Blog
Writing, notes, and occasional rambles.
The Economist
This rap is awesome.
May 2008my Ossi bike
I rode my bike today for the first time in almost a year. It was killing three birds with one stone - exercise, errands (without damaging the environment), and procrastination. Everything was good for the first mile or so, but then the gears started acting up. One awesome thing about my bike (yes, awesome) is that when you backpedal, it brakes. But it would slip out of its gear (it has three gears plus a “neutral” - yeah, I love it) and only the handbrake worked. Then it got more and more frequent to the point it was happening every 10-15 seconds by the time I got home. My sandal flew off twice, and I had to turn around and walk back to it. Damn Commies. Nah, I love my happy little Ossi bike.
May 2008no more class until August!
I’m about to collapse into bed. I was up until 4am working on a paper. It was fairly miserable. And then I woke up at 7am so that I could be first in line for Chief Justice Roberts’ Q&A with law students. That’s right, I’m a nerd. If you want to read about CJ Roberts’ visit, check out my legal blog. I’m relieved that classes are over, but I’m not at all excited that finals are coming. That will be the most miserable part. On a brighter note, I have a place to stay in DC now. And things will come together in general, it seems. I can sometimes be a little doubtful or pessimistic, but I’ve become a lot better about stopping that when I recognize it. Ooh, and Mark Schweizer writes “liturgical mysteries,” which are absolutely hilarious. The best place to buy them is from the publisher . I bought the box set and had them all signed. And now I’m reading the third book - The Tenor Wore Tapshoes. I’ve read the first, second, and sixth already, though spread out over the last couple months, of course. I think I’m going to crawl into bed, open up my window now that it’s getting a little cooler and the tornado warning has become a tornado watch, and read for a little bit. Then I’ll sleep and sleep and sleep and it will be so very blissful. I am also reading the Decameron, which is quite fascinating (and sometimes quite gross, explicit, or awkward). I think I’ll need to read Arabian Nights as well, just to round out my old-stories-that-have-spawned-centuries-of-elaboration education. And Chronicles of Narnia, though it doesn’t fit into the same category. I should make a book list.
May 2008Chief Justice Roberts visited KU
Last night, CJ Roberts gave a lecture through the business school. It was fairly disappointing, honestly. He read his talk, and he talked about the Louisiana Purchase. He also spent a long time on the mechanics of the Supreme Court. I understand that the audience was made up of many lay people and that he couldn’t actually talk about many of the things we really wanted to hear about (e.g., Heller), but I guess I expected a little more. Today, however, he had a Q&A session for law students. I got there 1 1/2 hours early, so I was first in line. He actually walked in while I was in line, and he said hi. It was quite the moment. I got to sit in the front row, and the session was just great. People asked all sorts of things, from what he considers when deciding a case to his view on the Constitution (although that question was also asked last night by Adam Davis and received by the audience with resounding applause) to advice for aspiring advocates. I asked the second question. I asked him about the Medellin case. In that one, which came out just over a month ago, he wrote the opinion for five justices (the conservative ones), in which the Court held that an ICJ decision (that a certain treaty required the government to notify the Mexican government of the charging of Mexican nationals) was not binding on the individual states, and so the habeas petitions filed by 51 Mexican nationals were rightfully denied. In the analysis, the majority looked to the text of the treaty, and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and the US Constitution, and found that ICJ decisions were not self-executing treaties and could not be binding unless the Senate ratified them. My question was whether he would advise countries developing independent judiciaries to include something in their constitutions that would make ICJ decisions binding on the individual parts of the country. He didn’t directly answer this, saying that it was up to the country and he couldn’t advise them one way or the other, but he also said that if the country decides it wants to be bound by a bunch of judges far away, it’s that country’s own perogative. That seems clear enough to me. So then he taught the constitutional law class, which I unfortunately could not attend. I heard it was great. But then, in the afternoon, he and four judges who sit in Kansas (two 10th Circuit judges, a District of Kansas judge, and a Kansas Supreme Court justice) judged the final round of our in-house moot court competition. There were probably 100 students there, a number of professors, a handful of local judges, and lawyers from the firm (Foulston Siefkin) that sponsors the prizes for the in-house competition. The student advocates were excellent. The bench was really hot. The justices usually didn’t let the advocates speak for more than 15 or 20 seconds without interrupting them. The few times they didn’t interrupt, the advocates were kind of thrown off. But everyone did a really great job of advocating, especially under such intimidating circumstances. All of the judges/justices-for-the-moment gushed about how wonderful the advocates were, and Judge Tacha even said they did as well if not better than the final round in the national competition, whose problem we used. I was thrilled for the team that won - Dani and I were rooting for them from the beginning - but I was still a little bummed that it wasn’t the two of us up there. After the competition, there was a reception in the informal commons. Lots of men in suits (and not just federal marshalls) were trying to get close to Roberts, but I managed to get pretty close to him. And then he turned towards me! And he shook my hand and thanked me for my question! It was a very proud moment for me, even if it was just what the situation required. I know CJ Roberts is a conservative judge, and I don’t necessarily agree with his opinions (including the opinion he wrote for Medellin), but he’s brilliant, his credentials are absolutely outstanding, and he’s kind of dreamy. I’ve been joking about swooning. Ah, men with power. That is probably slightly inappropriate for a legal blog, but oh well. It’s been an exciting day and a half. (And today was the last day of classes, which made it even better.)
Apr 2008advertising
“We’re not gonna take it” is probably a bad song lyric to have playing during a birth control pill commercial.
Apr 2008two weeks until finals
Two weeks and counting. Seven days of class left. Seven days. I think Joel is going to take care of my cats. And I’ve got my flight to DC. But I’m still working on a place to live. It seems like things are falling into place though. I still have to send in my contract. I’m very excited though.
Apr 2008my immune system
My immune system hates me, it seems. In the past six weeks, I have had a migraine (or at the very least, a terrible headache) for five days straight, two colds, some random bug that had unpleasant symptoms, and now there’s something wrong with my eye. My left eye hurts like crazy. It now hurts whenever I blink. There’s stuff coming out of it, too. And when I lean my head forward, my left eye feels massively heavy and like it’s going to fall out. It’s bad. Pinkeye? Let’s hope not. My eye is red and swollen now, but I’ve been rubbing it all day. Anyway, I have a couple papers to write and a trial advocacy trial to prepare for. Woohoo. I love my weekends.
Apr 2008I'm back from New York
The international law conference was great! I met lots of really interesting people. The panels were pretty decent. My best friend also ended up being at the same conference, and we hadn’t established that until Tuesday. Crazy. But it was great to see her. It had been graduation since we last saw each other. And another really good friend from college lives in New York and works as a pastry cook. It was so good to be around people who know me. I guess it was a nice balance of old and new. KU won the NCAA basketball tournament. It was an exciting time. I was in New York for the Final Four, and I hung out at an unofficial KU alumni bar. People were going crazy for Russell Robinson (from New York, NEW YORK!). It was tons of fun. Anyway, life is good, and I’m very thankful to be surrounded by people who love me. Oh, I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I got a summer job at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services! I’ll be living in Washington, D.C. for the summer. I just need to get through this semester. I just need to get through Friday, really. Our human rights symposium is on Friday. Hooray!
Mar 2008one wonderful thing about this week
My favorite boy is home for a full week. A FULL WEEK!!!
Mar 2008back home again... for a week
Five of us from LCM spent last week in the Twin Cities. We did a service trip, spending time at a homeless shelter, a food pantry, and an after-school program. It was an excellent experience, and one that I need to still process. One thing that I was struck by was the gradations of homelessness. The thing that came up a few times was that, when people have a place to sleep, when they have four walls and a roof, they don’t necessarily consider themselves homeless. That was interesting to me, and something that I didn’t consider before. It was an eye-opening trip. I should write more and study.