After a long hiatus...

Expect more hiatus to come (for the next few weeks)

Where have I been? Studying.

And in case I don't pass the bar:
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Campaign theme songs

Hillary Clinton has openned up voting for her campaign theme song. One of the choices is Smashmouth's I'm a Believer. This seems an appropriate choice, in that it first appeared in the movie Shrek, where someone with political ambitions and connections finds out she is just an ogre.

Fortunately, Hillary has kindly provided a space for write-in nominations. One suggestion is that she just re-use the "Kennedy-Kennedy-Kennedy-Kennedy" song, but somehow I don't think that would work, insofar as people might remember that she is not a Kennedy, but Schwarzenegger is. Any good angry-chick-music ideas?

10 Month Old Baby Acquires Gun Permit

The baby's father secured the permit for his son after the baby's grandfather gave him an heirloom shotgun. Jr. will not be allowed to use the shotgun until his is 14 and the grandfather will hang onto it until then.

Spousal vs. Marital privilege

It has come to my attention that many of my friends, as well as a few of my enemies, do not know just when a person can be excused from testifying against their spouse. Accordingly, let me put forward this miniature encapsulation of the matter, which of course is a gross simplification of U.S. federal rules only, is not legal advice, and misses important exceptions that may apply to you and that only a highly paid attorney could tell you about.

The first thing to note is that there are two separate privileges that may come into play. First is the individual right of a person not to testify against their spouse. This right is the "property" of that individual, and only comes into play if the individual is called as a witness in a criminal matter to testify against their defendant spouse. If these circumstances are present, the law imputes the "one flesh" concept to the 5th Amendment and considers having to testify against your spouse the same as testifying against yourself. This protection covers not only what the witness has observed during the marriage, but also what was observed or known about the individual at any time before the marriage. Note that this only applies to a current spouse, so if the marriage ends or is not valid for any reason, it will no longer protect the witness.

The second type of privilege is marital. It comes about because of the special relationship of marriage, and bears analogy to the attorney-client privilege. Its purpose is to allow spouses to freely communicate without worrying about whether their communications will come out in court, and so is held by both persons and can be individually exercised by either to silence (for purposes of legal evidence) the other. It is valid in both civil and criminal contexts, and covers communications and observations that are sufficiently "marital" (sometimes a tricky test). It only covers those things that occur during a valid marriage, but can be used after the marriage is over to maintain the silence.

To illustrate all this, if a divorcee is the defendant in a criminal case and both his current wife and his former wife are called by the prosecution to discuss things the defendant had done in their presence, the current spouse could say, "I refuse to testify" and be excused completely. The former spouse, however, could not excuse herself, but the defendant could forbid her to discuss those things that had been done during the marriage. This would be true regardless of whether the former wife actually really wanted to testify against him.

Здоровье!

Dr. Sanders killed him. In the hallway. With the candlestick.

Kudos to the budding humorists back at the nest for this Onion-esque gem.

St. Louis Cardinals

Having been a Cardinals fan for around two decades now, I should have remembered this part of their cycle...

See, what happens is, they get close to doing well a few times, then against all odds the miracle kids actually win a world series or something like that, then the next year (and sometimes for about a decade afterwards), they sit back and it's like they don't have anything to prove anymore, so they slump around a bit. They pick up a few key injuries, and next thing you know the whole season is over.

The thing about the Cardinals is, they seem to be really moody. I know sports in general tend to be strongly influenced by morale, but I would say the Cards are even more so. If they are losing badly in the 6th, they will lose really badly by the time the 9th rolls around. If they only need one win to clinch their division but there are 10 games left in the season, they won't get a win until the last game or maybe the second to last, because hey, plenty of time to get a win later. (On the other hand, if it IS the last game, or game 7 of the NLCS or some other similarly momentous moment, it can negate their losing badly rule, and the need to win will actually let them come back seven runs in the bottom of the 9th with two already out.)

So, see you in the 2016 World Series when my Redbirds are feeling like maybe they will grace us with an appearance again once they can be properly appreciated for having been absent so long. Or maybe I am just feeling moody myself. ;-)

Wine review: Golden Kaan (South Africa) Pinotage 2003

This past week, in celebration of the end of law school, we tried a new wine, Golden Kaan's 2003 Pinotage, from South Africa. For us, it was both a new varietal and our first African wine.

The first thing to notice about the wine is the bottle (which was actually why I noticed it among the hundreds of other bottles on the shelves). The green glass/red wine black with little decoration or front labeling other than the golden African continent is bold but somewhat minimalist, an effect that pleases me.

The wine itself is dry but light bodied. The Pinotage grape was developed in South Africa from a combination of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, lending a fruity flavor to the lighter Pinot body. It has a primary bouquets of cherry, but backed up with perhaps a hint of mango and leather, giving it a cheerful but complex flavor. It is pleasant while not letting you forget that it has come from the ground.

It is rather finicky in its food matches, however. It is easily overpowered; heavy meat or strong cheese leave it feeling bruised. It does well with Monterrey Jack cheese, and would be a good red to accompany chicken or fish. Light pasta or a salad would probably also work.

Almost too cheesy to post... but not quite.

Thought

European Union Constitutional Law is way cooler than U.S. ConLaw. At least as far as separation of powers and institutional delineations.

(This thought courtesy of final exams)

Cool car?

On a stop by Wikipedia for other reference work, I happened upon their article about the Maserati MC12, Maserati's supercar (comparable to the Ferrari Enzo). I immediately began daydreaming about the gentle vibration of the 630 horse 6.0 liter v12 right behind the driver seat, the tight cornering, the massive but effortless acceleration...

And then I noticed that it doesn't have a CD player, radio, or any sound system whatsoever, nor any space or hookups for one. Sheesh. If I am going to drop $820 grand on a car, I don't want to also have to bring an iPod just to listen to tunes. Guess I'll be sticking to more run-of-the-mill Maseratis from now on.

ILM Sense of Humor

"Phantom Menace character Jar Jar Binks is also encased in carbonite - after being voted the worst character in science fiction history."

The Pets Unionize

China to battle gaming addiction

From the BBC

China has announced that within the next three months, certain online games in the Chinese market will be required to implement systems for players younger than 18 cutting point-making ability in half after three hours of gaming. After five hours, a warning screen will have to pop up and no further points may be allowed. (The article did not seem to indicate whether this is a per-day limit or just requires a logout.)

The privacy implications, however, are astounding. In order to implement this system, youngsters will be required to log in with their real names and the Chinese equivalent of their social security number. From what I gather, the software provider then checks this information against a central database the government provides access to. Unless the law itself provides differently (media being such informative and accurate sources of the intricacies and technicalities of regulations), this seems like the ideal time to go into the advertising-and-video game industry in China. With all this information about the identity and tastes of the gamers at your disposal (pshaw if they're minors), there is plenty of targeted ads that can be readily delivered. And hey, they're allowed to be at your site for 3-5 hours a day.

More legal humor

Thanks to The Heart for pointing me to "Say What?!", and to TexasBar (Judge Buchmeyer) for his amusing legal anecdotes, including the following:


In a one-sentence order in a frivilous wrongful termination suit (after the plaintiff had lost a jury trial), U.S. District Judge Barbara K. Hackett (Eastern District of Michigan) denied the motion for reinstatement "for the reasons best stated in defendant's brief in opposition to the motion," which read in full:

Brief in Opposition to Plaintiff's
Motion for Reinstatement
Plaintiff has got to be kidding.

Respectfully submitted,
Simpson & Moran
By Donald A. Van Sullehem
Attorneys for Defendant
Birmingham, Mich.

Original here

The New Steel

If you have opened a newspaper, visited a website with advertising, ridden public transit, or turned on the radio recently, you have probably noticed that the steel industry is running a general advertising campaign. One of their advertising slogans involves the steel industry as the "backbone" of America, as shown in the following ads:





As inspiring as these pictures may be, however, they leave me wondering just why they chose to represent their industry as having scoliosis, the condition of a spine which has lateral curvature. (The economy also appears to have lordosis, a forward bending of the spine, but that is not as clear from the pictures.)
Note below where I have added lines indicating more clearly the angles, demonstrating how according to their own advertisements, America's backbone is nearly 40 degrees from straight, thanks to the steel industry!





This will, of course, lead to deforming of the economy's ribs, mobility and strength limitations, abnormal muscle tensions, and eventually, if left to its own course, cause the entire country to become hunchbacked.

(click here for the democratic encyclopedia entry for scoliosis)