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LAW PUNDIT Saturday, October 30, 2004 10/30/2004 05:24:00 PM [Home]
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The Political Realities of Mainstream Science - Richard C. Lewontin
The Political Realities of Mainstream Science - Richard C. Lewontin
The New York Review of Books has book reviews by Richard C. Lewontin
of
Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists", February 2004, 42 pp.
and
The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science, a book by Horace Freeland Judson, Harcourt, 463 pp.
Lewontin is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change and Biology as Ideology, and the co-author of The Dialectical Biologist (with Richard Levins) and Not in Our Genes (with Steven Rose and Leon Kamin).
See here for list of publications by Lewontin.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/30/2004 05:24:00 PM
The Political Realities of Mainstream Science - Richard C. Lewontin
The Political Realities of Mainstream Science - Richard C. Lewontin
The New York Review of Books has book reviews by Richard C. Lewontin
of
Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists", February 2004, 42 pp.
and
The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science, a book by Horace Freeland Judson, Harcourt, 463 pp.
Lewontin is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change and Biology as Ideology, and the co-author of The Dialectical Biologist (with Richard Levins) and Not in Our Genes (with Steven Rose and Leon Kamin).
See here for list of publications by Lewontin.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/30/2004 05:24:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/30/2004 02:27:00 PM [Home]
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Legal and Other Questions about the Presidential Election 2004
Legal and Other Questions about the Presidential Election 2004
For government answers to legal questions about the upcoming Presidential Election see the site of NARA - The Federal Register.
See the
FAQs
e.g. answers to the following questions:
How did the terms "Elector" and "Electoral College" come into usage?
How does the Electoral College elect the president?
How does the Electoral College process work in my State?
Why do we still have the Electoral College?
What proposals have been made to change the Electoral College system?
How do the 538 electoral votes get divided among the States?
What is the difference between the Winner-Takes-All Rule and Proportional Voting, and which States follow which rule?
Who selects the electors?
What are the qualifications to be an elector?
Must electors vote for the candidate who won their State's popular vote?
Is there an online source listing the names and voting records of presidential electors for all previous presidential elections back to 1789?
Can citizens in U.S. Territories vote for President?
Is my vote for President and Vice President meaningful in the Electoral College system?
How is it possible for the electoral vote to produce a different result than the nation-wide popular vote?
What would happen if two candidates tied in a State's popular vote, or if there was a dispute as to the winner?
The site has an electoral college calculator to calculate the electoral college votes.
There is also a page devoted to Presidential Election links.
One of these links is to Sabato's Crystal Ball, which features an up-to-date CLICKABLE (click on the various States for more info) prediction map of the United States as to how the various States will vote.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/30/2004 02:27:00 PM
Legal and Other Questions about the Presidential Election 2004
Legal and Other Questions about the Presidential Election 2004
For government answers to legal questions about the upcoming Presidential Election see the site of NARA - The Federal Register.
See the
FAQs
e.g. answers to the following questions:
How did the terms "Elector" and "Electoral College" come into usage?
How does the Electoral College elect the president?
How does the Electoral College process work in my State?
Why do we still have the Electoral College?
What proposals have been made to change the Electoral College system?
How do the 538 electoral votes get divided among the States?
What is the difference between the Winner-Takes-All Rule and Proportional Voting, and which States follow which rule?
Who selects the electors?
What are the qualifications to be an elector?
Must electors vote for the candidate who won their State's popular vote?
Is there an online source listing the names and voting records of presidential electors for all previous presidential elections back to 1789?
Can citizens in U.S. Territories vote for President?
Is my vote for President and Vice President meaningful in the Electoral College system?
How is it possible for the electoral vote to produce a different result than the nation-wide popular vote?
What would happen if two candidates tied in a State's popular vote, or if there was a dispute as to the winner?
The site has an electoral college calculator to calculate the electoral college votes.
There is also a page devoted to Presidential Election links.
One of these links is to Sabato's Crystal Ball, which features an up-to-date CLICKABLE (click on the various States for more info) prediction map of the United States as to how the various States will vote.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/30/2004 02:27:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Friday, October 22, 2004 10/22/2004 07:50:00 PM [Home]
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Halley's Comment on the Alpha Male
Halley's Comment on the Alpha Male
Halley has a nice posting about a presentation by Professor Frans de Waal which included a discussion about "the alpha male".
There is nothing remarkable in de Waal's observations and much of this has been known for a long time. Our question always is: Are there any studies about whether there is any particular advantage to the alpha male himself for seeking to be or being an "alpha male" in any human society in the modern world.
If recollection serves us properly, there was a study once made - we do not recall where we saw or read this - that in a group of man-apes, of which 24 were males and ranked from 1st to 24th in the pecking order, the 22nd-ranked male had the most sexual contacts. Our experiences with the last President indicate that being the "alpha fish" in human society is not a particular advantage for sexual activity and is in fact frowned upon by the group.
Again, if recollection serves, there is also an older study (Sir Francis Galton) which indicates that men of genius ultimately die out for lack of progeny because of sterility. See also here.
The ultimate question seems to be: "alpha" here and there, but what's it good for in our day and age? Is there really an "alpha" in the true sense, or are these people those who are chosen by the group because they are useful to the group's needs - but that of course is a completely different way of looking at the so-called "alpha male".
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 07:50:00 PM
Halley's Comment on the Alpha Male
Halley's Comment on the Alpha Male
Halley has a nice posting about a presentation by Professor Frans de Waal which included a discussion about "the alpha male".
There is nothing remarkable in de Waal's observations and much of this has been known for a long time. Our question always is: Are there any studies about whether there is any particular advantage to the alpha male himself for seeking to be or being an "alpha male" in any human society in the modern world.
If recollection serves us properly, there was a study once made - we do not recall where we saw or read this - that in a group of man-apes, of which 24 were males and ranked from 1st to 24th in the pecking order, the 22nd-ranked male had the most sexual contacts. Our experiences with the last President indicate that being the "alpha fish" in human society is not a particular advantage for sexual activity and is in fact frowned upon by the group.
Again, if recollection serves, there is also an older study (Sir Francis Galton) which indicates that men of genius ultimately die out for lack of progeny because of sterility. See also here.
The ultimate question seems to be: "alpha" here and there, but what's it good for in our day and age? Is there really an "alpha" in the true sense, or are these people those who are chosen by the group because they are useful to the group's needs - but that of course is a completely different way of looking at the so-called "alpha male".
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 07:50:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/22/2004 07:43:00 PM [Home]
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GovTechNews - Digital Government Awards
GovTechNews has a list of the CDG digital government awards by category and placement from 1st to 5th place, plus finalists as originally found at CDG (Center for Digital Government).
The categories are:
government to government
government to business
government to citizen
Interesting is that CDG state awards in this field do not match the ranking issued by Brown University.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 07:43:00 PM
GovTechNews - Digital Government Awards
GovTechNews has a list of the CDG digital government awards by category and placement from 1st to 5th place, plus finalists as originally found at CDG (Center for Digital Government).
The categories are:
government to government
government to business
government to citizen
Interesting is that CDG state awards in this field do not match the ranking issued by Brown University.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 07:43:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/22/2004 01:01:00 PM [Home]
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Future Pundit on Short Term and Long Term Gratification
Future Pundit on Short Term and Long Term Gratification
Future Pundit is a blog which covers "Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution".
Future Pundit has a recent posting entitled Brain Battles Between Short Term Emotions And Long Term Logic.
The article summarizes the results of recent university studies which have studied the brain's behavior when dealing with short-term and long-term rewards for behavior.
Do we want it NOW or LATER? It depends.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 01:01:00 PM
Future Pundit on Short Term and Long Term Gratification
Future Pundit on Short Term and Long Term Gratification
Future Pundit is a blog which covers "Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution".
Future Pundit has a recent posting entitled Brain Battles Between Short Term Emotions And Long Term Logic.
The article summarizes the results of recent university studies which have studied the brain's behavior when dealing with short-term and long-term rewards for behavior.
Do we want it NOW or LATER? It depends.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 01:01:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/22/2004 10:58:00 AM [Home]
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Al Nye the Lawyer Guy - Book Reviews and More
Al Nye the Lawyer Guy - Book Reviews and More
Al Nye has started a new legal weblog with the catchy title "Al Nye the Lawyer Guy", which Al writes is the first blawg by a lawyer in Maine. (The Law Pundit's own fond memory of Maine is the best lobster ever eaten and some superb rounds of golf in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the Maine border, a border which involves a nice legal issue, still unresolved.)
Nye writes that the blog is "mostly law and technology related items -- plus a whole lot more, including book and software reviews" and he includes the special categories of Books, Current Affairs, Sports, Weblogs and Web/Tech.
Nye's blog stands out for the already numerous book reviews on his site, which are not limited to law alone.
We thought we would list those books already reviewed, even though the blog only started this October. As Al writes:
"If you look at the sidebar, you'll notice lots of books that I've reviewed. Some of them are a year or two old now -- but since the book industry published about a gazillion books each year, there may be some gems that you missed.
I'll be publishing reviews of more recent books in the coming days and weeks -- including The Shadow of Justice by Milton Hirsch, a lawyer in Miami. This is the first work of fiction ever published by the American Bar Association."
1. SUPREME COURT AND APPELLATE ADVOCACY by David C. Frederick (ABA)
2. THE LAWYER’S GUIDE TO MARKETING ON THE INTERNET, 2nd ed. by Gregory H. Siskind, Deborah McMurray and Richard P. Klau (West Group)
3. COLLECTING YOUR FEE - Getting Paid from Intake to Invoice by Edward Poll (ABA)
4. Attorney and Law Firm Guide to THE BUSINESS OF LAW, 2nd by Edward Poll (ABA)
5. HOW TO START & BUILD A LAW PRACTICE Platinum 5th Edition by Jay G. Foonberg (ABA)
6. THE DIVORCE TRIAL MANUAL by Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin and Stephen Kolodny (ABA)
7. UP COUNTRY by Nelson Demille (Warner Books)
8. THE KING OF TORTS by John Grisham (Doubleday)
9. BAD MEN by John Connolly (Atria Books)
10. ERAGON Inheritance Book One by Christopher Paolini (Alfred A. Knopf)
11. THE RULE OF LAWYERS How The New Litigation Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law
by Walter K. Olson (St. Martin’s Press)
12. LINCOLN'S VIRTURES An Ethical Biography by William Lee Miller (Alfred A. Knopf)
13. PRETTY DEAD by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
14. HOME BODY by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
15. MISSION FLATS by William Landay (Delacourt Press)
16. REVERSIBLE ERRORS by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
17. DEAD LINE by Brian McGrory (Atria Books)
18. PARANOIA by Joseph Finder (St. Martin's Press)
19. TAMPA BURN by Randy Wayne White (G. P. Putnam's Sons)
Cross-posted to LiteraryPundit.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 10:58:00 AM
Al Nye the Lawyer Guy - Book Reviews and More
Al Nye the Lawyer Guy - Book Reviews and More
Al Nye has started a new legal weblog with the catchy title "Al Nye the Lawyer Guy", which Al writes is the first blawg by a lawyer in Maine. (The Law Pundit's own fond memory of Maine is the best lobster ever eaten and some superb rounds of golf in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the Maine border, a border which involves a nice legal issue, still unresolved.)
Nye writes that the blog is "mostly law and technology related items -- plus a whole lot more, including book and software reviews" and he includes the special categories of Books, Current Affairs, Sports, Weblogs and Web/Tech.
Nye's blog stands out for the already numerous book reviews on his site, which are not limited to law alone.
We thought we would list those books already reviewed, even though the blog only started this October. As Al writes:
"If you look at the sidebar, you'll notice lots of books that I've reviewed. Some of them are a year or two old now -- but since the book industry published about a gazillion books each year, there may be some gems that you missed.
I'll be publishing reviews of more recent books in the coming days and weeks -- including The Shadow of Justice by Milton Hirsch, a lawyer in Miami. This is the first work of fiction ever published by the American Bar Association."
1. SUPREME COURT AND APPELLATE ADVOCACY by David C. Frederick (ABA)
2. THE LAWYER’S GUIDE TO MARKETING ON THE INTERNET, 2nd ed. by Gregory H. Siskind, Deborah McMurray and Richard P. Klau (West Group)
3. COLLECTING YOUR FEE - Getting Paid from Intake to Invoice by Edward Poll (ABA)
4. Attorney and Law Firm Guide to THE BUSINESS OF LAW, 2nd by Edward Poll (ABA)
5. HOW TO START & BUILD A LAW PRACTICE Platinum 5th Edition by Jay G. Foonberg (ABA)
6. THE DIVORCE TRIAL MANUAL by Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin and Stephen Kolodny (ABA)
7. UP COUNTRY by Nelson Demille (Warner Books)
8. THE KING OF TORTS by John Grisham (Doubleday)
9. BAD MEN by John Connolly (Atria Books)
10. ERAGON Inheritance Book One by Christopher Paolini (Alfred A. Knopf)
11. THE RULE OF LAWYERS How The New Litigation Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law
by Walter K. Olson (St. Martin’s Press)
12. LINCOLN'S VIRTURES An Ethical Biography by William Lee Miller (Alfred A. Knopf)
13. PRETTY DEAD by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
14. HOME BODY by Gerry Boyle (Berkley Publishing Group)
15. MISSION FLATS by William Landay (Delacourt Press)
16. REVERSIBLE ERRORS by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
17. DEAD LINE by Brian McGrory (Atria Books)
18. PARANOIA by Joseph Finder (St. Martin's Press)
19. TAMPA BURN by Randy Wayne White (G. P. Putnam's Sons)
Cross-posted to LiteraryPundit.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/22/2004 10:58:00 AM
LAW PUNDIT Thursday, October 21, 2004 10/21/2004 09:20:00 PM [Home]
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Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You?
Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You?
Law and politics should involve the application of principles that work. One of these principles is unexpectedly simple.
What is the best Biblical strategy as applied to the modern world? - to turn the other cheek, or to give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?
Freedom to Tinker has a nice posting on the Tit-for-Tat computer strategy in the game of Prisoners' Dilemma and reports on a newly surfaced cheating variant which does not dislodge Tit-for-Tat from the strategy throne but which merely shows that cheating affects the results.
"For at least twenty years, the best-looking strategy has been Tit-for-Tat, in which one starts out by Cooperating and then copies whatever action the opponent used last. This strategy offers an appealing combination of initial friendliness with measured retaliation...."
In other words - optimally - do NOT turn the other cheek, but fight back in measure.
Freedom-to-Tinker points to the new variant that cheating in teams can raise some individuals of cheating teams above their normal strategic results, but as a whole, all individuals of cheating teams rank lower on average than teams of individuals who play by the optimal strategy but within the rules.
What this means is that very few profit by cheating in teams, and most lose.
This is just like in real life.
Freedom-to-Tinker, according to Technorati, has 630 links from 429 sources.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/21/2004 09:20:00 PM
Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You?
Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You?
Law and politics should involve the application of principles that work. One of these principles is unexpectedly simple.
What is the best Biblical strategy as applied to the modern world? - to turn the other cheek, or to give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?
Freedom to Tinker has a nice posting on the Tit-for-Tat computer strategy in the game of Prisoners' Dilemma and reports on a newly surfaced cheating variant which does not dislodge Tit-for-Tat from the strategy throne but which merely shows that cheating affects the results.
"For at least twenty years, the best-looking strategy has been Tit-for-Tat, in which one starts out by Cooperating and then copies whatever action the opponent used last. This strategy offers an appealing combination of initial friendliness with measured retaliation...."
In other words - optimally - do NOT turn the other cheek, but fight back in measure.
Freedom-to-Tinker points to the new variant that cheating in teams can raise some individuals of cheating teams above their normal strategic results, but as a whole, all individuals of cheating teams rank lower on average than teams of individuals who play by the optimal strategy but within the rules.
What this means is that very few profit by cheating in teams, and most lose.
This is just like in real life.
Freedom-to-Tinker, according to Technorati, has 630 links from 429 sources.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/21/2004 09:20:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/21/2004 04:41:00 PM [Home]
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Delaware Law Office legal weblog of Larry D. Sullivan
Delaware Law Office legal weblog of Larry D. Sullivan
Larry D. Sullivan, Attorney at Law, P.A. maintains the Delaware Law Office blawg and has numerous postings of interest, the most recent being "Watching the Disney Trial".
As a sign of the digitally engendered changing times in the legal world, Sullivan notes that there is a webcast of the Disney trial, which "is the first time that a Delaware Court has made a webcast available to the public." The webcast is free to Delaware residents but otherwise costs $10 a day for non-residents. As noted in the October 20, 2004 USA Today by Esteban Parra of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal,
"The Webcast, which became available Wednesday, is part of an experiment that marks Delaware's first attempt in two decades to expand electronic recording in its courtrooms.... The Internet broadcast is being made available by Courtroom Connect, which for the past year has provided real-time trial hearings to attorneys for about $600 a week, company officials said. By having the live feed, attorneys unable to be in the courtroom can see what's unfolding and better communicate with colleagues who are there. Some also use the feed as a learning tool."
The Law Pundit, who has taught law at the university level, also sees here a world of the future for law students, who will be able to study courtroom law while watching the live progress of actual court processes and procedures. Wonderful.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/21/2004 04:41:00 PM
Delaware Law Office legal weblog of Larry D. Sullivan
Delaware Law Office legal weblog of Larry D. Sullivan
Larry D. Sullivan, Attorney at Law, P.A. maintains the Delaware Law Office blawg and has numerous postings of interest, the most recent being "Watching the Disney Trial".
As a sign of the digitally engendered changing times in the legal world, Sullivan notes that there is a webcast of the Disney trial, which "is the first time that a Delaware Court has made a webcast available to the public." The webcast is free to Delaware residents but otherwise costs $10 a day for non-residents. As noted in the October 20, 2004 USA Today by Esteban Parra of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal,
"The Webcast, which became available Wednesday, is part of an experiment that marks Delaware's first attempt in two decades to expand electronic recording in its courtrooms.... The Internet broadcast is being made available by Courtroom Connect, which for the past year has provided real-time trial hearings to attorneys for about $600 a week, company officials said. By having the live feed, attorneys unable to be in the courtroom can see what's unfolding and better communicate with colleagues who are there. Some also use the feed as a learning tool."
The Law Pundit, who has taught law at the university level, also sees here a world of the future for law students, who will be able to study courtroom law while watching the live progress of actual court processes and procedures. Wonderful.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/21/2004 04:41:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Wednesday, October 20, 2004 10/20/2004 09:40:00 PM [Home]
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Lance Knobel at Davos Newbies
Lance Knobel at Davos Newbies
Lance Knobel, who blogs at Davos Newbies, was "responsible for the programme of the Davos meeting in January 2000" about which he writes:
"Davos is both a town in Switzerland and the shorthand description for the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, which has now taken place in Davos for 30 years. The Annual Meeting has been described by The Economist as "the summit of summits in the business world". I think Davos is also a state of mind."
Based on the rational discourse found on this blog, Davos Newbies is one of the most readable blogs around. A good example is Knobel's pooh-bahing of the rabid anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism now allegedly found in London, at least, as reported by that often unreliable source, the Guardian.
For samples of Lance's other writing, also take a look here.
Davos Newbies has 137 links from 106 sources, according to Technorati.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/20/2004 09:40:00 PM
Lance Knobel at Davos Newbies
Lance Knobel at Davos Newbies
Lance Knobel, who blogs at Davos Newbies, was "responsible for the programme of the Davos meeting in January 2000" about which he writes:
"Davos is both a town in Switzerland and the shorthand description for the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, which has now taken place in Davos for 30 years. The Annual Meeting has been described by The Economist as "the summit of summits in the business world". I think Davos is also a state of mind."
Based on the rational discourse found on this blog, Davos Newbies is one of the most readable blogs around. A good example is Knobel's pooh-bahing of the rabid anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism now allegedly found in London, at least, as reported by that often unreliable source, the Guardian.
For samples of Lance's other writing, also take a look here.
Davos Newbies has 137 links from 106 sources, according to Technorati.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/20/2004 09:40:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/20/2004 01:40:00 PM [Home]
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Science, Empiricism and the Bush Administration
Science, Empiricism and the Bush Administration
As a political centrist capable of voting for either Bush or Kerry, the LawPundit is increasingly cognizant of news postings which raise flashing red lights in one's brain about the venturing of the Bush administration into areas where they ostensibly do not belong.
Bush came to power under the campaign slogan of reducing centralized federal power, but it appears that in the relation of the federal government to science, exactly the opposite is happening.
An October 19, 2004 article by Andrew C. Revkin entitled Bush vs. the Laureates: How Science Became a Partisan Issue raises some troublesome issues about the partisan treatment of scientists by the Bush administration. It can not be that appointments to important scientific bodies are primarily dependent on how the scientist "thinks about President Bush". If that is the case, things have gone too far. How one thinks about politicians should be largely irrelevant to any scientific task at hand.
In our opinion, any scientist of high rank would be highly skeptical of ANY politician in any political party ... period, since scientists and politicians ideally have two contradictory objectives.
Scientists - the good ones - are empirical, are guided by facts and are undeterred in their quest by the changing and ephemeral beliefs and mores of the establishment. Politicians - most of them - are, to the contrary, like bobbers in a stream, adapting continuously to the volatile political environment around them. They must constantly be searching for consensus in the present. Empirical truths are secondary.
When science is required to follow "the party line", empiricism is compromised and disaster may await down the road.
The best example of this is the infamous "scientific era" under Trofim Lysenko, who in the Stalinist period led biology in Russia (the former Soviet Union). He came to power because his ideas corresponded with the political doctrine of the leadership and with the flawed tenets of Marxist ideology. Lysenko denied the existence of genes e.g., a view which was then imposed upon the Soviet scientific establishment by the political body, thus leading to a dark age in Soviet science which lasted nearly 30 years.
We have similar current developments in America through the denial of evolution in some school systems, fully contrary to modern genetic research. If this kind of idiocy were to become widespread, the culture would be doomed.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/20/2004 01:40:00 PM
Science, Empiricism and the Bush Administration
Science, Empiricism and the Bush Administration
As a political centrist capable of voting for either Bush or Kerry, the LawPundit is increasingly cognizant of news postings which raise flashing red lights in one's brain about the venturing of the Bush administration into areas where they ostensibly do not belong.
Bush came to power under the campaign slogan of reducing centralized federal power, but it appears that in the relation of the federal government to science, exactly the opposite is happening.
An October 19, 2004 article by Andrew C. Revkin entitled Bush vs. the Laureates: How Science Became a Partisan Issue raises some troublesome issues about the partisan treatment of scientists by the Bush administration. It can not be that appointments to important scientific bodies are primarily dependent on how the scientist "thinks about President Bush". If that is the case, things have gone too far. How one thinks about politicians should be largely irrelevant to any scientific task at hand.
In our opinion, any scientist of high rank would be highly skeptical of ANY politician in any political party ... period, since scientists and politicians ideally have two contradictory objectives.
Scientists - the good ones - are empirical, are guided by facts and are undeterred in their quest by the changing and ephemeral beliefs and mores of the establishment. Politicians - most of them - are, to the contrary, like bobbers in a stream, adapting continuously to the volatile political environment around them. They must constantly be searching for consensus in the present. Empirical truths are secondary.
When science is required to follow "the party line", empiricism is compromised and disaster may await down the road.
The best example of this is the infamous "scientific era" under Trofim Lysenko, who in the Stalinist period led biology in Russia (the former Soviet Union). He came to power because his ideas corresponded with the political doctrine of the leadership and with the flawed tenets of Marxist ideology. Lysenko denied the existence of genes e.g., a view which was then imposed upon the Soviet scientific establishment by the political body, thus leading to a dark age in Soviet science which lasted nearly 30 years.
We have similar current developments in America through the denial of evolution in some school systems, fully contrary to modern genetic research. If this kind of idiocy were to become widespread, the culture would be doomed.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/20/2004 01:40:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Tuesday, October 19, 2004 10/19/2004 11:59:00 PM [Home]
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Galaxy - Music of the Stars - Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
Galaxy : Music of the Stars - Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
From Isandis, Let the music begin...
Galaxy : Music of the Stars is Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
The CD-ROM is 56.29 minutes. The Composer is Andis Kaulins who also does the Keyboards.
The Genre is Indy (Independent) Music.
The Copyright is @2004 by Andis Kaulins with all rights reserved
but play and copy these songs for free for your own private use only.
For commercial use, please contact the copyright holder.
Classical Piano Music Lovers try Track 10.
Our own favorites are Tracks 4, 11, 8 and 21.
Click on the link to hear the song on your media player.
Track 1 - Galactic Milk - 2:33 01-Galactic Milk-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 2 - Black Space - 2:27 02-Black Space-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 3 - Off to the Stars - 1:52 03-Off to the Stars-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 4 - On the Edge of Light - 2:19 04-On the Edge of Light-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 5 - The First Planet - 1:52 05-The First Planet-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 6 - 1st Planet More Cleary - 1:59 06-The First Planet More Clearly-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 7 - Earth - 2:23 07-Earth-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 8 - The Earth Song - 2:25 08-The Earth Song-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 9 - Jubilation & Ebulation - 3:36 09-Jubilation & Ebulation-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 10 - Mercury - 1:15 10-Mercury-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 11 - The Asteroids - 2:28 11-The Asteroids-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 12 - Jupiter - 3:38 12-Jupiter-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 13 - Jupiter 2 (faster) - 2:31 13-Jupiter 2-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 14 - Saturn - 2:23 14-Saturn-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 15 - Uranus - 2:14 15-Uranus-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 16 - Pluto - 2:47 16-Pluto-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 17 - Solar Symphony - 7:04 17-Solar Symphony-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 18 - Mars - 2:42 18-Mars-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 19 - Moody Moon - 2:13 19-Moody Moon-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 20 - Venus - 5:20 20-Venus-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 21 - Ode to the Stars - 4:28 21-Ode to the Stars-Andis Kaulins .mp3
If you like it, tell us. If not, switch channels.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/19/2004 11:59:00 PM
Galaxy - Music of the Stars - Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
Galaxy : Music of the Stars - Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
From Isandis, Let the music begin...
Galaxy : Music of the Stars is Synthesizer Music of the Earth and the Sky
The CD-ROM is 56.29 minutes. The Composer is Andis Kaulins who also does the Keyboards.
The Genre is Indy (Independent) Music.
The Copyright is @2004 by Andis Kaulins with all rights reserved
but play and copy these songs for free for your own private use only.
For commercial use, please contact the copyright holder.
Classical Piano Music Lovers try Track 10.
Our own favorites are Tracks 4, 11, 8 and 21.
Click on the link to hear the song on your media player.
Track 1 - Galactic Milk - 2:33 01-Galactic Milk-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 2 - Black Space - 2:27 02-Black Space-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 3 - Off to the Stars - 1:52 03-Off to the Stars-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 4 - On the Edge of Light - 2:19 04-On the Edge of Light-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 5 - The First Planet - 1:52 05-The First Planet-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 6 - 1st Planet More Cleary - 1:59 06-The First Planet More Clearly-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 7 - Earth - 2:23 07-Earth-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 8 - The Earth Song - 2:25 08-The Earth Song-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 9 - Jubilation & Ebulation - 3:36 09-Jubilation & Ebulation-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 10 - Mercury - 1:15 10-Mercury-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 11 - The Asteroids - 2:28 11-The Asteroids-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 12 - Jupiter - 3:38 12-Jupiter-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 13 - Jupiter 2 (faster) - 2:31 13-Jupiter 2-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 14 - Saturn - 2:23 14-Saturn-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 15 - Uranus - 2:14 15-Uranus-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 16 - Pluto - 2:47 16-Pluto-Andis Kaulins.mp3
Track 17 - Solar Symphony - 7:04 17-Solar Symphony-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 18 - Mars - 2:42 18-Mars-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 19 - Moody Moon - 2:13 19-Moody Moon-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 20 - Venus - 5:20 20-Venus-Andis Kaulins .mp3
Track 21 - Ode to the Stars - 4:28 21-Ode to the Stars-Andis Kaulins .mp3
If you like it, tell us. If not, switch channels.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/19/2004 11:59:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/19/2004 01:29:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
Supreme Court of the United States - Quo Vadis?
Supreme Court of the United States - Quo Vadis?
In the October 18, 2004 New York Times
Adam Cohen writes a scathing and somewhat over-exaggerated but thought-provoking article entitled "Imagining America if George Bush Chose the Supreme Court".
Cohen wrote a similar article a year ago which was strongly criticized.
Cohen takes the proposition that Scalia and Thomas are President Bush's favorite Justices and that Bush has been appointing similar judges to lower courts. Cohen writes:
[Bush] did say in his last campaign that his favorite Supreme Court justices were Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and the nominations he has made to the lower courts bear that out.
If Bush were re-elected President he would probably nominate several new Justices in the next term since some of the current Justices are getting on in years and could retire. One could then expect new Supreme Court appointments along the lines of Scalia and Thomas, greatly changing the direction of majorities on a Court which has become infamous for its frequent divided 5-4 and 6-3 decisionmaking.
Cohen then envisions this possible scenario under a "Bush-packed court" based on opinions already written by Scalia and Thomas:
"Abortion might be a crime in most states. Gay people could be thrown in prison for having sex in their homes. States might be free to become mini-theocracies, endorsing Christianity and using tax money to help spread the gospel. The Constitution might no longer protect inmates from being brutalized by prison guards. Family and medical leave and environmental protections could disappear."
Read the article to see the judicial opinions which are referred to.
There is no question in this writer's mind that the pendulum of liberality has sometimes gone too far in the Courts in past years (with the 9th Circuit serving as the prime example), and this must be corrected where necessary, but it is also clear that the Bush administration has appointed judges during his term of office who are often so dogmatic in their political views that we view them more as "judicial politicians" rather than as non-partisan upholders of the United States constitutional legal system.
In the view of this observer, almost nothing speaks for a Bush re-election domestically. Nearly everything in America has gotten worse since his election - which puts him in the same league as the hapless Chancellor Schroeder of Germany. Perhaps it is time for both of them to go.
Moreover, the danger that Bush would appoint many more dogmatic judges to the courts is a tremendous argument for not electing him again.
We have never doubted Bush's sincerity in the conviction that what he is doing is right, however, we have always doubted his wisdom to make the right domestic choices in important questions of the judiciary, the environment, education, taxation and the economy.
There is no question that the United States would be far better off domestically under a President Kerry and the expected improvement would include the judiciary, which would likely again find nominees among proven highly competent people (based primarily on their performance in law school, during clerkships, and within their professions, etc., rather than based on their dogmatic political leanings).
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/19/2004 01:29:00 PM
Supreme Court of the United States - Quo Vadis?
Supreme Court of the United States - Quo Vadis?
In the October 18, 2004 New York Times
Adam Cohen writes a scathing and somewhat over-exaggerated but thought-provoking article entitled "Imagining America if George Bush Chose the Supreme Court".
Cohen wrote a similar article a year ago which was strongly criticized.
Cohen takes the proposition that Scalia and Thomas are President Bush's favorite Justices and that Bush has been appointing similar judges to lower courts. Cohen writes:
[Bush] did say in his last campaign that his favorite Supreme Court justices were Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and the nominations he has made to the lower courts bear that out.
If Bush were re-elected President he would probably nominate several new Justices in the next term since some of the current Justices are getting on in years and could retire. One could then expect new Supreme Court appointments along the lines of Scalia and Thomas, greatly changing the direction of majorities on a Court which has become infamous for its frequent divided 5-4 and 6-3 decisionmaking.
Cohen then envisions this possible scenario under a "Bush-packed court" based on opinions already written by Scalia and Thomas:
"Abortion might be a crime in most states. Gay people could be thrown in prison for having sex in their homes. States might be free to become mini-theocracies, endorsing Christianity and using tax money to help spread the gospel. The Constitution might no longer protect inmates from being brutalized by prison guards. Family and medical leave and environmental protections could disappear."
Read the article to see the judicial opinions which are referred to.
There is no question in this writer's mind that the pendulum of liberality has sometimes gone too far in the Courts in past years (with the 9th Circuit serving as the prime example), and this must be corrected where necessary, but it is also clear that the Bush administration has appointed judges during his term of office who are often so dogmatic in their political views that we view them more as "judicial politicians" rather than as non-partisan upholders of the United States constitutional legal system.
In the view of this observer, almost nothing speaks for a Bush re-election domestically. Nearly everything in America has gotten worse since his election - which puts him in the same league as the hapless Chancellor Schroeder of Germany. Perhaps it is time for both of them to go.
Moreover, the danger that Bush would appoint many more dogmatic judges to the courts is a tremendous argument for not electing him again.
We have never doubted Bush's sincerity in the conviction that what he is doing is right, however, we have always doubted his wisdom to make the right domestic choices in important questions of the judiciary, the environment, education, taxation and the economy.
There is no question that the United States would be far better off domestically under a President Kerry and the expected improvement would include the judiciary, which would likely again find nominees among proven highly competent people (based primarily on their performance in law school, during clerkships, and within their professions, etc., rather than based on their dogmatic political leanings).
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/19/2004 01:29:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Monday, October 18, 2004 10/18/2004 01:50:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
The Sharia - Ancient Mapping - The Territorial Imperative
The Sharia - Ancient Mapping - The Territorial Imperative
Sometimes the book reviews are better than the books. The referenced book reviews may be examples of this phenomenon.
BookBlog is
"Adina Levin's weblog. For conversation about books I've been reading, social software, and other stuff too."
Adina has some excellently written book reviews on the BookBlog:
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
a book by Bernard Lewis
Adina writes e.g.:
"Contemporary Sharia systems in places like Iran and Afghanistan are
often mocked for being medieval and backward, legislating repression of
women and brutal corporal punishment (no, I'm not in favor of the Texas
death penalty, either). But there is no empirical reason that a system
of Muslim jurisprudence needs to be backward. After all, European laws
once featured trial by ordeal, and prevented women from owning property.
A living tradition of Muslim law might be able to adapt to current
economic and social conditions. How did the Sharia change from a system
that had once reflected the standards of justice of its time to one that
insisted on avoiding change?"
Those are essentially interesting and modern jurisprudential issues.
The Mapmakers
a book by John Noble Wilford
This book and review are of particular interest to the Law Pundit because of his own book
Stars Stones and Scholars
which claims that the megaliths are remnants of ancient surveys, i.e. that they are Stone Age geodetic mapping systems triangulated by means of the astronomy, using stars much as in ocean navigation.
Adina writes, inter alia:
"The Mapmakers purports to be world history, but it has a strong European focus. Wilford does include few pages about sophisticated early mapmaking practices in China. But he almost completely ignores Muslim and Indian geography. The book contains just one brief reference to ibn Khaldun, the medieval Muslim traveler and geographer, and nothing on Al Idrisi, who was commissioned by Roger II, the Christian king of Sicily, to update navigational records, and created the famous early atlas called "The Book of Roger." The Mapmakers briefly mentions that one Francis Wilford, a member of India Survey, was a student of ancient Hindu geography. Given early Indian sophistication in astronomy, math, and government administration, one wonders what earlier sources of geographic knowledge he drew on. According to an Indian friend of mine, many early maps were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of British colonial rulers.
Wilford writes about the dire level of geographic ignorance of Medieval Europeans, whose maps routinely placed Paradise at the Eastern border of China, without noting that during the same period, there was a longstanding, ongoing system of travel and trade from Arabia through India and Southeast Asia to China (see books by Abu Lughod and KN Chaudhuri, among others), conducted by Arabs, Jews, Indians, and sometimes Chinese. I don't know what sorts of maps were used by these travelling merchants, but they must have used something, because they got from place to place regularly and routinely."
Law and Territory
What is the connection between law and mapping? Of course, it is a significant one. All knowledge of ancient cultures indicates that the old civilizations had "territories" and "lands" and that these were marked - and thus obviously, mapped - in some manner, giving rise to "territorial" consequences involving retribution - i.e. sanctions for violating territory - which is a "legal" connection.
Without the mapping of land, law would be impossible. The Territorial Imperative (a book by Robert Ardrey) is at the foundation of jurisprudence. This indeed is the main dispute in the current war in Iraq - does America have a "right" to be there or not? The underlying answer - on both sides - is based, essentially, on territorial claims - defending "land" and "national security".
Territorial claims have a long history. Let us take the case of Ancient Babylon, here described in a site on the History of Iraq:
"Babylonian town life had revived on the basis of commerce and handicrafts. The Kassitic nobility, however, maintained the upper hand in the rural areas, their wealthiest representatives holding very large landed estates. Many of these holdings came from donations of the king to deserving officers and civil servants, considerable privileges being connected with such grants. From the time of Kurigalzu II these were registered on stone tablets or, more frequently, on boundary stones called kudurrus. After 1200 the number of these increased substantially, because the kings needed a steadily growing retinue of loyal followers. The boundary stones had pictures in bas-relief, very often a multitude of religious symbols, and frequently contained detailed inscriptions giving the borders of the particular estate; sometimes the deserts of the recipient were listed and his privileges recorded; finally, trespassers were threatened with the most terrifying curses. Agriculture and cattle husbandry were the main pursuits on these estates, and horses were raised for the light war chariots of the cavalry. There was an export trade in horses and vehicles in exchange for raw material. As for the king, the idea of the social-minded ruler continued to be valid."
The New York Review of Books has an inane review of Ardrey's book as compared to the more benevolent and naive theories of Konrad Lorenz, and, in view of recent world developments, there is little doubt that Ardrey is more right than Lorenz.
Indeed, keywords such as intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks, P2P and file-sharing involve modern outgrowths of the territorial imperative.
Our ancient forbears understood the territorial imperative only too well - since their survival depended upon it - and thus staked out their territories long before the advent of reading and writing. To stake out territories, you had to have some way of mapping them and some way of protecting those territories - by legal and military systems. About this there is little doubt.
And as the modern wars show us, little has changed in the interim. The battle for territory on this planet is still a bloody business.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/18/2004 01:50:00 PM
The Sharia - Ancient Mapping - The Territorial Imperative
The Sharia - Ancient Mapping - The Territorial Imperative
Sometimes the book reviews are better than the books. The referenced book reviews may be examples of this phenomenon.
BookBlog is
"Adina Levin's weblog. For conversation about books I've been reading, social software, and other stuff too."
Adina has some excellently written book reviews on the BookBlog:
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
a book by Bernard Lewis
Adina writes e.g.:
"Contemporary Sharia systems in places like Iran and Afghanistan are
often mocked for being medieval and backward, legislating repression of
women and brutal corporal punishment (no, I'm not in favor of the Texas
death penalty, either). But there is no empirical reason that a system
of Muslim jurisprudence needs to be backward. After all, European laws
once featured trial by ordeal, and prevented women from owning property.
A living tradition of Muslim law might be able to adapt to current
economic and social conditions. How did the Sharia change from a system
that had once reflected the standards of justice of its time to one that
insisted on avoiding change?"
Those are essentially interesting and modern jurisprudential issues.
The Mapmakers
a book by John Noble Wilford
This book and review are of particular interest to the Law Pundit because of his own book
Stars Stones and Scholars
which claims that the megaliths are remnants of ancient surveys, i.e. that they are Stone Age geodetic mapping systems triangulated by means of the astronomy, using stars much as in ocean navigation.
Adina writes, inter alia:
"The Mapmakers purports to be world history, but it has a strong European focus. Wilford does include few pages about sophisticated early mapmaking practices in China. But he almost completely ignores Muslim and Indian geography. The book contains just one brief reference to ibn Khaldun, the medieval Muslim traveler and geographer, and nothing on Al Idrisi, who was commissioned by Roger II, the Christian king of Sicily, to update navigational records, and created the famous early atlas called "The Book of Roger." The Mapmakers briefly mentions that one Francis Wilford, a member of India Survey, was a student of ancient Hindu geography. Given early Indian sophistication in astronomy, math, and government administration, one wonders what earlier sources of geographic knowledge he drew on. According to an Indian friend of mine, many early maps were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of British colonial rulers.
Wilford writes about the dire level of geographic ignorance of Medieval Europeans, whose maps routinely placed Paradise at the Eastern border of China, without noting that during the same period, there was a longstanding, ongoing system of travel and trade from Arabia through India and Southeast Asia to China (see books by Abu Lughod and KN Chaudhuri, among others), conducted by Arabs, Jews, Indians, and sometimes Chinese. I don't know what sorts of maps were used by these travelling merchants, but they must have used something, because they got from place to place regularly and routinely."
Law and Territory
What is the connection between law and mapping? Of course, it is a significant one. All knowledge of ancient cultures indicates that the old civilizations had "territories" and "lands" and that these were marked - and thus obviously, mapped - in some manner, giving rise to "territorial" consequences involving retribution - i.e. sanctions for violating territory - which is a "legal" connection.
Without the mapping of land, law would be impossible. The Territorial Imperative (a book by Robert Ardrey) is at the foundation of jurisprudence. This indeed is the main dispute in the current war in Iraq - does America have a "right" to be there or not? The underlying answer - on both sides - is based, essentially, on territorial claims - defending "land" and "national security".
Territorial claims have a long history. Let us take the case of Ancient Babylon, here described in a site on the History of Iraq:
"Babylonian town life had revived on the basis of commerce and handicrafts. The Kassitic nobility, however, maintained the upper hand in the rural areas, their wealthiest representatives holding very large landed estates. Many of these holdings came from donations of the king to deserving officers and civil servants, considerable privileges being connected with such grants. From the time of Kurigalzu II these were registered on stone tablets or, more frequently, on boundary stones called kudurrus. After 1200 the number of these increased substantially, because the kings needed a steadily growing retinue of loyal followers. The boundary stones had pictures in bas-relief, very often a multitude of religious symbols, and frequently contained detailed inscriptions giving the borders of the particular estate; sometimes the deserts of the recipient were listed and his privileges recorded; finally, trespassers were threatened with the most terrifying curses. Agriculture and cattle husbandry were the main pursuits on these estates, and horses were raised for the light war chariots of the cavalry. There was an export trade in horses and vehicles in exchange for raw material. As for the king, the idea of the social-minded ruler continued to be valid."
The New York Review of Books has an inane review of Ardrey's book as compared to the more benevolent and naive theories of Konrad Lorenz, and, in view of recent world developments, there is little doubt that Ardrey is more right than Lorenz.
Indeed, keywords such as intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks, P2P and file-sharing involve modern outgrowths of the territorial imperative.
Our ancient forbears understood the territorial imperative only too well - since their survival depended upon it - and thus staked out their territories long before the advent of reading and writing. To stake out territories, you had to have some way of mapping them and some way of protecting those territories - by legal and military systems. About this there is little doubt.
And as the modern wars show us, little has changed in the interim. The battle for territory on this planet is still a bloody business.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/18/2004 01:50:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Sunday, October 17, 2004 10/17/2004 05:08:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
Belmont Club - A Work of Art
Belmont Club - A Work of Art (if the subject matter were not so serious)
Prydain writes:
"If you want to read perhaps the best writing in the blogosphere, "Belmont Club" is the place to go."
Are there ANY bloggers out there who write as well as Wretchard of the Belmont Club?
Are there ANY bloggers out there who have his apparent depth of access to resources?
If there are, they are few and far between. One source might be the DoD, the US Department of Defense, which carries many positive stories about Iraq not carried by the new media.
The high quality of Wretchard's writing and his access to information seem enormous,
as the following blogs have commented or demonstrated previous to the Law Pundit:
American Digest writes:
"Many in the blogsphere write well, but few write as well and fewer still better. The prose of Wretchard is, on a day to day basis, clean, clear and spare with just a soupcon of poetry thrown in -- not just in his frequent pointed quotations from the masters. It's a prose that illuminates not only the insights but the great range of his mind....
Since December 26, 2003, The Belmont Club has received over 2 million visits. It easily deserves four times that number in the coming year. Pass it on and help make it happen."
Magic in the Baghdad Cafe writes:
"Wretchard of the Belmont Club displays an informed and enlightened sense of what is happening in the war in Iraq. Proper analysis is in the details; his description of the "big picture" through careful reading of available information and the historic underpinnings of the situation is remarkable.
Read this blog. A better source of information and analysis one would be hard pressed to find.
And the writing is art."
The Remedy writes about Belmont:
"Wretchard, as usual, thinks and writes well. About most of the Belmont Club's weblog posts, Portia in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice would have said: "Good sentences, and well pronounced." It turns out, Portia frequented Venice but lived in Belmont, a town famous for lovely reason and music. Belmont, Portia, and their qualities are part of, somewhat rare in, a bit removed from "this great world."
It would be good to keep nuclear weapons away from militant Islam, but as Portia notes, "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces." "
Right on the Left Beach writes:
"Wretchard writes extremely well and seems to have insights into what is happening during this troublesome time in Iraq."
Little Green Footballs
Blackfive
According to Technorati there are 1453 links from 1107 sources to the Belmont Club.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/17/2004 05:08:00 PM
Belmont Club - A Work of Art
Belmont Club - A Work of Art (if the subject matter were not so serious)
Prydain writes:
"If you want to read perhaps the best writing in the blogosphere, "Belmont Club" is the place to go."
Are there ANY bloggers out there who write as well as Wretchard of the Belmont Club?
Are there ANY bloggers out there who have his apparent depth of access to resources?
If there are, they are few and far between. One source might be the DoD, the US Department of Defense, which carries many positive stories about Iraq not carried by the new media.
The high quality of Wretchard's writing and his access to information seem enormous,
as the following blogs have commented or demonstrated previous to the Law Pundit:
American Digest writes:
"Many in the blogsphere write well, but few write as well and fewer still better. The prose of Wretchard is, on a day to day basis, clean, clear and spare with just a soupcon of poetry thrown in -- not just in his frequent pointed quotations from the masters. It's a prose that illuminates not only the insights but the great range of his mind....
Since December 26, 2003, The Belmont Club has received over 2 million visits. It easily deserves four times that number in the coming year. Pass it on and help make it happen."
Magic in the Baghdad Cafe writes:
"Wretchard of the Belmont Club displays an informed and enlightened sense of what is happening in the war in Iraq. Proper analysis is in the details; his description of the "big picture" through careful reading of available information and the historic underpinnings of the situation is remarkable.
Read this blog. A better source of information and analysis one would be hard pressed to find.
And the writing is art."
The Remedy writes about Belmont:
"Wretchard, as usual, thinks and writes well. About most of the Belmont Club's weblog posts, Portia in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice would have said: "Good sentences, and well pronounced." It turns out, Portia frequented Venice but lived in Belmont, a town famous for lovely reason and music. Belmont, Portia, and their qualities are part of, somewhat rare in, a bit removed from "this great world."
It would be good to keep nuclear weapons away from militant Islam, but as Portia notes, "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces." "
Right on the Left Beach writes:
"Wretchard writes extremely well and seems to have insights into what is happening during this troublesome time in Iraq."
Little Green Footballs
Blackfive
According to Technorati there are 1453 links from 1107 sources to the Belmont Club.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/17/2004 05:08:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Friday, October 15, 2004 10/15/2004 08:30:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
Atlantic Blog - An American in Ireland
Atlantic Blog - An American in Ireland
Atlantic Blog - as the blogger himself writes - concentrates on:
"thoughts on politics, economics, and the culture by William Sjostrom, an American economist living and working in Ireland."
A posting such as the Fox and the Hound is enough to show why this blog is worth reading, whether or not you agree or disagree on the abolition of fox hunting.
Sjostrom's link to the Guardian article by British Labour MP Tony Wright leads to this delightful passage:
"Yet the House of Commons now seriously proposes to criminalise a farmer in the fells who takes out a pack of hounds to hunt the fox that killed his chickens. As Oscar Wilde might have said, this is the unpersuadable in pursuit of the unpoliceable."
Technorati shows 251 links from 219 sources for the Atlantic Blog.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 08:30:00 PM
Atlantic Blog - An American in Ireland
Atlantic Blog - An American in Ireland
Atlantic Blog - as the blogger himself writes - concentrates on:
"thoughts on politics, economics, and the culture by William Sjostrom, an American economist living and working in Ireland."
A posting such as the Fox and the Hound is enough to show why this blog is worth reading, whether or not you agree or disagree on the abolition of fox hunting.
Sjostrom's link to the Guardian article by British Labour MP Tony Wright leads to this delightful passage:
"Yet the House of Commons now seriously proposes to criminalise a farmer in the fells who takes out a pack of hounds to hunt the fox that killed his chickens. As Oscar Wilde might have said, this is the unpersuadable in pursuit of the unpoliceable."
Technorati shows 251 links from 219 sources for the Atlantic Blog.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 08:30:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/15/2004 05:25:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
Instapundit - the Blogfather - Politics and Current Events
Instapundit - the Blogfather - Politics and Current Events
Instapundit is one of the most popular blogs on politics, the war and current events. Glenn Reynolds writes that:
"I try to help provide a fuller picture than the TV folks."
Our comment there would be, "that should not be too difficult", but ... it is easier said than done. Glenn has many imitators, but he has remained "the original".
Jeffrey Knight in the American Lawyer called Reynolds the King of the Bloggers.
See About.com for a blog profile.
Instapundit was not only a blogging pioneer who inspired many other blogs but he seems to have a knack for knowing what people are interested in reading.
Technorati shows that Instapundit is the benefactor of 10236 Links from 7011 Sources. Google gives Instapundit 603,000 hits. It is estimated that 100,000 people read Instapundit daily.
One link at Instapundit - can lead to an Instalanche at the Instapunditted blog. We would call that "Instapolitical clout".
It is interesting to view the archived postings from earlier periods, e.g., here, and compare them with recent ones here.
Increasingly, Instapundit does not handle topics in depth, but covers the entire spectrum of current events with many outside links, copious blog and website quotations and poignant short commentaries. Instapundit is fully connected to the news mainstream, without really being a mainstreamer. That is quite an achievement.
[The fact that he is a law mainstreamer as a Professor of Law at the U of Tennessee is in this regard irrelevant. As a blogger commenting on the world political scene, he initially donned an outsider's garb.]
One can pretty much keep up on the major issues of the day just by glancing at Instapundit's daily postings.
As Kevin Drum of the former CalPundit - now at the Washington Monthly - previously wrote: "People only want to read about what they're interested in, and that's it."
And that's what Glenn seems to give them, for the Oxblog writes about Instapundit:
"Making even the dumbest sh** interesting!"
Under the title, "The Blogfather's Hit List", see Wired.com for blogs other than Instapundit which Glenn Reynolds himself finds useful.
P.S.
The Law Pundit does want to take exception to a recent posting by Instapundit about the Bush/Kerry presidential debates.
Glenn Reynolds thinks it was a major blunder for Kerry to mention Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter. As political centrists, we disagree.
What Kerry touched upon indirectly was the fact that many right-wingers are hardliners on subjects such as abortion or gays and lesbians, until it affects them directly in their own family. Then things suddenly look a bit different.
The left-wingers are guilty of similar thinking about diversity (this used to be called "integration"), which almost all support, but - in many cases - look out if one of their own white kids brings home a girlfriend or boyfriend who is black and who looks like they might want to become one of the family.
One of the most prevalent standards in use in politics is the double standard and this card should be called if it is being played.
As a matter of policy, Kerry is saying that a politics of sensible tolerance and "live and let live" is advisable in all these matters and that people should pay more attention to their own backyard and not always be trying to get the neighbor to do what they want them to do in a backyard where the grass - and the rules to be applied - are greener. Here, the message was directed to Bush and Cheney who are trying to outlaw gay and lesbian marriage.
Whether Kerry should have brought Cheney's daughter into the campaign discussion at all is a sore point with some, but Kerry is not the one who first brought Cheney's daughter into the eye of the public. As experience shows, what the children of politicians do is relevant to the question of their parents' general strengths and weaknesses and is a legitimate point to make in election campaigning. Cheney likes to present himself as someone who knows the answers, but maybe he doesn't.
Indeed, we ourselves look to see if politicians do not preach one morality for others while entertaining a different morality in their own lives and families. The use of such double standards is prevalent everywhere. Surely Cheney has not disowned his daughter for being a lesbian. The liberals argue we should not disown those members of our society who have like sexual preferences.
The Law Pundit says the above as a heterosexual who is not particularly sympathetic to gays or lesbians.
Nevertheless, a government is not like business, where you can throw people out to make a profit. A government must include ALL the people, or it can not survive.
Update:
Glenn Reynolds says that he is with the "polled" majority on the impropriety of Kerry mentioning Cheney's daughter in the Presidential debate, even though it was father Cheney who first brought the topic into politics earlier himself. We think on election day that the topic will prove negative for Bush and Cheney, even if people do not admit it. There is a cloud over the image being projected to voters by Cheney.
The deciding paragraph of the ABC news story which erroneously uses the word "condemned" to describe voter's views (far too strong) and is linked to by Instapundit, is this paragraph in Kerry's favor:
"... on the question of whether homosexuality is a trait or a choice, more people take Kerry's position. (In response to this question at the debate, Kerry said, "I think if you talk to anybody, it's not choice." Bush said, "I just don't know.") A third of likely voters call homosexuality a choice; 10 percent have no opinion; and, as noted, 57 percent say it's the way people are."
The voter for whom this is an important issue will think of Cheney and his daughter and vote - in the majority - FOR Kerry, because the Bush/Cheney position on this issue is contrary to the majority.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 05:25:00 PM
Instapundit - the Blogfather - Politics and Current Events
Instapundit - the Blogfather - Politics and Current Events
Instapundit is one of the most popular blogs on politics, the war and current events. Glenn Reynolds writes that:
"I try to help provide a fuller picture than the TV folks."
Our comment there would be, "that should not be too difficult", but ... it is easier said than done. Glenn has many imitators, but he has remained "the original".
Jeffrey Knight in the American Lawyer called Reynolds the King of the Bloggers.
See About.com for a blog profile.
Instapundit was not only a blogging pioneer who inspired many other blogs but he seems to have a knack for knowing what people are interested in reading.
Technorati shows that Instapundit is the benefactor of 10236 Links from 7011 Sources. Google gives Instapundit 603,000 hits. It is estimated that 100,000 people read Instapundit daily.
One link at Instapundit - can lead to an Instalanche at the Instapunditted blog. We would call that "Instapolitical clout".
It is interesting to view the archived postings from earlier periods, e.g., here, and compare them with recent ones here.
Increasingly, Instapundit does not handle topics in depth, but covers the entire spectrum of current events with many outside links, copious blog and website quotations and poignant short commentaries. Instapundit is fully connected to the news mainstream, without really being a mainstreamer. That is quite an achievement.
[The fact that he is a law mainstreamer as a Professor of Law at the U of Tennessee is in this regard irrelevant. As a blogger commenting on the world political scene, he initially donned an outsider's garb.]
One can pretty much keep up on the major issues of the day just by glancing at Instapundit's daily postings.
As Kevin Drum of the former CalPundit - now at the Washington Monthly - previously wrote: "People only want to read about what they're interested in, and that's it."
And that's what Glenn seems to give them, for the Oxblog writes about Instapundit:
"Making even the dumbest sh** interesting!"
Under the title, "The Blogfather's Hit List", see Wired.com for blogs other than Instapundit which Glenn Reynolds himself finds useful.
P.S.
The Law Pundit does want to take exception to a recent posting by Instapundit about the Bush/Kerry presidential debates.
Glenn Reynolds thinks it was a major blunder for Kerry to mention Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter. As political centrists, we disagree.
What Kerry touched upon indirectly was the fact that many right-wingers are hardliners on subjects such as abortion or gays and lesbians, until it affects them directly in their own family. Then things suddenly look a bit different.
The left-wingers are guilty of similar thinking about diversity (this used to be called "integration"), which almost all support, but - in many cases - look out if one of their own white kids brings home a girlfriend or boyfriend who is black and who looks like they might want to become one of the family.
One of the most prevalent standards in use in politics is the double standard and this card should be called if it is being played.
As a matter of policy, Kerry is saying that a politics of sensible tolerance and "live and let live" is advisable in all these matters and that people should pay more attention to their own backyard and not always be trying to get the neighbor to do what they want them to do in a backyard where the grass - and the rules to be applied - are greener. Here, the message was directed to Bush and Cheney who are trying to outlaw gay and lesbian marriage.
Whether Kerry should have brought Cheney's daughter into the campaign discussion at all is a sore point with some, but Kerry is not the one who first brought Cheney's daughter into the eye of the public. As experience shows, what the children of politicians do is relevant to the question of their parents' general strengths and weaknesses and is a legitimate point to make in election campaigning. Cheney likes to present himself as someone who knows the answers, but maybe he doesn't.
Indeed, we ourselves look to see if politicians do not preach one morality for others while entertaining a different morality in their own lives and families. The use of such double standards is prevalent everywhere. Surely Cheney has not disowned his daughter for being a lesbian. The liberals argue we should not disown those members of our society who have like sexual preferences.
The Law Pundit says the above as a heterosexual who is not particularly sympathetic to gays or lesbians.
Nevertheless, a government is not like business, where you can throw people out to make a profit. A government must include ALL the people, or it can not survive.
Update:
Glenn Reynolds says that he is with the "polled" majority on the impropriety of Kerry mentioning Cheney's daughter in the Presidential debate, even though it was father Cheney who first brought the topic into politics earlier himself. We think on election day that the topic will prove negative for Bush and Cheney, even if people do not admit it. There is a cloud over the image being projected to voters by Cheney.
The deciding paragraph of the ABC news story which erroneously uses the word "condemned" to describe voter's views (far too strong) and is linked to by Instapundit, is this paragraph in Kerry's favor:
"... on the question of whether homosexuality is a trait or a choice, more people take Kerry's position. (In response to this question at the debate, Kerry said, "I think if you talk to anybody, it's not choice." Bush said, "I just don't know.") A third of likely voters call homosexuality a choice; 10 percent have no opinion; and, as noted, 57 percent say it's the way people are."
The voter for whom this is an important issue will think of Cheney and his daughter and vote - in the majority - FOR Kerry, because the Bush/Cheney position on this issue is contrary to the majority.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 05:25:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/15/2004 01:18:00 PM [Home]
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Chancellor and Media: Chef and Waiter
Chancellor and Media: Chef and Waiter
On the pages of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung, Bodo Hombach - in what is easily one of the best articles available about the role of journalists in the modern world - presents us with his superb article entitled "Media as the agent and instrument of politics" (Medien als Akteur und Instrument der Politik), Gedanken zur Zukunft 11 (Thoughts on the Future), Berlin, 27. November 2003).
In addition to bringing many brilliant insights on journalism, he points out that the German Chancellor compared his role to the media as that of a chef to a waiter - which reveals a true glimpse about how Schroeder views the world and his role in it.
Hombach quotes Kurt Tucholsky in the following observation:
"The major writer Kurt Tucholsky claimed: 'You don't have to bribe a journalist, you just have to give him an invitation, treat him like someone with power'."
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 01:18:00 PM
Chancellor and Media: Chef and Waiter
Chancellor and Media: Chef and Waiter
On the pages of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung, Bodo Hombach - in what is easily one of the best articles available about the role of journalists in the modern world - presents us with his superb article entitled "Media as the agent and instrument of politics" (Medien als Akteur und Instrument der Politik), Gedanken zur Zukunft 11 (Thoughts on the Future), Berlin, 27. November 2003).
In addition to bringing many brilliant insights on journalism, he points out that the German Chancellor compared his role to the media as that of a chef to a waiter - which reveals a true glimpse about how Schroeder views the world and his role in it.
Hombach quotes Kurt Tucholsky in the following observation:
"The major writer Kurt Tucholsky claimed: 'You don't have to bribe a journalist, you just have to give him an invitation, treat him like someone with power'."
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 01:18:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/15/2004 01:04:00 PM [Home]
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Thoughts on the Future - Publications of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung - The Foundation of Altana AG
Thoughts on the Future - Publications of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung - The Foundation of Altana AG
The Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung has a series of publications entitled "Thoughts on the Future", many of which are available in English and which cover major - currently quite relevant - issues of our time, especially as these relate to Germany.
Thoughts on the future 12
Demography and Politics
Dr. Mark Speich: I. Introduction: Demography and Politics
Gregor Kirchhof: II. The Constitutional Directive for Future-Oriented Family Protection
Rainer Ohliger: III. The Old Europe and its (Missing) Children: Immigration as a Solution?
Stefan Bergheim: IV. Accepting the Demographic Challenge Making it Possible to Work Longer and More Productively
Recommendations for Action
Thoughts on the future 11, Berlin, November 27, 2003
Bodo Hombach: Media as the agent and instrument of politics
Thoughts on the future 10, Wesel, October 30, 2003
Xuewu Gu: The perspectives for intercultural dialogue between China and Europe
Thoughts on the future 8, November 2003
Beyond The State? "Foreign Policy" by Companies and NGOs
Dr. Mark Speich: I. "Foreign policy" conducted by companies and NGOs
Jan Bittner: II. The state and non-state actors in foreign policy
Dr. Claudia Decker: III. The integration of companies and NGOs into global governance structures
Ulf Gartzke: IV. Power and counter-power?
Thoughts on the future 7, Constance, June 11, 2002
Dr. Philip Campbell: Bridging the gap: connecting the people to science
Thoughts on the future 6, Berlin, May 14, 2002
Prof. Claus Leggewie: The emergence of a Euro-Islam
Mosques and Muslims in the Federal Republic of Germany
Previous Thoughts on the future 1 through 5 as well as Thoughts on the future 9 are available in German only.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 01:04:00 PM
Thoughts on the Future - Publications of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung - The Foundation of Altana AG
Thoughts on the Future - Publications of the Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung - The Foundation of Altana AG
The Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung has a series of publications entitled "Thoughts on the Future", many of which are available in English and which cover major - currently quite relevant - issues of our time, especially as these relate to Germany.
Thoughts on the future 12
Demography and Politics
Dr. Mark Speich: I. Introduction: Demography and Politics
Gregor Kirchhof: II. The Constitutional Directive for Future-Oriented Family Protection
Rainer Ohliger: III. The Old Europe and its (Missing) Children: Immigration as a Solution?
Stefan Bergheim: IV. Accepting the Demographic Challenge Making it Possible to Work Longer and More Productively
Recommendations for Action
Thoughts on the future 11, Berlin, November 27, 2003
Bodo Hombach: Media as the agent and instrument of politics
Thoughts on the future 10, Wesel, October 30, 2003
Xuewu Gu: The perspectives for intercultural dialogue between China and Europe
Thoughts on the future 8, November 2003
Beyond The State? "Foreign Policy" by Companies and NGOs
Dr. Mark Speich: I. "Foreign policy" conducted by companies and NGOs
Jan Bittner: II. The state and non-state actors in foreign policy
Dr. Claudia Decker: III. The integration of companies and NGOs into global governance structures
Ulf Gartzke: IV. Power and counter-power?
Thoughts on the future 7, Constance, June 11, 2002
Dr. Philip Campbell: Bridging the gap: connecting the people to science
Thoughts on the future 6, Berlin, May 14, 2002
Prof. Claus Leggewie: The emergence of a Euro-Islam
Mosques and Muslims in the Federal Republic of Germany
Previous Thoughts on the future 1 through 5 as well as Thoughts on the future 9 are available in German only.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/15/2004 01:04:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Thursday, October 14, 2004 10/14/2004 11:52:00 PM [Home]
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Larry D. Kramer - New Stanford Law School Dean
Larry D. Kramer - New Stanford Law School Dean
Stanford Law School has a new Dean, the 12th, Larry D. Kramer, who comes to Palo Alto from NYU. Kramer has a remarkable biography insofar as he initially did not really want to go to law school at all but did so to placate his mother. At the University of Chicago Law School he was lucky to meet Edward H. Levi (former U.S. Attorney General), who opened Kramer's eyes to "how interesting the law was".
In the Stanford Lawyer, Fall, 2004 in "From the Big Apple to The Farm"
[the Big Apple is New York City and "the Farm" is an insiders' designation for Stanford, which used to be the farm of Leland Stanford Sr.], Kramer relates that:
"I had the typical lay person's view of law school, that you learned a bunch of rules that weren't very interesting, and then spent your life lying and manipulating the rules to make a bunch of money."
As Eric Nee writes in the article, Levi changed Kramer's view from ambivalence to inspiration in his "Elements of Law" course. Kramer elaborates that:
"Levi's course was designed to show the way in which everything met at the law. We started with Socrates and ended at Roe v. Wade, with a little bit of everything in between....
Kramer was particularly intrigued by the fact that many sets of arguments in law had a history running back hundreds of years and that these arguments could be traced.
The Law Pundit found the above observation to be significant in view of our hectic modern age, which often misleads us to the view that "arguments" have right and wrong aspects and that there is some finite conclusion to them. In the law - and, optimally, in the legally trained mind - sets of arguments are not finite entities distinguishing the right view from the wrong view, but are rather ongoing processes, shaped by events over time and embedded in the society in which such arguments arise, a society which is in a constant state of change.
In that same spirit of change, Kramer writes in his opening communication to Stanford entitled "Building on Excellence" (Stanford Lawyer, Fall, 2004) that:
Legal education and scholarship, like education and scholarship generally, have been radically transformed in recent decades. Old disciplinary boundaries have dissolved.... We are an interdisciplinary institution - and will become more so in the coming years.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:52:00 PM
Larry D. Kramer - New Stanford Law School Dean
Larry D. Kramer - New Stanford Law School Dean
Stanford Law School has a new Dean, the 12th, Larry D. Kramer, who comes to Palo Alto from NYU. Kramer has a remarkable biography insofar as he initially did not really want to go to law school at all but did so to placate his mother. At the University of Chicago Law School he was lucky to meet Edward H. Levi (former U.S. Attorney General), who opened Kramer's eyes to "how interesting the law was".
In the Stanford Lawyer, Fall, 2004 in "From the Big Apple to The Farm"
[the Big Apple is New York City and "the Farm" is an insiders' designation for Stanford, which used to be the farm of Leland Stanford Sr.], Kramer relates that:
"I had the typical lay person's view of law school, that you learned a bunch of rules that weren't very interesting, and then spent your life lying and manipulating the rules to make a bunch of money."
As Eric Nee writes in the article, Levi changed Kramer's view from ambivalence to inspiration in his "Elements of Law" course. Kramer elaborates that:
"Levi's course was designed to show the way in which everything met at the law. We started with Socrates and ended at Roe v. Wade, with a little bit of everything in between....
Kramer was particularly intrigued by the fact that many sets of arguments in law had a history running back hundreds of years and that these arguments could be traced.
The Law Pundit found the above observation to be significant in view of our hectic modern age, which often misleads us to the view that "arguments" have right and wrong aspects and that there is some finite conclusion to them. In the law - and, optimally, in the legally trained mind - sets of arguments are not finite entities distinguishing the right view from the wrong view, but are rather ongoing processes, shaped by events over time and embedded in the society in which such arguments arise, a society which is in a constant state of change.
In that same spirit of change, Kramer writes in his opening communication to Stanford entitled "Building on Excellence" (Stanford Lawyer, Fall, 2004) that:
Legal education and scholarship, like education and scholarship generally, have been radically transformed in recent decades. Old disciplinary boundaries have dissolved.... We are an interdisciplinary institution - and will become more so in the coming years.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:52:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM [Home]
[Print]
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
The Law Pundit is probably one of very few people who reads the Stanford Lawyer cover to cover, including the voluminous section by class correspondents on the lives of alumni. The Law Pundit figures that the alumni of Stanford Law School are among the best that humanity has to offer, so it always gives one a sense of perspective and wisdom for one's own life to see what others have done or are doing with their lives and what conclusions about living, if any, they have drawn.
We have selected a few contributions which we find exemplary:
Getting and Keeping a Job
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'connor (Stanford Law School, 1952) is quoted by class correspondent Beatrice Challiss Laws - now there's a fitting name - as follows in a recent O'connor speech at the annual convention of the Arizona bar:
"I had trouble getting a job and I never held on to any of them very long".
So do not despair in your search for your fortune. No one knows precisely where any path leads. Life is a learning process.
Enjoyment not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses
Class correspondent Jerome I. Braun writes about classmate Bob Powsner (Stanford Law School, 1953):
"Bob Powsner has an eclectic piece. It starts gently and segues into a tour d' force: "Not much change. I and mine are still well and happy. Freud's keys: work and love. Here's Solon (6th-century Athenian legislator and poet), from Werner Jaeger's Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Solon answers the complaints of the poet Mimnermus about the pangs of old age and his yearning to die when he passes 60 (well, after 2,500 years, we can probably add 25) without knowing illness and grief. [Says Solon to Mimnermus:]'If you obey me, then strike that out, and do not grudge it to me if I have thought of something better: rewrite your poem, Ionian nightingale, and sing this: I wish the Moira which is death (actually, fate) would overtake me at eighty.' His healthy Athenian energy and his rich enjoyment of life ar fit opponents for the supersensitive melancholy that shrinks from the 60th year [viz. 80th year ] of life because that year will deliver it over to the pains and troubles of existence. Solon cannot believe that old age is slow and painful extinction. His old age is a green tree, whose irrepressible energy produces new blossoms from year to year. And so he refuses even to die in silence and unlamented: he wants his friends to sigh and weep for him when he dies.... Like Arichilochus and all other Ionians, Solon laments the insecurity of life. 'The mind of the immortal gods is quite hidden from men.'
Yet all this is outweighed by his joy in the gifts of life - the growth of children, the strong pleasures of sport and hunting, the delights of wine and song, friendship, and the sensuous happiness of love. The power of enjoyment, in Solon's eyes, is wealth not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses." Wow! There's little I can add to that. Like I said, a tour de force."
On Loyalty and Disappointment with Other People (or with Universities)
Class correspondent Jack Borgwardt (Stanford Law School, 1954) entreaties us to be loyal:
"I am disappointed from time to time to hear of classmates ... who are disaffected with the law school or with Stanford, or with both. I don't suppose these institutions can possibly please all of us in all things, just as few if any of our family and acquaintances can. The university is made up not only of the physical plant, but also of people, the faculty, staff, and students. Each of them (us) will disappoint each of us in some way at some time. Don't give up on any of us. Most of us are doing the best we can, and remember that when any one of us turns his or her back on the rest of us, that is a terrible loss."
A Land of Freedom vs. the Lands of Dictatorship
Class correspondent Marvin Morgenstein writes that Dick Deluce (Stanford Law School, 1955) "happily reports that his son Dan was expelled from Iran for writing a not-too-complimentary article about the Iranian government in the Guardian."
Too often, we forget what free speech really means.
On the Value of Titles
You have to be careful with titles. My own position as Lecturer here in Germany corresponds to an Adjunct Professor in the States. Class correspondent Kenton Granger reports on Jack Rolls (Stanford Law School, 1962) who was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawaii Law School that "Jack reports that his then-young daughter inquired what a "junk professor" was.")
Life is Change and Dull Men do not Change
Class correspondent Paul B. Van Buren brings us this beauty from Lee Carlson (Stanford Law School, 1964):
"I am fortunate to be on Lee Carlson's e-mail joke list, so I hear from him almost every day. In response to my plea for news, Lee wrote: "How can you expect to have news from a dull man? Dull men don't like change. News happens only where there is change. Have you ever seen a newspaper headline 'Nothing Changed Today?'"
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
What is Important - From the Stanford Lawyer
The Law Pundit is probably one of very few people who reads the Stanford Lawyer cover to cover, including the voluminous section by class correspondents on the lives of alumni. The Law Pundit figures that the alumni of Stanford Law School are among the best that humanity has to offer, so it always gives one a sense of perspective and wisdom for one's own life to see what others have done or are doing with their lives and what conclusions about living, if any, they have drawn.
We have selected a few contributions which we find exemplary:
Getting and Keeping a Job
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'connor (Stanford Law School, 1952) is quoted by class correspondent Beatrice Challiss Laws - now there's a fitting name - as follows in a recent O'connor speech at the annual convention of the Arizona bar:
"I had trouble getting a job and I never held on to any of them very long".
So do not despair in your search for your fortune. No one knows precisely where any path leads. Life is a learning process.
Enjoyment not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses
Class correspondent Jerome I. Braun writes about classmate Bob Powsner (Stanford Law School, 1953):
"Bob Powsner has an eclectic piece. It starts gently and segues into a tour d' force: "Not much change. I and mine are still well and happy. Freud's keys: work and love. Here's Solon (6th-century Athenian legislator and poet), from Werner Jaeger's Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Solon answers the complaints of the poet Mimnermus about the pangs of old age and his yearning to die when he passes 60 (well, after 2,500 years, we can probably add 25) without knowing illness and grief. [Says Solon to Mimnermus:]'If you obey me, then strike that out, and do not grudge it to me if I have thought of something better: rewrite your poem, Ionian nightingale, and sing this: I wish the Moira which is death (actually, fate) would overtake me at eighty.' His healthy Athenian energy and his rich enjoyment of life ar fit opponents for the supersensitive melancholy that shrinks from the 60th year [viz. 80th year ] of life because that year will deliver it over to the pains and troubles of existence. Solon cannot believe that old age is slow and painful extinction. His old age is a green tree, whose irrepressible energy produces new blossoms from year to year. And so he refuses even to die in silence and unlamented: he wants his friends to sigh and weep for him when he dies.... Like Arichilochus and all other Ionians, Solon laments the insecurity of life. 'The mind of the immortal gods is quite hidden from men.'
Yet all this is outweighed by his joy in the gifts of life - the growth of children, the strong pleasures of sport and hunting, the delights of wine and song, friendship, and the sensuous happiness of love. The power of enjoyment, in Solon's eyes, is wealth not inferior to gold and silver, lands and horses." Wow! There's little I can add to that. Like I said, a tour de force."
On Loyalty and Disappointment with Other People (or with Universities)
Class correspondent Jack Borgwardt (Stanford Law School, 1954) entreaties us to be loyal:
"I am disappointed from time to time to hear of classmates ... who are disaffected with the law school or with Stanford, or with both. I don't suppose these institutions can possibly please all of us in all things, just as few if any of our family and acquaintances can. The university is made up not only of the physical plant, but also of people, the faculty, staff, and students. Each of them (us) will disappoint each of us in some way at some time. Don't give up on any of us. Most of us are doing the best we can, and remember that when any one of us turns his or her back on the rest of us, that is a terrible loss."
A Land of Freedom vs. the Lands of Dictatorship
Class correspondent Marvin Morgenstein writes that Dick Deluce (Stanford Law School, 1955) "happily reports that his son Dan was expelled from Iran for writing a not-too-complimentary article about the Iranian government in the Guardian."
Too often, we forget what free speech really means.
On the Value of Titles
You have to be careful with titles. My own position as Lecturer here in Germany corresponds to an Adjunct Professor in the States. Class correspondent Kenton Granger reports on Jack Rolls (Stanford Law School, 1962) who was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawaii Law School that "Jack reports that his then-young daughter inquired what a "junk professor" was.")
Life is Change and Dull Men do not Change
Class correspondent Paul B. Van Buren brings us this beauty from Lee Carlson (Stanford Law School, 1964):
"I am fortunate to be on Lee Carlson's e-mail joke list, so I hear from him almost every day. In response to my plea for news, Lee wrote: "How can you expect to have news from a dull man? Dull men don't like change. News happens only where there is change. Have you ever seen a newspaper headline 'Nothing Changed Today?'"
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 01:54:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/14/2004 11:40:00 AM [Home]
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Legal Writing is Important - Eric Fingerhut
Legal Writing is Important - Eric Fingerhut
Eric Fingerhut, a Stanford Law School alumnus and the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, is quoted in the Stanford Lawyer (Fall 2004) remarking on the value of his law school education to his improved abilities as a speaker:
"What sticks in my mind the most is the legal writing class.... I learned how to keep my speeches to what's important and to make sure that people walk away with something that matters to them."
As someone who has taught legal writing in law school for a good number of years, it is gratifying to hear - and not for the first time - that this topic is as valuable to students as the Law Pundit has always claimed that it is. Although legal writing courses do not have the intellectual depth of e.g. constitutional law - which was my favorite subject during student days, they are, in the real world, far more useful in the long run.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:40:00 AM
Legal Writing is Important - Eric Fingerhut
Legal Writing is Important - Eric Fingerhut
Eric Fingerhut, a Stanford Law School alumnus and the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, is quoted in the Stanford Lawyer (Fall 2004) remarking on the value of his law school education to his improved abilities as a speaker:
"What sticks in my mind the most is the legal writing class.... I learned how to keep my speeches to what's important and to make sure that people walk away with something that matters to them."
As someone who has taught legal writing in law school for a good number of years, it is gratifying to hear - and not for the first time - that this topic is as valuable to students as the Law Pundit has always claimed that it is. Although legal writing courses do not have the intellectual depth of e.g. constitutional law - which was my favorite subject during student days, they are, in the real world, far more useful in the long run.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:40:00 AM
LAW PUNDIT 10/14/2004 11:21:00 AM [Home]
[Print]
Munger Gift to Stanford Law School - Largest in the History of Legal Education
Munger Gift to Stanford Law School
The Fall 2004 issue of the Stanford Lawyer just arrived in my mailbox and contains, under the title "Stanford Law School Receives Largest Gift in History of Legal Education", an article reporting that Nancy B. Munger and Charles T. Munger just donated $43.5 million to Stanford Law School for the building of a residential hall which will house several hundred law students and graduate students from other disciplines.
Nancy Munger is an alumna of Stanford and has been a Stanford trustee, while Charlie founded the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. He is - together with Warren Buffett of Omaha, Nebraska - a managing partner of Berkshire Hathaway.
Charles Munger is quoted as follows:
"If you build really good housing it will be a huge advantage for Stanford. It will form a community that doesn't yet exist in American education."
As a Stanford Law School alumnus, the Law Pundit tips his hat to the Mungers.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:21:00 AM
Munger Gift to Stanford Law School - Largest in the History of Legal Education
Munger Gift to Stanford Law School
The Fall 2004 issue of the Stanford Lawyer just arrived in my mailbox and contains, under the title "Stanford Law School Receives Largest Gift in History of Legal Education", an article reporting that Nancy B. Munger and Charles T. Munger just donated $43.5 million to Stanford Law School for the building of a residential hall which will house several hundred law students and graduate students from other disciplines.
Nancy Munger is an alumna of Stanford and has been a Stanford trustee, while Charlie founded the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. He is - together with Warren Buffett of Omaha, Nebraska - a managing partner of Berkshire Hathaway.
Charles Munger is quoted as follows:
"If you build really good housing it will be a huge advantage for Stanford. It will form a community that doesn't yet exist in American education."
As a Stanford Law School alumnus, the Law Pundit tips his hat to the Mungers.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/14/2004 11:21:00 AM
LAW PUNDIT Wednesday, October 13, 2004 10/13/2004 11:03:00 PM [Home]
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Davids Medienkritik Blog - German Media Under Fire
Davids Medienkritik Blog - German Media Under Fire
Davids Medienkritik, a blog from David Kaspar in English, describes itself as "Politically Incorrect Observations on Reporting in the German Media" ("Politisch unkorrekte Betrachtungen zur Berichterstattung in deutschen Medien").
Andrew Sullivan has called Davids Medienkritik "the best blog on German politics".
Technorati indicates that Davids Medienkritik is linked 127 times by 97 sources.
As the Law Pundit lives in Germany and has done so gladly the last thirty years because of all the wonderful people who live here, he can unfortunately confirm the Medienkritik's observations that media distortion here in Germany about the USA is widespread and the amount of uncritical media patience with their own media-skilled but leadership-weak Chancellor is most remarkable. Medientkritik writes in this context: "And of course, Gerhard Schroeder, the head of an imploding wreck of a government, is rarely if ever under pressure."
This lack of criticism of Schroeder in the media, to be sure, is partially a product of the fact, e.g. that the two major German TV channels are state-run and obtain their funds from mandatory fees payable by anyone in Germany owning a television or radio - whether they view or listen to those government channels or not. Obviously, this media is not going to bite the hand that feeds it. In addition, there is a substantial tendency in Germany to be subservient to the powers that be. It is simply not customary to question the decisions of the higher-ups to the degree that this is found in the USA.
To be fair, let the Law Pundit say that the politically colored tripe which in recent years often passes for actual news on CNN, the BBC or the Guardian is not much better. The one-sided and sensationalistic pandering of these news outlets to the lowest human denominator is often simply hard to stomach.
Thank goodness for the bloggers, where one can still find numerous blogs leading to the actual facts and issues presented in an intelligent manner.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/13/2004 11:03:00 PM
Davids Medienkritik Blog - German Media Under Fire
Davids Medienkritik Blog - German Media Under Fire
Davids Medienkritik, a blog from David Kaspar in English, describes itself as "Politically Incorrect Observations on Reporting in the German Media" ("Politisch unkorrekte Betrachtungen zur Berichterstattung in deutschen Medien").
Andrew Sullivan has called Davids Medienkritik "the best blog on German politics".
Technorati indicates that Davids Medienkritik is linked 127 times by 97 sources.
As the Law Pundit lives in Germany and has done so gladly the last thirty years because of all the wonderful people who live here, he can unfortunately confirm the Medienkritik's observations that media distortion here in Germany about the USA is widespread and the amount of uncritical media patience with their own media-skilled but leadership-weak Chancellor is most remarkable. Medientkritik writes in this context: "And of course, Gerhard Schroeder, the head of an imploding wreck of a government, is rarely if ever under pressure."
This lack of criticism of Schroeder in the media, to be sure, is partially a product of the fact, e.g. that the two major German TV channels are state-run and obtain their funds from mandatory fees payable by anyone in Germany owning a television or radio - whether they view or listen to those government channels or not. Obviously, this media is not going to bite the hand that feeds it. In addition, there is a substantial tendency in Germany to be subservient to the powers that be. It is simply not customary to question the decisions of the higher-ups to the degree that this is found in the USA.
To be fair, let the Law Pundit say that the politically colored tripe which in recent years often passes for actual news on CNN, the BBC or the Guardian is not much better. The one-sided and sensationalistic pandering of these news outlets to the lowest human denominator is often simply hard to stomach.
Thank goodness for the bloggers, where one can still find numerous blogs leading to the actual facts and issues presented in an intelligent manner.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/13/2004 11:03:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Tuesday, October 12, 2004 10/12/2004 10:06:00 PM [Home]
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File Sharing and California's New P2P Law
File Sharing and California's New P2P Law
Ivan Hoffman has a posting about California's new P2P Law writing inter alia:
"California has passed a new law that makes it a criminal violation to knowingly download and electronically share works that are known by the party to be 'commercial' and which works are protected by copyright without providing certain information required by the statute."
Since California is often ahead of national developments, read the whole article to see the future direction that the state laws are probably going on file sharing.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/12/2004 10:06:00 PM
File Sharing and California's New P2P Law
File Sharing and California's New P2P Law
Ivan Hoffman has a posting about California's new P2P Law writing inter alia:
"California has passed a new law that makes it a criminal violation to knowingly download and electronically share works that are known by the party to be 'commercial' and which works are protected by copyright without providing certain information required by the statute."
Since California is often ahead of national developments, read the whole article to see the future direction that the state laws are probably going on file sharing.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/12/2004 10:06:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Monday, October 11, 2004 10/11/2004 11:58:00 PM [Home]
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All About Latvia Blog - In Depth Reports in English
All About Latvia Blog - In Depth Reports in English
The All About Latvia Blog has in depth reports in English on important political and economic developments in Latvia, the Baltic, Russia and the European Union.
One of the recent postings points out that Euro currency must be called "eira" in official Latvian documents and must be given a feminine touch - showing thereby one of the vagaries of fate of an ancient inflected Indo-European language.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 11:58:00 PM
All About Latvia Blog - In Depth Reports in English
All About Latvia Blog - In Depth Reports in English
The All About Latvia Blog has in depth reports in English on important political and economic developments in Latvia, the Baltic, Russia and the European Union.
One of the recent postings points out that Euro currency must be called "eira" in official Latvian documents and must be given a feminine touch - showing thereby one of the vagaries of fate of an ancient inflected Indo-European language.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 11:58:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM [Home]
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A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros is a blog on European political affairs by the following bloggers:
Nick Barlow: What You Can Get Away With
Iain Coleman: Mr Happy
Edward Hugh: Bonobo Land
Scott MacMillan: Scotty Mac
Scott Martens: Pedantry
Doug Merrill
Tobias Schwarz: Almost A Diary
Jurjen Smies: No Cameras
Mrs Tilton: The 6th International
Matthew Turner: Matt T
David Weman: Europundit
Technorati shows 374 links from 316 sources.
Scott Martens above asks for some linguistic help on alleged non-European words in Germanic - here is our analysis of terms which allegedly have no Indo-European roots:
It is alleged that the German word Waffe and the English comparable weapon have no Indo-European root. This just shows the extremely poor research and thought prevalent in mainstream linguistics. The Herkunftswörterbuch (Etymological Dictionary) of Sebastian Baumgärtner, Area Verlag, 2003, indicates that the terms wapen, wafen etc. can be traced back to Gothic wepna and Old Norse vapn. That is as far back as he gets. But if we look to e.g. Latvian, which along with Lithuanian are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues, we find the words vaba "pole, stake" and vabina "pole, stake" (diminutive form). So it is clear that German Waffe and English weapon trace back to the use of a pointed stick as a weapon. That the linguists do not look to Baltic for their etymologies is one of the great riddles of mainstream scholarship.
The German term Schwert as English sword is a fairly modern word found in Old English as sweord. A possible origin is found in e.g. Latvian svarst- meaning "to swing to and fro in one's hand". Since swords are not indigenous to the Baltic, this explanation is tenuous but shows that an Indo-European origin is certainly not excludable, given the possibilities.
The English word sea is found in German as See (pronounced zayh) and finds similar terms for lake in Baltic e.g. eze-r "lake".
German Ufer for "bank, shore" finds its comparable in Baltic upe "river", which of course consists of both the water and the banks. The shift from p to f is much in evidence in Europe from North to South.
German Sturm (English storm) are found in North German stur (also stuurs in Dutch) and German stör- meaning "commotion, disturbance", but in Latvian one also has the root sadrum- meaning "to grow gloomy, to darken".
German Sühne "atonement", pronounced "Zueh-ne" has its comparable in Latvian zve-re "oath".
German stehlen, English steal, seem similar to Latvian sadal- "divide by distribution" but also "assessment".
English thief and German Dieb seem similar to Latvian dabuo "to get".
German Knecht "servant" we find in English as knight (i.e. a servant of his lord) and knicken in German means "to bow, knee down, kneel".
German Volk "people, folk" we find in North German Pulk and Latvian pulk-, pulc- "a mass, an assembly of people, gathering" to which we have related dissimilated Latvian terms such as pil- meaning English "fill, full", showing again the p to f shift.
German Adel "nobility" has its comparable in German edel "noble" and the Latvian cel- pronounced "tsel-" meaning "high, raised, above". In other words, the root goes back to an original ts- or dz- type of sound.
The same can be said for German Zeit "time" and Latvian Gait- "the pace of things, the passage of time".
Well, I do not want to belabor the obvious. Mainstream linguistics is still stuck in the 18th century insofar as it has not accepted the fact that Indo-European language came from the East and that of course is where we should then look for Indo-European roots.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros is a blog on European political affairs by the following bloggers:
Nick Barlow: What You Can Get Away With
Iain Coleman: Mr Happy
Edward Hugh: Bonobo Land
Scott MacMillan: Scotty Mac
Scott Martens: Pedantry
Doug Merrill
Tobias Schwarz: Almost A Diary
Jurjen Smies: No Cameras
Mrs Tilton: The 6th International
Matthew Turner: Matt T
David Weman: Europundit
Technorati shows 374 links from 316 sources.
Scott Martens above asks for some linguistic help on alleged non-European words in Germanic - here is our analysis of terms which allegedly have no Indo-European roots:
It is alleged that the German word Waffe and the English comparable weapon have no Indo-European root. This just shows the extremely poor research and thought prevalent in mainstream linguistics. The Herkunftswörterbuch (Etymological Dictionary) of Sebastian Baumgärtner, Area Verlag, 2003, indicates that the terms wapen, wafen etc. can be traced back to Gothic wepna and Old Norse vapn. That is as far back as he gets. But if we look to e.g. Latvian, which along with Lithuanian are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues, we find the words vaba "pole, stake" and vabina "pole, stake" (diminutive form). So it is clear that German Waffe and English weapon trace back to the use of a pointed stick as a weapon. That the linguists do not look to Baltic for their etymologies is one of the great riddles of mainstream scholarship.
The German term Schwert as English sword is a fairly modern word found in Old English as sweord. A possible origin is found in e.g. Latvian svarst- meaning "to swing to and fro in one's hand". Since swords are not indigenous to the Baltic, this explanation is tenuous but shows that an Indo-European origin is certainly not excludable, given the possibilities.
The English word sea is found in German as See (pronounced zayh) and finds similar terms for lake in Baltic e.g. eze-r "lake".
German Ufer for "bank, shore" finds its comparable in Baltic upe "river", which of course consists of both the water and the banks. The shift from p to f is much in evidence in Europe from North to South.
German Sturm (English storm) are found in North German stur (also stuurs in Dutch) and German stör- meaning "commotion, disturbance", but in Latvian one also has the root sadrum- meaning "to grow gloomy, to darken".
German Sühne "atonement", pronounced "Zueh-ne" has its comparable in Latvian zve-re "oath".
German stehlen, English steal, seem similar to Latvian sadal- "divide by distribution" but also "assessment".
English thief and German Dieb seem similar to Latvian dabuo "to get".
German Knecht "servant" we find in English as knight (i.e. a servant of his lord) and knicken in German means "to bow, knee down, kneel".
German Volk "people, folk" we find in North German Pulk and Latvian pulk-, pulc- "a mass, an assembly of people, gathering" to which we have related dissimilated Latvian terms such as pil- meaning English "fill, full", showing again the p to f shift.
German Adel "nobility" has its comparable in German edel "noble" and the Latvian cel- pronounced "tsel-" meaning "high, raised, above". In other words, the root goes back to an original ts- or dz- type of sound.
The same can be said for German Zeit "time" and Latvian Gait- "the pace of things, the passage of time".
Well, I do not want to belabor the obvious. Mainstream linguistics is still stuck in the 18th century insofar as it has not accepted the fact that Indo-European language came from the East and that of course is where we should then look for Indo-European roots.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/11/2004 06:03:00 PM [Home]
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Throwing Things Blog - Entertainment-Oriented
Throwing Things Blog - Entertainment-Oriented
A List a Day has merged with several other blogs to form A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago or what is called the Throwing Things Blog.
It is a cacophony of eclictic observations and statements, for example, by an attorney who sees politics as a form of entertainment.
It is thus no suprise that this blog can be entertaining and comments on the field of entertainment - but you have to read CAREFULLY, because some depth is found below the chuckles. For example, read Matt's comment on David E. Kelley's new "Boston Legal" - and read also the comments to the comment.
According to Technorati, this blog has 140 links from 130 sources.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:03:00 PM
Throwing Things Blog - Entertainment-Oriented
Throwing Things Blog - Entertainment-Oriented
A List a Day has merged with several other blogs to form A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago or what is called the Throwing Things Blog.
It is a cacophony of eclictic observations and statements, for example, by an attorney who sees politics as a form of entertainment.
It is thus no suprise that this blog can be entertaining and comments on the field of entertainment - but you have to read CAREFULLY, because some depth is found below the chuckles. For example, read Matt's comment on David E. Kelley's new "Boston Legal" - and read also the comments to the comment.
According to Technorati, this blog has 140 links from 130 sources.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:03:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/11/2004 05:38:00 PM [Home]
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AdRants - the Advertising Business
AdRants - the Advertising Business
AdRants covers the advertising world and has great graphics.
We like this posting about the sudden realization by some that the media business is about making money and not necessarily about reporting the "actual" news.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 05:38:00 PM
AdRants - the Advertising Business
AdRants - the Advertising Business
AdRants covers the advertising world and has great graphics.
We like this posting about the sudden realization by some that the media business is about making money and not necessarily about reporting the "actual" news.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 05:38:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/11/2004 05:31:00 PM [Home]
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Adam Polselli - Website Design, Photography
Adam Polselli - Website Design, Photography
Adam Polselli has some great photographs taken by a design and photo buff who also writes for SitePoint.
He has valuable links, materials and templates useful for blog and website design.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 05:31:00 PM
Adam Polselli - Website Design, Photography
Adam Polselli - Website Design, Photography
Adam Polselli has some great photographs taken by a design and photo buff who also writes for SitePoint.
He has valuable links, materials and templates useful for blog and website design.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 05:31:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT 10/11/2004 01:38:00 PM [Home]
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Across the Atlantic - Immigration and A Romeo and Juliet Blog
Across the Atlantic - Immigration and A Romeo and Juliet Blog
Across the Atlantic is a modern Romeo and Juliet story, which takes its name from the two bloggers on this blog, each of whom lives on the other side of the big ocean. AcrossTheAtlantic is a good blog which has just migrated to WordPress and has recent interesting posts on the immigration process in the US (the bloggers are trying to unite across the waters). There is political commentary. The news links are good but there are also links to erotic blogs, so caveat emptor. We do not like the WordPress font used which we find hard to read. In spite of perhaps too many "personal" postings, the blog is unique as a method of communication between the two bloggers "Across the Atlantic".
At Technorati, the old URL for this blog shows 155 links from 148 sources whereas the new URL shows only 42 links from 39 sources. We see there the problem of updating links on blogrolls for migrated blogs. The link to this blog at e.g. Instapundit is also outdated.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 01:38:00 PM
Across the Atlantic - Immigration and A Romeo and Juliet Blog
Across the Atlantic - Immigration and A Romeo and Juliet Blog
Across the Atlantic is a modern Romeo and Juliet story, which takes its name from the two bloggers on this blog, each of whom lives on the other side of the big ocean. AcrossTheAtlantic is a good blog which has just migrated to WordPress and has recent interesting posts on the immigration process in the US (the bloggers are trying to unite across the waters). There is political commentary. The news links are good but there are also links to erotic blogs, so caveat emptor. We do not like the WordPress font used which we find hard to read. In spite of perhaps too many "personal" postings, the blog is unique as a method of communication between the two bloggers "Across the Atlantic".
At Technorati, the old URL for this blog shows 155 links from 148 sources whereas the new URL shows only 42 links from 39 sources. We see there the problem of updating links on blogrolls for migrated blogs. The link to this blog at e.g. Instapundit is also outdated.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 01:38:00 PM
LAW PUNDIT Friday, October 08, 2004 10/08/2004 04:29:00 PM [Home]
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Search Engine Watch Blog
Search Engine Watch Blog
Search Engine Watch has started a Search Engine Watch Blog.
This is a useful blog for all bloggers and internet website owners particularly.
Search Engine Watch comments on developments in the search engine world. This is a tremendous resource not only about news and events but also contains information about search engine submission tips, web searching tips, search engine listings, search engine ratings and statistics, search engine resources, etc. A monthly newlsetter is also available.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/08/2004 04:29:00 PM
Search Engine Watch Blog
Search Engine Watch Blog
Search Engine Watch has started a Search Engine Watch Blog.
This is a useful blog for all bloggers and internet website owners particularly.
Search Engine Watch comments on developments in the search engine world. This is a tremendous resource not only about news and events but also contains information about search engine submission tips, web searching tips, search engine listings, search engine ratings and statistics, search engine resources, etc. A monthly newlsetter is also available.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/08/2004 04:29:00 PM
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