End of a Friday

You know you have been working too long at a stretch when you have a moment of panic because you can't figure out how to save a document you have been working on, then realize that the document is a physical piece of paper, so of course there isn't a "save" button or feature.

I'm going home now.

Standards of Care, Virginia style

"Due care in a lumber camp might be gross negligence at Johns Hopkins. "

--Fox v. Mason, 139 Va. 667, 671 (1924) (Holt, J.).

Advice for relativistic travellers

If you ever find yourself in a situation where there are intertwined versions of the time-space continuum, and you need to straighten out the fabric of the universe, this simple test should help you figure out which version you want:

Find out which version there is a TV show about, and stick with that one.

(Seriously, how many times have you seen time-space breaches in a sci-fi show, and "our" crew convinces the "alternate" crew to "restore" "our" reality, even though "their" version is just as real to them as "ours" is to us. On the other hand, I suppose if a show needed to make a quick staffing change, say the Captain decided to pull a Natasha Yar, and the producers wanted to change the flavor of the show mid-season they could use such a device. Once the writer strike is resolved, of course...)

Emperor Palpatine on how to succeed in the practice of law

"I am compensated for my services, else I would not render them."

--Ian McDiarmid as Jaggers, Great Expectations (Masterpiece Theater)

Networking link

For the introvert in us all, those wanting to improve their working-the-room skills, or otherwise those that want a leg up on getting to know people en masse, see http://www.effectivenetworking.com/WILL.html.

Update to Saudi rape case

Article here

The king of Saudi Arabia has reportedly pardoned the gang rape victim who has been in the news of late (or at least the female rape victim) amidst complaints by Saudi conservatives that he is compromising religious stances and giving in to western pressure.

My original post here

Wine Review: Strauss Gelber Muskateller 2005 (Austria)

This bottle brought itself to our attention on the shelf primarily because of the light, translucent color of the wine/bottle, accented by the classic styling of the label and coat of arms. Strauss has several light white offerings, but we chose the Gelber Muskateller because we had not tried that varietal, and if we ever become serious about the Century Club (those people who can prove they have tried the wines of a hundred different grape varietals), this relatively specialized one could come in handy. We were almost dissuaded by the screwtop, which was surprising to see on a $14 bottle of wine, but decided to see if the expense would be worth it, probably mostly because once something strikes my fancy I have a hard time letting it go.

On opening the bottle after chilling lightly, the wine presents surprisingly intense flavors of apricots, almonds, walnuts, and a shade of lemon. While certainly a dry wine, it has enough fruit to almost make you forget that fact. It has a medium weight for a white, and a slightly buttery texture that melts on the tongue. Altogether, it makes a good pairing for food with sea oils and cheese with some pungency (such as the shrimp and pasta, with a rather good Romano we had it with).

The one down note is that the wine has a rather monochromatic acid to it. When I had a glass without any food, it was a bit forceful, and I did not really taste the other complexities until the initial impact of the acid on my taste buds diminished. Slow sipping helped, but this wine seems to need light but slightly sharp food to help it find its place. Perhaps a few more years of aging would also help mellow the tone, although I don't know how much I would trust the screwtop packaging to allow that.

Felony Fun

I love Virginia law. If a criminal defendant is charged with "larceny of a dog" (or certain other animals), you don't have to prove the value of the animal. However, in order to convict someone of the crime of "larceny of poultry", you must specifically prove that the poultry taken was worth between 5 and 200 dollars. See Va. Code § 18.2-97.

The significance is that larceny of poultry is a felony, while under normal larceny rules, stealing something worth less than $200 is a misdemeanor, with significantly lower penalties and no loss of civil rights such as voting and gun ownership.

So conceivably, if a particularly scrawny chicken was stolen, you could have an expert witness battle involving whether the chicken was worth less than $5 or not. Welcome to Old Dominion.

Somehow this is not as surprising as it should be

Matthew Murray's ATI past

There seems to be a lot of talk regarding whether the curriculum itself was to blame, or the parents, or just "sometimes you get a bad apple." For my two cents, you have to be careful about thinking that you have "the answer" for how to educate. Children have different needs, and when you fail to account for the individual challenges of each child, you fail to show the love they need to feel a part of the "community" of their family. That and you probably lack the humility to recognize that others (who may not believe exactly the way you do!) may know better or be better equipped to meet these needs.

The Ones That Didn't Make It

In the course of researching today, I came across a link I thought rather interesting - the texts and histories of the constitutional amendments not ratified. There are only six of them, but several of them can still be ratified (including a child labor amendment which only lacks 10 states, but appears to be largely superfluous now that Commerce Clause power is so broadly interpreted). So, for a quick look at the ones that didn't make it, click here.

Virginia to suspend licenses of 5% of drivers?

Article Here

The Virginia General Assembly State Auditor has just released a report stating that nonpayment of the "abuser fees," civil penalties automatically accruing to Virginia drivers upon conviction of reckless driving, drunk driving, and other traffic misdemeanors and felonies, is prevalent. As the fees range from $250 - $1,050 per year for three years, the idea that people simply don't have the money to pay the fees and accordingly don't is believable. Nonetheless, only 13% of the fees assessed for misdemeanors are paid, and only 5% for felonies.

(As a side note, I am not actually sure why the law included the felonies, as it's hard to pay your fines if you are sitting in prison and the extent of your economic activities is trading cigarettes for protection.)

The Auditor's conclusion is that the DMV may have to suspend 300,000 Virginia licenses in the coming year, or more than 5% of the total number of current drivers' licenses. I don't recommend disobedience, but it does appear in this case that if nobody pays it, what are they going to do?

There are several legislative proposals in the hopper for this year, so it will be interesting to see what happens. For a possible judicial solution to the matter, see the model brief (which is not necessarily in the form as I would present it, but to each his own, and I haven't written my own) available here.

Link of the Day

Here you may find a well turned satire using the anti-alcohol logic: On the Holierness of Tea-totaling.

I also appreciate the commenter there who mentioned that moderation-vs-abstention had interesting results when applied to the field of sex.

Practice tip

(After receiving repeated calls from an individual who apparently believed it was currently the 1940s)

"Rule number one, when doing mental commitment hearings: never give your client your business card."

--The firm's first-named partner

You know, some systems of law are really better than others

If there is one thing that is easy to criticize about Islamic law, it is its treatment of women. For instance, rape is seldom punished because unless further witnesses corroborate the victim's story, the victim will be punished - severely - for adultery, having confessed to engaging in sexual activity but failed to prove unwillingness or a perpetrator. There is thus a strong disincentive to raising the matter at all.

This week, however, a Saudi court proved that even reaching a conviction isn't enough. In this case, a woman managed to secure the conviction of the men that gang-raped her 14 times one afternoon. Although the "up to ten years" they will be spending in Saudi prisons are surely no joke, this is a mere slap on the wrist for a country where swiping a wallet costs you a hand. However, the woman will be spending some time in the clink herself, as well as receiving 200 lashes. Turns out that in the process of testifying against the mass of defendants, she had to admit that she had *gasp* been in the car of a man not her relative (that was where she was raped - apparently scienter is not a critical element of the crime of being in a car with a man not your relative).

But women's rights and other substantive issues aside, there is another aspect of this case that indicates the trouble the Saudi legal system is in: as part of the appellate court's decision, they suspended the woman's attorney for undertaking the appeal. Not only do they have draconian punishments and a lack of substantive rights, but they punish those who attempt to stop (or just actively monitor) the railroading of these people. With such a disincentive to even run interference on the prosecution or level of punishment of anyone presupposed to be guilty, why even bother having a "justice" system?

It does illustrate, though, why the lawyers in Pakistan are so demonstratively upset about threats to the post-British legal system they have. They can see from their neighbors where the loss of a confrontational legal system leads.

Article here

Please do not feed the Benjamin

©2007

Used by Permission

(Benjamin is a guy at our church who is deathly allergic to peanuts. When he was little his parents made the title of the post into a sign for him to wear in the nursery. He has since outgrown the nursery, but we still label things that go to church, so as not to knock him off.)