Moot Court: First Impression

We just finished the third round of Moot Court, and tonight was interesting. The judges seemed intent on throwing issues at us that were not part of the record, such as why the farmers did not have crop insurance or why there is no record of expert testimony about weather foreseeability. Short answer: Because this is Moot Court, and we never had details about a trial presented in the record. Long answer: Well, your Honor, that issue was raised sua sponte, and a decision was reached in an unpublished opinion, so at this time there is no record of why x did or did not occur.

I'm off now to the Firehouse for a few drinks and the announcement of the teams that go on to the Sweet Sixteen. I give my partner and I about a 30% chance of making it. More later...

Site Update

I've decided to update my site with a new format. Hope y'all like it. If something looks off-kilter or astray, please drop me a line or leave a comment. Thanks!

Australia: Tuesday

We started off the day by heading to the Cairns Railway Station, en route to Kuranda. We had decided earlier that we would have one touristy day in Cairns and one in Sydney, so the decision to take a train didn't feel too hokey. It took about an hour to get there, and we were thankful we had chosen to take the train in the morning, as it was already becoming pretty humid. The scenery along the way was gorgeous, and the ride afforded us an opportunity to see it in a way that a car or bus would never allow.

We detrained[?] in Kuranda, which is probably the biggest tourist trap in Australia. We saw a few people that I think were authentic aborigines, but then again, how would I know? The town was built on the side of a hill, so everywhere we went seemed like it was straight up or straight down, with shops packed on both sides of the street. We poked our heads in a few stores, and then the girlfriend fed me a meat-pie, which was quite good and probably the cheapest meal we had the entire trip.

After lunch, we were off to see the rainforest by way off an amphibious Army Duck. The guide told us that these vehicles had originally played an integral part in the Allies naval invasion, and were constructed by the thousands before being decommissioned after the war. Sitting in one wasn't too bad, but the good visibility we had probably scared the pants off of the soldiers who rode in them, because the high seats presumably would make them sitting ducks. [ducking] [[double-pun intended]]

The tour lasted about 45 minutes, and we were lucky enough to see a bit of wildlife, but it was the flora that was really fascinating. The guide talked about the battle that every plant wages against the others to climb to the top of the forest for sunlight. He talked about one plant that would leave silica slivers in your skin that were so painful and so difficult to remove that more than a few people died from it. Another plant, the "wait awhile", had tentacles with tiny barbs that could grab hold of you and rip the flesh off your body. All around, a neat perspective of the rainforest.

(to be continued...)

Required Reading

Mr. Whittle has posted another essay, entitled Chapter One - And Then a Miracle Occurs... Go read it. (Note: This appears to be his 91st post. That's pretty amazing when you consider how many hits his site has had: 789,988. I don't know what to call that ratio, but it's an incredible accomplishment in the blog world.)

Overheard in Torts

Professor M said something at the end of class today that just plain amazed me. He said that tomorrow we were going to talk about THE TRUTH. Anyone who has been to law school can tell you that you NEVER hear about the TRUTH, in fact the TRUTH is to be shunned, hidden, manipulated, or just ignored. Needless to say, I was shocked. Until I realized that the prof was talking about defenses to libel; apparently, if you tell the truth, no one can sue you for libel or slander. Good to know.

Moot Court

This week all the lowly 1L's have Moot Court, to be followed by more Moot Court next week. The professors recognize that we're devoting most of our attention to this rite of passage, and have pretty well left us alone. One prof even thanked us for showing up to his class this week.

The interesting aspect is that we have three rounds of oral arguments, but only the first one is graded. A few of us played with the idea of acting flippantly with the judges (students, professors, and others) during the last two rounds by wearing inappropriate clothing, muttering obscenities under our breath during opposing counsel's argument, and then making ad hominem attacks about both the judges and our opponents during our turn. Good for a laugh, but I doubt anyone follows through.

UPDATE: Mr. Rickey over at Three Years of Hell has already finished his penance. Lucky B*st*rd! My partner and I will be finished with the first round sometime late Friday, if everything goes according to schedule. Which so far it hasn't.

Student Bar Association Treasurer

I've just finished my Campaign Flyer for the SBA Treasurer election that will be held later tomorrow. [er, today.] I've continued my theme from the previous election by poking fun at the Jackson family. We'll see how it goes with my classmates.

UPDATE: I won the election! I am next years SBA Treasurer. Assuming I don't flunk out first due to incessant bloggin. D'oh

Australia: A Few Photos

It took me a while to figure out how to effectively add photos to this site, but now that I've climbed that curve, here are a few without comment:

Australia: Home Again

The girlfriend and I made it home, about four hours after we left Sydney. (There is the small issue of a date line, so that includes about twenty-eight hours of airport and airplane time.) My body tells me that it's about 4:00am right now, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to talk about the trip. The most important tidbit is that we had an amazing adventure in Australia, and I look forward to returning. Also, we (as in Delta Airlines) lost a small piece of luggage between LAX and home, but they assure me it will be delivered to my door soon. [holding breath] The film is at the developers, so hopefully I'll be able to post some photos tomorrow as well. Cheers!

Australia: Monday

Another morning up at 6:30am. I guess jet-lag can work in your favor, if you're lucky. We had a different driver to the marina this morning, very talkative and friendly. I guess that could be said about most of the Australians we've met. Heading out to sea, the weather was a bit choppy, and about half the people on board were sea-sick, but once again the girlfriend and I were fine. She even spent some time reading, which impressed the crew to no ends. Her nickname is now "The Iron Stomach."

Dive #1 -- The goal for today was to see a sea-turtle and a shark. We didn't see either on the first dive. We did pet a ferocious looking sea-cucumber (really) and see some enormous cod, bigger than myself.
Dive #2 -- We saw a shark! He was only about three feet long and smaller than the cod from before, but it was exciting. He pretty much kept his distance, so no worries. We also saw quite a few rays and fish
The crew of the TUSA III: Great people and helpful in every way. They took to the girlfriend and were friendly from the get-go. At one point the wheelchair decided to go on walkabout, and everyone jumped to catch her before she took off.


Back to the hotel, we cleaned up, took a three hour nap, and ate dinner at the hotel bar. Wine, fruity cocktails, and a vodka tonic were consumed, along with squid-ink pasta and some bland chicken. I dropped the girlfriend off at the room and came out to the hotel lobby to do some blogging. This is costing me at $.70 US a minute, so it's a good thing I wrote all this out before I logged on.

Australia: Sunday

Up at 6:30am for the transfer to the marina. On the boat by 8:00am. It was raining at the dock, but cleared up nicely once we were out to sea. A few people were sea-sick, but the girlfriend and I were fine, drinking coffee and eating muffins on the TUSA III.

Dive #1 -- Do not drink sea water. It will leave a taste that will not go away. Otherwise, the dive went well. We saw a lot of coral and a few fish, but I found myself thinking, "This is it? It's better than an Oklahoma lake, but not as good as I expected."
Dive #2 -- This is what diving is about. I picked up a clam shell bigger than my head. It must have weighed about 15 pounds, and when I handed it to the girlfriend, she dropped to the bottom (19 meters) like a rock. We say an eagle-ray, which is similar to a manta-ray, but much smaller. We found Nemo, but I didn't take a picture when he was playing in the coral. We saw schools of fish of every color, some of which must have been invented just for the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing.

Back to the hotel by 4:30. Showers and a change of clothes helped restart the engine, and then we went to Neptune's on the beach for dinner. We had the Seafood Platter, which at $130 AU, was worth it. We had mud crab, bugs (mini-lobsters), oysters, clams, mussels, and shrimp. The pineapple was tart and wonderful as a side. We split a carafe of house red, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Australia: The Trip Down Under

Thursday to Saturday
Travel Time: 30 hours. Oklahoma City to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Sydney to Cairns.
Movies Watched:

Intolerable Cruelty -- Good flick. The girlfriend liked it, mostly because there were inside lawyer jokes. Definitely worth the watch. This was our "date night" movie, complete with wine and munchies. We actually managed to curl up in our seats and enjoy.
Master and Commander -- I liked this more than the girlfriend, probably because it was related to sailing. Good humor, good action, and lots of unexpected plot directions.
School of Rock -- If you're stuck on a 14 hour flight, this isn't the worst thing you could see. The beginning and the end were ok, but the middle was a bit incoherent.
Duplex -- Ben Stiller's worst effort, ever. This was predictable dreck. Don't see it if someone pays you.

Customs: Do not try to sneak Beef Jerky in to Australia. The cutest little drug-sniffing beagle will hit on your bag, and the customs officials will berate you for five minutes about what a bad person you are. Then they say, "No worries."

Hotel: The Novotel Palm Cove Resort has a great tropical entrance and decent rooms. We had the Seafood Buffet for dinner, which was good, except Australians think "cocktail sauce" is yellow and sweet. Ask for drawn butter and you'll see some strange looks. The girlfriend had a glass of Rosemount Cab Sav, which was good, and I had a glass of Lindeman's Shiraz, which was a little too sweet for my tastes.

Weather: apparently, the non-stop rain is unusual, even though Cairns is in a rainforest. Go figure.

Off to Australia!

The bags are packed for our ten day excursion Down Under. Getting there is going to be a drag (four flights over 22 hours), but it'll be worth it. The girlfriend and I are spending two days SCUBA diving at The Great Barrier Reef, two more days in Cairns, then four days in Sydney with the girlfriend's brother. We've been planning this trip since I started Law School, but I've been so busy that I'm just now allowing myself to get excited. I'll drop a line if I find an Internet connection, but the big goal is to come home with a tan, some great pictures, and some fantastic memories. I hope that my brother and all my classmates in Section 1 have a great Spring Break, because I know that I will.

Let Me Tell You About 'Impracticability'

I've got your 'impracticability' right here! I finished that damn LRW&A brief this evening. Two all-nighters and few afternoon/evenings of work, but it's finished. My biggest frustration is that no matter how hard or long I worked at it, the brief was never going to be something I was proud of. I'm learning that a big part of law school is a turn the crank and grind the gears experience, with only occasional "Aha!" moments that provide a glimpse of clarity. I spent far longer than should be necessary getting the Propositions right, checking cites, and creating the required Index that must be formatted in such a way that Word is unable to do it automatically. Oh well. It's over, and now I'm ready for Spring Break.

Protecting the 'Rents from the Eeeevil Internet

Rex Momus might appreciate this article, via Slashdot, about Protecting Our Parent's PCs. Most of the geeks recommended OS X, iMacs, or [gasp] Linux [/gasp]. Really now, does anyone here really think Mom can recompile her own kernal? Lucky for me, my dad has enough savvy to handle most computer related issues, and only saves the real head-scratchers for the occasional weekends I come home.

Sooner in the Sand

Every once in a while, the OU Daily has something on the Op/Ed page worth reading. Today is one of those days. A quote from Spc. Eric Hartmann,

You come to realize that the job here was a part of something deeper than just removing a tyrant. Rather, it was another instance of a people being given the breath of democracy. The people of Iraq now have the right and freedom to speak their minds and elect those who would represent their ideals best for the whole of the country, not what is best for a single man.

Go read the whole thing, and join me in thanking Eric for the service he performed for all of us, here and abroad.

UPDATE: I recieved this email from Mr. Hartmann, and am posting it with permission:

I am safely back in the United States, and I just found out that you all responded to my article. So, I wanted to let you all know that I very much appreciated the gratitude that you expressed in your responses. Thank you very much.

Sooner NOT in the sand anymore, :)
eric hartmann

Gridiron Pictures

Party Pics are here. And Mr. Jenkins has some good ones, with commentary here. I'll have to ask him what the post above the pictures is about, but damn, is he hot or not?

The Transitional Iraqi Constitution

Here is a translation of the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transition Period. A few key Articles:

Article 4: The system of government in Iraq shall be republican, federal, democratic, and pluralistic, and powers shall be shared between the federal government and the regional governments, governorates, municipalities, and local administrations....

Article 7: (A) Islam is the official religion of the State and is to be considered a source of legislation....

Article 12: All Iraqis are equal in their rights without regard to gender, sect, opinion, belief, nationality, religion, or origin, and they are equal before the law....

Article 13: (H) Each Iraqi has the right to privacy....

Article 24: (A) The Iraqi Transitional Government, which is also referred to in this Law as the federal government, shall consist of the National Assembly; the Presidency Council; the Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister; and the judicial authority....

You can read an article about this historic moment here. Other commentary here and here, plus GWB. I could not find a single mention about this on JK's site or blog.

What Liberal Media?

This one is tearing around the blogosphere. I've seen comments about it at Instapundit, VodkaPundit, Cold Fury, and quite a few others. Introducing Oh, That Liberal Media. Here's an excerpt from the Introduction and Mission Statement:

In national security and foreign affairs, the liberal attitude is to level American "privilege" relative to the "underprivileged" governments abroad and to forswear American power, appease our foes and delegate sovereignty to unelected transnational bodies. This entails an unnatural reverence for the United Nations and the European Union, reflexive criticism of Israel and quick sympathy for terrorists and tyrants (as long as they oppose the United States). Consistent with the impulse against national self-defense is the discomfort with individual self-defense and the hostility toward gun ownership by law-abiding citizens.

...

Liberals also tend to support the expansion of federal and judicial authority and restraints on plebiscite, legislative and state authority, along with certain restrictions on political speech and campaign contributions -- but only to the extent that tipping the scales in one direction or another helps to ensure that liberal policies would prevail. Liberals favor Democrats over Republicans in nearly every case, even to the point of excusing away decidedly illiberal behavior when committed by a Democrat.

I'm going to keep my on it for a while, and perhaps add it the newsfeeds on the right.

Standard of Review

I'm currently working on my Appellate Brief for my Legal Research, Writing, & Advocacy class. An important element of the Brief is the determination of the appropriate Standard of Review that the Appellate Court is supposed to use to review the District (Trial) Court's opinion.

If the appeal is based upon a question of law (i.e. Is it illegal to drive faster than 20 MPH in a school zone?), then the Appellate Court can use the de novo standard, which means that it can review everything in the District Court's opinion, including law, facts, and discretionary judgment.

If the appeal is based upon a question of fact (i.e. Was the vehicle moving greater than 20 MPH in the school zone?), then the standard is clearly erroneous, which means that the Appellate Court has to accept all facts in the opinion as true, and apply them in the light most favorable to the Appellee.

Finally, if the appeal is based upon judicial discretion (i.e. Did the judge rule correctly in excluding eyewitness testimony of the vehicle in the school zone?), then the standard is abuse of discretion, which means that the District Court judge will only be overruled if he unequivocally misapplied the law or procedure, or in some other way abused his position of authority in a prejudicial manner.

For all three standards, the Appellate Court will not overrule a judge if doing so will not alter the outcome of the decision.

As a general rule, the Appellant always wants the Appellate Court to use the de novo standard, followed by the clearly erroneous standard, and hopefully not the abuse of discretion standard. Appellees want the reverse, because the District Court is less likely to be overturned if the standard is abuse of discretion.

The question I have is tactical in nature. If I argue that the Appellate Court should use a de novo standard of review, then I can argue my appeal on all of the elements of the case. However, if the Court disagrees with me about the standard of review, then most of my argument will not be valid because I attempted to argue facts as well as law. On the hand, if I only argue the law under the clearly erroneous standard, then my argument will be seriously handicapped, but there is little chance of it being thrown out as irrelevant. For now, I'm going to argue for the de novo standard, because I'm the attorney for the Appellant, but I'll have to bring this up in class and see what Professor M has to say.

Places I've Been As An Adult

Some for work, some for play, some in college, some in a day.

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

She wants to be the First Lady?

Politics are supposed to be dirty. Read any history book and you'll see that it's always been that way. I don't mind a bit of name calling, but I do think that our President and First Lady (or First Husband, if it ever happens) should display a certain level of class. This behavior is unacceptable:

When Teresa Heinz-Kerry arrived, she handed me a pin that read in the center: “Asses of Evil” with “Bush”, “Cheney”, “Rumsfeld” and “Ashcroft” surrounding it.

This is from John Kerry's blog! I'll concede that what Mrs. Kerry-Heinz does in private with her friends is her business. The big sin here is not that she had, wore, or gave out these pins at a private party, it's that she allowed the knowledge to become public. On her husbands blog. The one that's affiliated with his primary campaign website.

Following a link from Drudge, I find this as well. JK's website is laced with obscenities. Try it yourself: Just type sh*t or f*ck in the search window and see what comes up. I'll let the obscenities fly at the drop of a hat, but I'm also aware of my surroundings and audience when I do it. Once again, the problem isn't the language itself, it's that it was allowed on his website. Contrast that with the same search at GWB's main site or his blog. Not a single hit.

Overall, this is a small thing. There are many issues far more important to debate about the merits of the candidates. I just think we should expect a certain level of decency from the men and their wives.

Research in the Law Library

Arghh! I'm working on research for the brief I'm doing in LRW&A. I found a few good articles and cases that should help, but I can't print them off until the dumb-bunny ahead of me finishes printing hers. We're at page 1053 and counting. Here's a clue: You'll never read all that material, much less use it. Research is about culling the fluff, not blindly printing every possibly related document you find. Try reading the material before you print it, and excising the unneeded material.

Newsfeeds on the Right

I've added a few newsfeeds to my blog. In the interest of fair play, as well as a desire to know my enemy, I have added feeds from blogs for both GWB and JK. I will assume that my readers can determine who I'll be voting for in November based upon my posts.

Kerry's Worst Endorsement, Ever

You may have read about the glowing terms used by the Korea Central News Agency with regard to John Kerry. To be fair, I don't believe for a second that Mr. Kerry sought or desired such an endorsement, but it begs the question of why Kim's official mouthpiece would favor one candidate over another. A possible explanation from Andrew Ward in Seoul and James Harding in Washington:

Rather than dealing with President George W. Bush and hawkish officials in his administration, Pyongyang seems to hope victory for the Democratic candidate on November 2 would lead to a softening in US policy towards the country's nuclear weapons programme.

Why would North Korea believe that Mr. Kerry's election would help with negotiations? Maybe it's because they believe they could have bilateral talks with the U.S. instead of the current multilateral talks that they're engaged in. Why would North Korea believe that? Probably because of this statement from Mr. Kerry:

[T]he Bush administration must commit itself to negotiate directly with the North Koreans -- no matter who else is at the table -- and have a viable negotiating strategy. The threat posed by North Korea is too dangerous to allow someone else, be it our allies or China, to negotiate our interests.

Bilateral talks are a bad idea. I won't get into it here, mostly because Mr. Denbeste has already made a more thorough argument than I ever could.

I also find it interesting that Mr. Kerry is looking for a unilateral approach to North Korea, while President Bush is using a multilateral approach. It seems like the DNC wants it both ways.

Bush's Ads II

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, papers which have been hostile to President Bush in the past, have commented positively about the new ads. In WSJ:

One of the oddest things about the hullabaloo over the Bush ads is that these are precisely the kind of campaign spots the self-appointed media referees always say they like: positive, and focused on the candidate's message and record, not on tearing down the other guy...

And in the NYP:

So it doesn't hurt to remind America, in no uncertain terms, exactly why the war is necessary...

It would be too much to ask for The New York Times to carry a similar editorial. (Via GeorgeWBush.com/Blog)

Bush's Ads

My brother and I watched the new ads from President Bush's Advertising Campaign. We both thought they were very low-key, considering the sort of things we wanted to see. I've read in a few places that many consider them to be insensitive and overly political, which I must say is ludicrous, unless you forget that we are at war! So many people I read about and talk to seem to forget that, which is why I harp on it here. Anyways, Mr. Lileks discusses the ads at the bottom of today's Bleat much more eloquently than I can. His pop quiz at the bottom sums it up nicely:

Okay. A simple quiz.

1. We should promote the rebuilding of the international community through the UN to stop tyrannical regimes through forceful nonviolent intervention.

Or:

2 "You're either with us, or with the terrorists."

Imagine a bomb just went off in your local mall. Choose one.

What the heck is "forceful nonviolent intervention"? Overt scowling, perhaps? I choose (2), and I don't need a bomb to go off in my local mall to convince me.

Letting My Inner Geek Shine Through

My first home computer was an Atari 800. Back in the day, we must have bought and traded for about 300 games, many of which were more fun than most of the games released today. Feeling nostalgic, I went searching for an emulator, found a few games, and spent the evening playing Infocom's Enchanter. I highly recommend a similar excursion to any fellow geeks out there.

Peanuts

Mr. Jenkins over at The Imperialist Dog is Charlie Brown. Seems pretty accurate, but I somehow think there's a little of each character in all of us. Apparently, I'm

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

UPDATE: The girlfriend took the quiz, and we had to laugh because of her answer to the first question, "At a party, you expect to be..." She answered "Locked in the bathroom", which is funny because she has, in fact, been locked in the bathroom on numerous occasions. In the Peanuts universe, she is

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

UPDATE II: And the brother is

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Procrastination by Blogging

I can't seem to focus on the important stuff today, like briefing, research, or even reading. D'oh! I may have to find a change of venue away from the Internet to accomplish anything.

OU Rugby Team Wins Big 12

The OU rugby team claimed its second Big 12 championship Saturday after beating Kansas, Texas A&M and OSU in the championship game. Congratulations to my friend P.J., a starter on the team.

Site Update

I know that my posting has been sporadic, but I found the bug again last night, and decided to update the site along the way. I've dropped a couple of newsfeeds on the right and fix the broken links on the left. Enjoy!

Iraqis Agree on Consitution, Islam Role

Good news for the newly-liberated Iraqis:

"It was a very emotional moment," [Salem Chalabi, a representative from the Iraqi National Congress] told The Associated Press. "We established a bill of rights like no other in the region. It was quite a remarkable thing" - even more so for being hammered out in the former Military Industry Ministry, a bulwark of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.

The charter has a 13-article bill of rights, including protections for free speech, religious expression, assembly and due process and spells out the shape of an executive branch.

Less than a year after we decided to make a difference in Iraq, the people of that country have a provisional Constitution and the opportunity to lead lives unfettered by an autocratic dictator. Contrast the difference that boots on the ground makes compared to about ten years of U.N. resolutions.

Worth Every Penny

We recently bought some offset door hinges for an interior door. In conjunction with the girlfriend's new chair, affectionately known as The Deuce, our lives have become a bit less complicated. The problem we used to face is that this one doorway in our household was merely 1'10" wide, while Pepe, the previous chair, had a width of about 2'2". Now, with the hinges, the doorway is 2' wide, and the new chair is just a hair less than that. Problem solved for about $24 plus the cost of the chair.