the liberals need. But, anyone who behaves with such dishonor and such disdain for First Amendment principles needs to be tossed out on his ass – no matter who it is that he’s going after. I can’t say that I will support his Republican challenger in 2010, but you can be damn sure that I’ll be donating money to his democratic primary challenger.
There Goes the Neighborhood
In Eastwood (near Syracuse, NY), a church congregation is up in arms because a video store is opening next door and they intend to have adult videos available. (source) Roosevelt Baums, pastor of the church puts it more simply: It’s just not right. “Well, according to the membership, we wouldn’t like that in our community, especially because 4 percent of that business is derived from pornographic material,” Baums said. “Yes, we need something in the neighborhood … but we don’t want to bring in an immoral situation into our communities. We have enough problems as it is.” (source) No, that’s not a typo. FOUR percent. In other words, a whole video store will be there, and there will be a
If you're still Catholic….
You must be on crack. Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut’s legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure. … The proposed change to the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk,” says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops. The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut’s Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill. The “legislation would undermine
Dumbass Typosquatter of the Day
Some dumbass registered thousands of typosquatting domains. A handful of them were typosquatting on Microsoft’s trademarks, so Microsoft sued him for $2.4 million. Now the dumbass wants to just hand over the domain names and call it a day, and if Microsoft doesn’t like it, he’s not going to bother to answer the complaint. (source) Lemme know how that works out for you, dumbass. I deal with idiots like this all the time. They register infringing domain names, make a few bucks off them, and then think that the remedy should be my client sending a nice “please cut it out” letter — and then all bygones are bygones. Only an idiot like this could make Microsoft look like it
2010 U.S. News rankings leaked?
By J. DeVoy Via Above The Law, it appears that someone released the 2010 US News Law School rankings before their street date. To be very clear, this may be a hoax, and we make no representations as to the accuracy of the rankings being proffered by anonymous internet posters. This always happens, though, so it may be accurate. Check out the first page at ATL. More information can be found on this photostream.
