Bull Moose Strikes Back

“Of course they can’t be honest, they’re interpreting the constitution.”
- My IP Prof pointing out a rather ridiculous parsing of the intellectual property clause of the constitution by the Supreme Court.

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I walked into Costco on Sunday – that would be the 27th of August – and was greeted by a glowing snowman and a big lit up “NOEL.”
That’s right, Costco is starting to roll out their Christmas merchandise.

Can’t they let me get over being depressed about summer coming to a close before they make me start thinking about exam season?

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Nothing to say. Just wanted to post a picture of a really hot woman from a really cool country.

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My hopes that the 2L as the “work you to death” year would be overblown have been laid to rest, at least for the fall semester.

My first impressions of the courses:
Bioethics:
This is going to be a lot more philosophy and a lot less law than I would have thought. The professor should be good, though, he has a Ph.D. in bioethics, a J.D. from our law school (first non-Ivy League or Stanford alum I’ve had). There are a lot of good issues to talk about – abortion, stem cells, end of life issues. Should be fun. There are three papers to write, though. Thankfully, two are “reflection” papers with no research required.

A lot of the students seem to have had Catholic ethics courses as undergrads and are now openly hostile to them (makes you wonder why they continued on to a Jesuit law school). There are also a couple lapsed Baptists, including one that describes himself as a “hardcore atheist.” At least he didn’t call himself a Secular Humanist.

Besides me, there are two others with biotech backgrounds, including an academic Ph.D. in molecular biology. Academic Ph.D.s are always so annoyingly arrogant. I fled to industry for a reason. I can almost guarantee we butt heads more than a couple times this semester.

Intellectual Property:
Someone finally figured out that the first course in IP should be a survey course, instead of reading cases that will just be re-read in the more advanced IP classes. There looks to be a lot of good material from historical perspective of the Constitutional basis for patents and copyright, as well as a general idea of what they are about.
The only downside about the reorganization of the class is that the professor isn’t sure what the exam will be like.
There is a lot of material to read in this class. Way more than any other 3-credit class I’ve taken.
The prof is a pretty amiable guy. In fact, he’s the guy I went to for class scheduling advice last spring.

Legal Writing II:
Another non-ivy prof (U. Washingotn)? Another female, American born, Asian for Legal Writing?
This one worked as a prosecutor for a long time, though, and seems pretty humorless. Great.
And she’s taking the “work you to death” seriously. There are two huge papers and three oral arguments. The first oral arguments are nest week already. I’m getting tired just thinking about this class.
At least this times it is three credits in one semester so actually worth the work unlike last year’s Legal Writing I.

Constitutional Law:
Me before class: “What are all these day students doing in this class?”
Prof after class starts: “I grade pretty liberally.”
Me: “Oooohhhh…”

Back to the Harvard professors. And despite his hippie look – long grey hair, and jeans in class – he doesn’t seem to have much love for Seattle, choosing to live in Tacoma instead, and more surprisingly hinted at being a bit of a constructionist.
Hey! I want to argue with the class, not have the prof argue my material!

And work? You bet. When a decision like Dred Scott runs about 150 pages, you can begin to see how that might take a toll on the clock.
I’ve been looking forward to this class since I was admitted. I hope it lives up to the hype.

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Career wise, my wife is one of these people that seem super-ambitious, but in reality are just operating at their basal level, and plus actually have the talent to back up their perceived ambitions. You know, the kind of people that make you sick because you (pick one) are tired/have plateaued/just want to go home and play video games.

Anyway, she’s the kind of person that when the three star admiral in charge of her and thousands of people meets her, he wants to groom her. Part of this is because she’s a woman in a man’s world, I’m sure, but that’s only part of it. As part of this grooming he wants to bring her out to Washington, D.C. In fact, she may be going out there for a 6-month to a year, leaving me in peace and quiet while I work on finishing school.

Then comes the question: Would I want to live out there permanently?
Hell no.
I can’t see myself living anywhere in the portion of the country north of Richmond, Virginia and east of Youngstown, Ohio. I like occasional visits to DC and New England seems nice, and my father’s side of the family is from that part of the country, but it’s not for me. In general the feeling I get there is “crowded” and “used.”

Where I’m from and where I live now there are plenty of people around, but within 45 minutes I can be in the middle of nowhere. I can’t begin to think of how much I would miss that. It seems like in DC in 45 minutes I could be… in Chevy Chase, if you caught traffic right.
Plus the mountains, where there are any that can be called that, are small. I’d imagine the trailheads are crowded.
Plus, the incidence of running into people from Boston and New York would go way up, and that’s a huge negative. (Not to disparage all New Yorkers and Bostonians, but in general, you know what I mean. Hey, I don’t like running into Seattlites, either, but at least I know how to shut them up now.)

So, am I being fair to that area of the country? I love my native Upper Midwest, but have adopted the Northwest (with the exception of the city limits of Portland and Seattle, and the militia areas of Idaho) as my home area, but I don’t think Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge could win me over like the Cascades, Olympics, and Lolo have.

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Class resumes tonight and I’m officially a second-year law student.
Tonight is Bioethics and Intellectual Property. Tomorrow Constitutional Law and Legal Writing II begin.
I think taking Bioethics in the same semester as the second Legal Writing class may be a mistake. The syllabus posted indicates 3 papers. Blech.
Oh well, no final, though. I can BS my way through papers much easier.

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“Second-tier city, in a third-tier state, with a fourth-tier cost of living.”
- Anonymous Lawyer’s opinion of Seattle.
Hilarious.
Though I wonder where he was coming from where he got a Red Eye to Seattle. Most red eyes are away from Seattle, because of our western frontier location, especially when it seems he was coming from Atlanta (previous post).
Of course, he’s fictional, but I’m guessing his author was writing about his travels to promote his book.

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John Hawkins has a list of his favorite authors up today, so I thought I’d steal the idea.
So, in no particular order are some of my favorites:

Robert Jordan – The first few Wheel of Time books are among the best fiction – fantasy or otherwise – I’ve ever read. I’m not as critical as some others for his mid-series slow down, especially since “Knife of Dreams” seems to have picked up the pace as the series moves towards a conclusion.
Now if he’ll only finish before he dies.

Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman - I tore through their first two Dragonlance trilogies. Great fantasy. Plus, one of them is from Wisconsin.

Terry Brooks - The first non-Tolkein fantasy I ever read. I’m not a huge fan of his non-Shanara books, and some of his stuff is deriviative, I love the way he keeps flipping his Shannara world on its head. Not as great of a wordsmith as some others, but he keeps me turning the pages. Brooks lives in West Seattle somewhere.

J.R.R. Tolkein – The granddaddy of them all. All other authors of fantasy are in his shadow. Plus his books have the advantage of having been filmable.

Tom Clancy – It’s been awhile since I picked up one of his books, but his early Jack Ryan books and Rainbow Six are a lot of fun. It’s too bad that the film adaptions of his work aren’t as fantastic as the video game adaptions.

Teddy Roosevelt – Most overlook his volumous written works on history, hunting, and the strenuous life in general in favor of his other contributions to America, but they shouldn’t. His “Winning of the West” is absolutely seminal.

Edmund Morris – OK, the whole “Dutch” thing was weird, but his first two biographies on Theodore Roosevelt, to be followed by a third, are meticulously researched and really did examine TR’s soul.

Stephen Ambrose – Another Wisconsin connection. Every high school kid in the country should have to read “To America” his love letter to America written on his deathbed. Books on subjects he is passionate about such as “D-Day,” “Crazy Horse and Custer,” “Nothing Like it in the World,” and his biographies on his friend Dwight Eisenhower are well paced and never become dry while conveying historical detail. “Undaunted Courage” is still my favorite history of Lewis and Clark, because he draws in Jefferson for historical perspective.

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Torts grade came in unexpectedly early. I tied for my highest grade. 33 1/3% of nuisance lawsuit booty here I come!

More importantly in all four sessions my GPA has increased every term, and I’ve gotten into the top curve band a couple times now. (I’ve always been into trending, even where it might not mean anything.)
I’m looking forward to class rank now. I’m predicting right around top 25% based on the last few years. Not bad, but not great. I had expected a little more out of myself, but it gives me something to improve upon. Plus, I have demands on my time others don’t which may help in interviews. We’ll see.

In any case, it’s nice to have all 30 credits of 1L in and accounted for before I start working on my 2L reading.

UPDATE: Yep. Right around 25%.

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This is why I have serious doubts that I’d ever be able to step foot in San Francisco without being subsequently jailed.
I’m always a little bit more tolerant of women displaying emotional leftyism, but those two dudes would lose some teeth.

Check out all the pics here. The seventh one down is a hoot. Protect Hezzbollah from the U.N.? Isn’t that like saying protect the money from the vault?

The Packers play there in December, and I’m trying hard to decide whether or not it is worth the risk to go.

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Back at work. Sigh.
At least there is one more week before class starts.

The new airline rules are stupid. OK, I understand not letting liquids through security, but why can’t I buy a water after security and bring it on the plane? The Minneapolis to Seattle leg was torture for me I was so thirsty.
Plus, it’s not like the added security will make anyone safer. There are already too many exceptions. Do you think a terrorist won’t figure out to get a prescription bottle to match his ID, or finds a baby to bring on board so he can bring “formula.” Baby Moose was able to bring on a whole sippy cup of juice, with no need to prove it was juice.
It’s just more placebo. Like the ferry where they get upset if I leave my backpack to take a leak, but never bother checking what I am hauling in my saddlebags.
The only way to stop these guys is before they do something like the Brits just did, or once they try like the passengers did with Richard Reid. I don’t think security does anything but discourage the stupidest of terrorists.

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I’m consistently having trouble flying back from North Carolina.
Two times ago my flight got re-routed through Detroit which is horrible.
Last time we flew through Newark, and while we were in the air they had that huge power outage. Think about that: Newark airport with toilets that won’t flush.
Now we have these crazies trying to blow up planes from London, and as a result I can’t carry a bottle of water on the plane. WTF? I need water on a 3 hour flight. If I don’t drink more than 1/3 of a can of pop in a 5% humidity environment for 3 hours, I dry out, membranes crack and I get sick.
That’s right. Those jackass terrorists are probably going to give me a cold. They need to be hanged by the neck for this biological attack on me.

I’m getting irritated with Pakistan. It seems to me General Mustache is doing just enough to help us to not get bombed. That’s no way to run a war on terror. We should throw in a middle position. Help us as much as they are now, he doesn’t get bombed. Help us a little more or we will forcibly shave him.

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I’ve been wondering for months about how the Democrats were going to white -gas themselves this time and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Now I know.

I won’t say much about Lamont’s “victory” because there are a lot of other sites doing it better, but I did want to look at something head nutter Kos wrote on his blog.

Republicans. They’re going to do some silly press conference on Wednesday claiming the Democratic Party is held in thrall by craaaazy people who agree with, um, 2/3rds of the American people on Iraq.

This is why the Democratic party being attached to these idiots is the kiss of death. Two-thirds of the American people do not want to cut-and-run. They do not want to abandon Iraq to Islamists and Saddam loyalists. These people do. If they look at a poll and see that there is a 67% disapproval rating of how Iraq is being handled and equate that with 67% of the people want to run away, it just shows how out of touch they are with reality.

I look forward to their new Diebold conspiracy theories in November.

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Today we rented a Harley Road King and went touring. We stopped at Moores Creek National Battlefield.
I always just assumed that this was a Civil War Battlefield because of where it is. Nope, this skirmish over a bridge was the first decisive Patriot victory of the American Revolution. All these times down here I had never stopped in before. I’m glad we finally did.

A re-creation of the bridge:

The re-created earthworks where the Patriots were laying in wait to fire on the loyalists. They could have used Admiral Akbar to warn them:

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Last Wednesday my wife was invited to take a crusie on the LPD-7, USS CLEVELAND, and was able to bring me along.
The Cleveland has been deployed since June ‘05 and has seen plenty of action. They have a memorial to the Marines from the ship who have died in Iraq on board, lest we forget what this ship’s business is.

As a thank you to the taxpayers who funded this boondoggle, I thought I’d share a few pictures:

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It’s rarely good to see one’s hometown in the national news, but I’ll say this is an exception.

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Mrs. Moose and I were lucky enough to be invited to crusie Puget Sound on the USS CLEVELAND for part of Seattle’s Seafair Fleet Week. I meant to get pics up, but with trying to get everything together for vacation, I haven’t had time to edit them properly.
The house we rented in North Carolina has high speed internet, so I’ll try to get some up soon. There are some pretty good ones, I think.

Otherwise, it’ll probably just be some photos of vacation here and there next week.

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So, did I get my facts confused? Did Mel Gibson shoot up a Jewish Center and Naveed Haq get drunk and say some stupid things about Jews?
The way people are trying to, uh, crucify Gibson and making excuses for Haq, I think that must be the case.

I guess Mel Gibson can always rape a 13 year-old girl, and then he’ll be back on the Oscar ballot.

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