When you stay in your room and rage or sneer or shrug your shoulders, as I did for many years, the world and its problems are impossibly daunting. But when you go out and put yourself in real relation to real people, or even just real animals, there’s a very real danger that you might
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Quote of the Day: Lincoln Steffens
By Barry Barnett on
It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often.
Lincoln Steffens, according to Kevin Baker, "Muckraker's Progress", Book Review, May 15, 2011.
Snappy and Bitey Discuss Italian Cowboy
By Barry Barnett on
Scene: A cafe in Uptown Dallas. Noonish. Sunlight streams through half-open vertical blinds. The beams hurt your eyes. Or they would if you hadn't left as soon as Bitey started talking about the Italian Cowboy case.
Bitey: Just think, Snappy, the Supreme Court of Texas just ruled for plaintiffs last week! Shazaam!
Snappy: Imagine my surprise.
Bitey: A landlord told a…
Quote of the Day: National Public Radio
By Barry Barnett on
Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People.
Grading Questions
By Barry Barnett on
On the Radio
Do you listen to radio programs whose hosts invite you to call in with questions for her or her guests?
Have you heard the host/guest respond to a caller's query with something along the lines of "that's a good question"? Or, perhaps, with one of these:
- Very good question.
- Excellent question.
- Terrific
…
Quote of the Day: Per Curiam
By Barry Barnett on
Whatever the poetic merit of the lyrics and their relevance to the sport of football,1 we agree with the district court that the music played over the public address system during Redskins home games is part of the football game experience that defendants provide as a good or service, and that the [Americans with…
Quote of the Day: Arkansas Constitution of 1874
By Barry Barnett on
1. Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness.
No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court.
Arkansas Constitution of 1874, art. 19, § 1.
[Hat tip to Blawgletter's ever-alert partner
Construing “Interpret” to Mean “Translate”; Ninth Circuit Upholds Award of Cost to Render Foreign Contract into English
By Barry Barnett on
The pro baseball player from Japan fell through a deck while taking a tour around the Marianas Resort and Spa on the Pacific island of Saipan. The pitcher, Kouichi Taniguchi, at first said he felt fine, but two weeks later claimed the collapse hurt him. Bad.
He sued. He sought damages for, among other…
Quote of the Day: Bucky Katt
By Barry Barnett on
Thinking implies uncertainty. I'm a know tank.
Bucky Katt, Get Fuzzy, Mar. 6, 2011 (making reply to owner's calling Katt "a real think tank").
Quote of the Day: John Glover Roberts, Jr.
By Barry Barnett on
We trust that AT&T won't take it personally.
Federal Communications Comm'n v. AT&T Inc., No. 09-1279, slip op. 12 (U.S. Mar. 1, 2011) (Roberts, C.J.) (holding, 8-0, that "personal privacy" in exemption from Freedom of Information Act means privacy of an individual and not privacy of a Fortune 100 company); see posts on the …