So it’s getting to the end of a long semester. I’ve got finals looming, a term paper that needs revision, clerkship applications winding up, and an internship winding down. In short, I’m fairly busy and a little stressed out.
But, lo, as though the gods of law knew I needed a pick me up, what do I find in my mail box today but the two most delightful words to any law student: Class Action!
That’s right, I had no clue that these people had wronged me, I have no records of my employment to scour through, and, until today, I barely remembered working there. But thanks to the magical workings of the class action, I should be getting money from them in a couple of months. Wowee!
And this isn’t one of those “You were overcharged for long distance service, here’s your $1.35″ class actions. No, my calculations tell me I should get real money from this one — $10, maybe $15! There’s going to be an all-day Double Stack and Frosty feast when that check comes in.
I’ve been seeing Kathryn Lopez link to this list of books that some people think “all” high schoolers should read before graduating. I’m definately with JohnDerbyshire on this. Back in high school I somehow got it into my head that I needed to read a bunch of Great Books in order to be smart. I read most of the stuff on that list (though I didn’t know of the list’s existence until a couple of days ago), as well as a few dozen books not on the list. I read a lot, honestly.
Then about half way through Anna Karenina, it dawned on me that virtually everything I was reading was a crashing bore. In the ten years since that reading spree, the only fiction I’ve read that wasn’t assigned to me in a class was Tolkien. Turning reading into something I had to do completely killed my desire to read. I think forcing any 16 year-old to read Virgil would have a similar effect; it’s simply more fun to watch television.
The negative consequences of forcing teenagers to read aside, I looked at the list, and I would actually advise against high schoolers reading most of what’s on there. Read the rest of this entry »
A few of our dear readers have asked why their comments don’t appear after typing them in. The answer is that all comments—even of the actual Federalist Paupers!—go straight to the spam filter, which some Pauper must then clear out. It was a cumbersome process, so we’re experimenting with a different spam sorter-outer. So comment away, and we’ll see how this goes.
Hubbard posted this at 12:21 PM EDT on Monday, April 6th, 2009 as Ourselves
Over the last week, I’ve gotten a strangely large volume of wrong number calls. At least one a day, sometimes two. On Friday, I got a misdirected text message from a number I didn’t recognize asking me to engage in some criminal activity. Note to readers: if you’re going to request drugs via text message, make sure it’s a known number in your address book.
About 2:30 this morning, the phone rang but I didn’t get to it in time. It was an Arkansas area code. On the voice mail, a guy with a thick foreign accent and little English skill, kept calling me “James” and said that I needed to come pick up my friend at some place, but I couldn’t understand the place he named. Then in the background, some drunk guy with an Arkansas accent started explaining that he was waiting on me and he was going to get arrested for public intoxication (he called it “PI,” so I think he’s familiar with the charge) if I didn’t come pick him up.
Considering the circumstances, I called back to explain that I wasn’t James and probably wouldn’t be coming to pick that drunk guy up, but the guy with the foreign accent couldn’t understand what I was saying, and the drunk guy was just muttering incoherently and didn’t seem able to use the phone properly. Eventually I got tired of shouting “Wrong number!” and just hung up. They didn’t call back, so I presume things resolved themselves. Best of luck, drunk Arkansan.
Fact 1: Oliver Stone keeps making movies that cover topics I’m interested in. See 1, 2, 3, 4.
Fact 2: Oliver Stone keeps making movies that bore me to death. See 1, 2, 3, 4. See again 1.
Fact 3: The previews for W. make it look interesting.
Fact 4: The previews for Alexander made it look interesting.
Fact 5: There is a fantastic movie to be made about George W. Bush. And it may include a [tiny] part of the left’s weird insistence that the last 8 years are best understood as a mediocre son trying to outdo his heroic father.
Fact 6: That movie will not be made by Oliver Stone.
Existential Whine 1: Why must the Hollywood director whose interests most closely correspond to mine be an unrepentant Communist?
Perhaps it is because I’ve moved to central Texas and visited his home, or perhaps it’s because he compares so favorably to our current crop of politicians, but I’ve developed a soft spot for LBJ. Wednesday would have been his 100th birtheday, and they gave away cake and bar-b-que at his presidential library, located at the university I attend. Twice daily I drive over a lake now named for his wife. Texans, above all else, like Texans. So take this for what it’s worth.
This post is a wonderful summary of what we’ve lost since LBJ died. He was a titan of liberalism in its finest, most idealistic form. The party he left behind now occupies only a portion of his shadow. They seek neither American greatness nor their own moral superiority; at best, they seek to continue only a few of a the programs he started, and to have America be only one country among many.
Whatever criticisms conservatives have leveled at the Great Society–they are both plentiful and salient–there is still something admirable about the man. He didn’t want to destroy the country and rebuild anew; rather, he wanted to build on the greatness that he already saw in America. Compared to the current crop of Democrats who only love America to the extent that they can envision something better, Lyndon Johnson is a breath of fresh air. He loved America for what it was and what it had been, for its values and its faults, while seeking to make it better in the future. That he was the last Democrat to seek to defeat the Communists should not be overlooked.
Before he died, he grew his hair long and devoted himself to cattle ranching; that was probably preferable to watching his party being taken over by New Left nitwits.
Today Dorothy and I were walking around the refrigerator section of a Best Buy. We were going down the line opening the doors of each refrigerator. About the fifteenth we opened, we found cheesecake and plates, and a note advising us to help ourselves. So we did. Not the best cheesecake, but better than what you’d expect to find in a random refrigerator at a Best Buy.
Apollo posted this at 1:53 AM EDT on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 as Ourselves
This morning, I woke up to find no water in my apartment. A water main burst, so I ran down to a gym to shower and shave. I looked around, and was suddenly concerned that smaller people would go into orbit around me. I bumped into a neighbor, who knows my aversion to gyms, and he was confused until he realized that I also had no water.
Later at work today, I ran into a colleague whom I hadn’t seen in a while. He was dropping off several projects that were supposed to go to me but somehow went to him instead, which is a semi-regular occurance since we have the same first name. He said, “You look good. Have you lost weight?”
I offered to have his love child; he declined and looked very confused. One way or another, I’m confusing everybody today.
Hubbard posted this at 11:07 AM EDT on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 as Ourselves, Vignettes
