Brilliant

Virginia presidential primary

So with only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul (absent a legal decision otherwise) having qualified for the Virginia Republican primary for president, does this mean that Paul has a decent chance at winning the Commonwealth just to keep the delegates out of Romney's hands if the race for convention delegates is looking close at that point?

(I suppose it depends to some extent on the degree to which the party establishment can GOTV with moderates, compared with Paul's ability to convince those supporting other candidates that this is the only way to keep Romney off the ballot in November.)

EDIT: See discussion of legal options here and here

Tell us what you really think, Ken

Cuccinelli on Dulles Rail:

After mishandling Phase I of the Dulles Metrorail/Silver Line extension, allowing Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority to oversee Phase II is like “buying your 16-year-old a new sports car, they go out, get drunk, crash into a tree, and you go out and buy them another one. And then buy them a six-pack.”

(And this despite the finding of MWAA, when pressured by Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, that they could actually probably complete the construction of Phase II for a billion bucks less than they said. A billion is about $1,000 per resident of Fairfax County.)

Federal Case of the Week

Doran v. 7-Eleven, Inc., 524 F.3d1034 (9th Cir. 2008) - District Court erred in dismissing wheelchair-bound plaintiff's Americans with Disabilities Act case for lack of standing.

(So is that irony or just a bad pun?)

Until Next Season...

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

--Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis Cardinals from 1915-1926, 1933)

Math and engineers

A logician, a physicist, a statistician, and an engineer enter a mathematics contest, the first task of which is to prove that all odd integers are prime.

The logician argues: "3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime. Therefore, by induction, all odd numbers are prime."

It's the physicist's turn: "3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is not a prime, 11 is a prime, 13 is a prime. Within experimental error, all odd numbers are prime."

The statistician states: "Let's try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime, 11 is a prime... our sample shows that all odd numbers are prime."

The engineer responds: "We just need to run a test, starting with the largest odd number and working backwards..."


(A lawyer puts forward that it is impossible to determine whether 1 is a prime or not, therefore we need not reach a result on 3, 5, 7, or 9)

Yes, oops.

"The Internet has brought many new things into our lives, including the opportunity to display poor judgment on a global basis in nano-seconds."

--Loudoun Sheriff candidate Ron Speakman, regarding his forwarding a definitively male picture to a campaign volunteer.

Random statute of the day

In Virginia, if livestock breaks into property enclosed by a fence which meets certain specifications (the specifications are geared toward strength and effectiveness, e.g., minimum height, how many strands of barbed wire), the owner of the animals is liable for the damages. Upon a second occurrence by the same animal, punitive damages of up to $40.00 are authorized. Va. Code § 55-306.

No, the statute hasn't been updated in a few decades.

Debt picture

I know there are plenty of descriptions of the U.S. debt going around, but I'll add to the discussion:

The C-130 Hercules military transport plane has a maximum payload, in the C-130H iteration, of 45,000 lb. I will assume that interior space is not an issue, mostly because that is a lot of calculating to do.
A $100 bill weighs 1 gram (1/454 lb.).

454 bills / lb. x $100 / bill = $45,400 / lb.
$45,400 /lb. x 45,000 lb. / payload = $2,043,000,000 / payload

The Boehner plan would have $2.5 trillion available by early next year. Again for time reasons, I will assume that that means by 4/1/2012, or 250 days away.
Thus, starting today,

$2.5x10^12 / $2x10^9 / load = 1,250 loads
1,250 loads / 250 days = 5 loads / day

or one C-130 stuffed to the gills with $100 bills every 4 hours and 48 minutes.

With a cruising speed of 292 knots or 336 mph, that means if the C-130s had to fly the cash from San Antonio to New York, a great circle distance of about 1,600 miles, there would always be a plane in the air to keep up this schedule. Just to cover those costs of the United States government greater than revenue, without paying down a cent toward debt reduction.

Telling the Truth

Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse.

Sir Impey Biggs
Clouds of Witness
Dorothy L. Sayers

Hurray for theoretical physics

(Reprint of picture believed to be public domain. Please submit any copyright issue to the gmail (.com) address which begins with gbacopyright)

Problem Projects

"At my age, if you have a problem with one of your projects, you probably just don't have enough clamps."

~BEK - while working on a troublesome picture frame -
Age 80

Obligatory Levitical Legalism

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (ESV)

20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, ... that same prophet shall die. 21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'-- 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Gaming the system

The interesting case law for today could also be known as the Tale of the Collections Attorney Who Was Too Clever By Half:

J. I. Case Co. v. United Virginia Bank, 232 Va. 210 (1986) - Plaintiff filed an action in detinue (requesting return of specific personal property rather than just its value) seeking the recovery of unsold heavy equipment in the possession of its debtor's bank, who had seized the equipment from the debtor's inventory under a UCC lien. It sought and obtained a prejudgment attachment of the property, and posted a bond which was "void unless the right of possession ultimately was judged against" the Plaintiff. The sheriff went out, collected the equipment, and handed it over to the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff then removed the equipment from Virginia, and ultimately distributed the equipment across the country for retail sale. Thinking it had accomplished everything it had set out to do by getting the equipment away from the bank, an (allegedly) secured creditor with an inferior claim to the equipment, the Plaintiff filed a nonsuit of right under Virginia Code § 8.01-380, dismissing the action before the bank and the debtor had an opportunity to present their full defense to the Plaintiff's claim or obtain the judgment needed to collect on the bond.

HELD: without completing a final judgment on the detinue action, the plaintiff had no adjudicated right to the property, and the defendants had a right to its return without any further proceedings. Because the equipment had been disposed of by the Plaintiff, judgment was entered for the value of the equipment against the Plaintiff.

Unsaid in the opinion is that by trying to pull a fast one like this, it sounds like the Plaintiff disposed of the only property in which it had a security interest, which demoted it to an unsecured creditor fighting for whatever scraps might be left over after the bank and other secured creditors took out their portions. Also unresolved (but left for the trial court) was whether the bond was satisfied by such a judgment.

Good Wife Points

I have so many "Good Wife Points" built up just now. I am going to have to figure out something good to spend them on soon.