Busy week ahead

Expect no updates.

If usury laws paralleled alcohol advertising laws...

MasterCard reminds you to enjoy Valentine's Day responsibly.

Moot Court

I have just returned from a moot court judged by Chief Justice John Roberts, Judge Guido Calabresi of the 2nd Circuit, and Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit. As a matter of first impression, the new Chief is everything his pedigree seemed. Judge Calabresi was very fun, erudite (at one point, he quoted T. S. Elliot's Hollow Man, and at another, he let roll a death threat in Italian), and was certainly willing to push the participants to their limit and then throw them a rope when they went over the brink (at one point, he told the flustered speaker, "Do you mean to argue..." and laid out exactly how the argument could work; when the poor kid said, "Exactly, your honor," Roberts was ready with challenges to Calabresi's formulation. No respite for the weary.)

The case itself was about whether subliminal messages in music are protected speech. In one humorous exchange, Judge Calabresi stated (by way of example) the "everyone knows that strawberries can give you hives." Before counsel could reply, Justice Roberts commented, "Huh. I just learned something new."

And now this interlude ceases in favor of class preparation...

Japanese Town Roots for Plucky Radish

From the bizarre side of the news:

The town of Aoi, Japan, found community inspiration in a radish that forced its way through an asphalt pavement. They even named it Dokonjo Daikon - "the radish with fighting spirit." The fighting dicot, however, recently received a severe injury, and the townspeople wait to see if it can pull through this time. The town council has even discussed plans for cloning it should it prove unable to survive. Read more here.

So much for the courageous Frenchman

I was quite surprised and pleased to see a French newspaper take on the "Arab street" by adding to the Mohammed cartoon furor, printing the original Danish cartoons and adding some of its own. (Read Story Here.) However, it seems that all courage must be punished in France, and today, the little editor that could got the sack. (Read Story Here.) The editor's courage is all the more remarkable because the paper's owner is Egyptian. Of course, he may have simply failed to check first who owned his company...

This whole row does bring to mind the beauty of my religion, particularly the words of Christ, "All manners of blasphemy shall be forgiven men." And mere forgiveness aside, it is nice to note that He qualifies the proscription on graven images by noting that they are banned insofar as one bows down and worships them. (For example, Moses made the bronze serpent, a picture of the coming Christ, and that was fine, but when people started worshiping it of itself, it had to be destroyed.) The Christian God is comfortable enough with His deityhood that He doesn't have his followers brandish guns when someone, for purely communicative purposes, makes a representation of Him or one of His mouthpieces.