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October 31, 2023
Pantheon: Charlize Theron
Posted by JD Hull at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2023
The 3 days of AllHallowtide starts October 31. Get ready, y’all.
Allhallowtide is a Western three-day observance (or triduum, a word I learned today) between October 31 and November 2 when we remember and honor the dead. The days are All Saints Eve (Halloween) on October 31, All Saints' Day (All Hallows') on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2. Although a tradition associated with Christianity for the past 1000 years, Allohallowtide is hardly recognized outside the Catholic church, and even Catholicism seems to have increased its distance over the centuries. The observance, especially the first day of Halloween, a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening", seems to have deep pagan roots, with many of its celebration traditions like those of Celtic harvest festivals. Culturally, however, it's still a big deal with most Westerners, especially their kids. Little kids. Big kids. Those celebrating that first day of Allohallowtide seem to get older every year.
"Snap-Apple Night", Daniel Maclise, 1833. It was inspired by a Halloween party Maclise attended in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, “Remains of the Temple of the God Canopus in Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli,” from Vedute di Roma, 1768. The print decorated the late Jorge Luis Borges’s apartment in Buenos Aires.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
God on Stormy Monday.
But Tuesday's just as bad. Wednesday's even worse. Thursday's awful sad. The eagle flies on Friday, but Saturday I go out to play. Sunday I go to church and kneel down and pray. And I say, "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me. Just trying to find my baby, won't you please send her on back to me."
--T.Bone Walker
Posted by JD Hull at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2023
Mr. Speaker
Speaker Mike Johnson’s a character out of a novel and all people can do is argue about which box he fits in.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2023
Superior state of mind…
For what else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to the gods?*
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Bohemian Paris 1840s: The Downwardly Mobile Arts.
At once playful and dead-serious, Paris is "the city where artists love and starve together, shock the bourgeoisie, then die tragically young." Visit Girls' Guide to Paris and read Cynthia Rose's "Arthur Rimbaud: The Poet as Pop Star."
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2023
Elvoy Raines (1951-1999)
I still miss my friend and old drinking pal Elvoy Raines, writer, lawyer-lobbyist, outlaw. We were very much alike; he was a toper, a writer, a life-long philanderer, a nightmare husband. He was on Oprah once. He checked into Harvard in his 40s like it was a rehab. He liked women. A lot. Anyway, with Elvoy, they broke the mold. I remember every conversation. He called me the "craziest white man in America." I called him Dr. Raines. He once said: "It's been good for our careers that bars in Georgetown close down during the week by 2 or 3 am, don't you think?" An American authentic. I hope some of his writing--of several genres--is still around.
His Washington Post obituary in fall of 1999:
Elvoy Raines Dies at Age 48
October 23, 1999
Elvoy Raines, 48, executive vice president of the Hawthorn Group, an Alexandria public affairs and public relations company, died Oct. 21 at Georgetown University Hospital after a stroke.
Before coming to the Hawthorn Group in 1997, Mr. Raines was a vice president of Ogilvy & Mather Public Affairs and later senior vice president of the Powell Tate public relations firm, both in Washington.
A native of Lakeland, Fla., Mr. Raines graduated from Florida State University. He earned a law degree at the University of Florida and a master's degree in labor law at the Georgetown University law school. He then attended the Harvard University School of Public Health, where he did doctoral work in public health.
He came to Washington in the 1980s. His positions included deputy executive director of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, chief lobbyist for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and director of education for the American Social Health Association, the nation's oldest nonprofit organization providing information and education on the subject of the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. During that time he served as liaison between ASHA and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the federal government initiated its national AIDS information and education program.
Mr. Raines continued to work in the area of public health during his service at Ogilvy & Mather and Powell Tate, where he was a founding principal. At the Hawthorn Group, he oversaw the company's strategic planning.
He is survived by his wife, Angela T. Thimis, of Washington; a daughter, Brooke Raines of Mooresville, N.C.; and a sister, Rhea Edwards of Bartow, Fla.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2023
Parties, Ideologies and Faiths Do Not Solve Problems. People Do.
Since the summer of 2005, this blog has showcased a number of pet issues and themes. We’ll keep doing that.
One topic has been the importance of thinking independently about law, government, politicians and political ideologies. Or about The Upanishads. The Sun Also Rises, Huck Finn. About my friend Ernie from Glen Burnie, who is a seer. The Art of Seduction. The Old Testament. Parker Posey.
Or thinking independently about Anything.
There are these days lots of good, and arguably "bad" notions and ideas--nationally and internationally--all along the political and cultural spectrums, and there is no reason to pick one party, camp or pol to follow on all ideas.
After all, people, not ideologies, solve public problems. People who mix and match do.
You don't need a label. You need not be a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Anarchist or Nihilist. You can "mix and match" both pols and ideas. Me? I've changed, if subtly, and in ways that trouble a friend here and there. But my thinking is pretty much the same as it was when I was in my 20s. As a "liberal", I never really trusted Big Labor. I've never liked the "politically correct" speech regimen many traditional liberals unfortunately embraced. To the contrary, I've always admired free speech--and I revel in it. But the main change is that in 2017 I registered Republican for the first time. Not much else is different.
Most of us do have a Political-Civil Rights-Human Rights-Social Justice resume, CV or profile (hereinafter "Political CV"). I use "political" broadly here to describe anything related to participation in public affairs where some social purpose was fully served beyond my own self-aggrandizement, ego or pleasure. More than one purpose is okay; few of us do anything out a pure heart to "will one thing." So below I've fashioned my Political CV. Forget about Dem or GOP or Libertarian scripts. I've listed things that I did in large part "for the public good." For example, things I'm not including are Senior Class President (mix of duties and agendas), Eagle Scout (the same), working in a union-shop factory (Keebler's, in my case), membership in student or church groups with some but not primary political or social welfare slant, merely being asked to run for Congress (and saying no), merely voting, serving on an elected but non-partisan Zoning Board for a community of 40,000 or going to see Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary or Milo speak at the Cow Palace. Or throwing a huge pickle at an on-stage Iggy Stooge (and hitting him).
But passing out leaflets for a political candidate, demonstrating against POTUS candidate and Alabama Governor George Wallace or working regularly with the urban homeless? Oh yeah. Those are "political". They reflected my idea of furthering "the public good" at the time I did I them. You get the idea. There's got to be a cause, some heat, some passion in an activity that helps others. Doesn't matter if it's a national issue or not. Doesn't matter if there's rhetoric involved.
Anyway, I've been an activist in everything I've ever done--and particularly with respect to groups I've joined or with which I've identified. So, and since I was 16, here is my political resume in chronological order. All of this is part of me now. All of it I’m proud of and still believe in. I'll update it as I remember things things.
1. Campaigned twice for Jerry Springer (Ohio-D), for runs for Congress and City Council in Cincinnati.
2. Campaigned more briefly but earnestly for Howard Metzenbaum, U.S. Senator (Ohio-D)
3. Worked with Armstrong United Methodist Church in Indian Hill, Ohio on several long-term projects for inner-city kids in Cincinnati, Ohio. Some with my mother (Head Start). Some in connection with working toward God & Country Award for BSA. (I was an Eagle Scout.)
4. Worked twice at as counselor at a camp for handicapped kids at summer camp in Cincinnati.
5. My party's candidate for 1970 Governor of Ohio Boys State. I was "liberal" party candidate and lost to a black kid from Sandusky. Ohio named Tony Harris. The race made news on television and in newspapers all Ohio Midwest. I lost.
6. Student Reporter, Duke University Daily Chronicle. Civil Rights Beat, Durham. (1972-73)
7. Demonstrator, anti-Vietnam war movement. Several marches, demonstrations, including Moratorium in D.C. Demonstrated against POTUS candidate George C. Wallace in Michigan in runup to Michigan primary.
8. Wrote "Soul City: A Dream--Will it come true?" feature for Duke daily Chronicle. March 1974. Interviewed among others Floyd McKissick, one of founders of Soul City, the first model black city in America. Paper won acclaim and 2 awards for this reporting.
9. Aide, Sen. Gaylord Nelson (Wis.-D) (1974-1975, parts of 1976) Spearheaded demonstration project passed in Congress in preventative health care for Menominee Indian tribes in Wisconsin.
10. Worked for Lawyers Committee Under CIvil Rights suing VA furniture makers under Title VII. Class action suit. Covington & Burling.
11. Worked off and on but actively for 2 years helping probe possible violations of Voting Rights Act by large Ohio city. Department of Justice/Legal Aid Society.
12. Awarded 1-year poverty law fellowship in Toledo, Ohio. Turned down to move back to DC.
13. Test "husband" for "the white couple" for mortgage and leasing redlining discrimination investigation conducted by HUD
14. Two of three law review articles on racial discrimination under Constitution. Zoning and Voting. Two awards.
15. Two feature articles appearing in major paper Sunday magazine. First on zoning in a small Ohio River town, New Richmond, Ohio. Second about a 1st Amendment and zoning crusader named John Coyne in rural Clermont County, Ohio.
16. Aide, Representative Bill Gradison (R-Ohio) 1978-1981. Health. Energy. Natural Resources,
17. Treasurer 2003 State Assembly Campaign for CA Democrat, Karen Heumann.
18. Wesley Clark for President (2003-2004). Chief San Diego Fundraiser and (briefly) CA Convention Delegate.
19. Board of Directors, North San Diego County Democrats (2002-2012)
20. Hillary Clinton for President, 2008, 2016.
21. Co-Founded (with Peter B. Friedman) One Night/One Person Winter Homeless Program in Northern America & Europe 2015. Now in year 6.
22. Defense counsel for two mainstay leaders of the Proud Boys, before both courts and Congress, re: January 6, 2021 events.
Original: April 3, 2019
Updated: June 13, 2023
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2023
Hunter Thompson speech, October 22, 1974, Duke Daily Chronicle
Posted by JD Hull at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
Indian Summer, Hudson River 1861, Albert Bierstadt
Posted by JD Hull at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2023
Sensitive Litigation Moment: Rule 5. Over-Communicate. Bombard, Copy, Confirm.
Over-Communicate: Bombard, Copy Confirm. It's from our annoying but dead-on accurate 12 Rules. And it's short.
Rule Five: "Over-Communicate": Bombard, Copy and Confirm
I am indebted to Jay Foonberg for the inspiration for Rule 5--both "bombarding" and the idea of keeping clients continuously informed. Nearly all of my better thoughts about practice management are influenced by Foonberg. The notion of "bombarding" clients with paper and information does have obvious exceptions. For instance, you work with a GC who trusts you and wants you to leave her alone. She doesn't want you to copy her on every transmittal letter or e-mail. Fair enough. Just be 100% sure you know what she wants and doesn't want. But aside from that, this is a "can't miss" rule--and I am amazed that many good lawyers express surprise that my firm informs the client of everything at each step of the way, and copies our clients on everything.
Again, our eternal debt Jay Foonberg for this rule. We just changed the words a bit. Thanks Jay for being the first lawyer to sit down and think about how clients really think.
Over-Communicate--but keep it short and don't spazz it up.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
Isn’t it time?
Bring Back Real Women. Educated. Smart. Curious. Elegant. Thin. Pretty. Healthy. Feminine.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2023
Shannon on Irish Ambition
“Supreme egotism and utter seriousness are necessary for the greatest accomplishment, and these the Irish find hard to sustain; at some point, the instinct to see life in a comic light becomes irresistible, and ambition falls before it.”
~ William V. Shannon
Great book with misnomer title. Thomas Cahill. 246 pages. Nan A. Talese, 1995
Posted by JD Hull at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2023
Phillips, Gilmour & Townshend: it’s Monday. Give blood this week, Campers.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2023
St. John of Patmos: Craziest Man in the New Testament.
Looking into the Void. Saint John of Patmos writes the Book of Revelation in this Hieronymus Bosch painting (1505). Whoever wrote Revelation--no one really knows--was Out There. One King-Hell Flake. But he could write and tell stories. Wow.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2023
I miss John Dawson Winter III (1944-2014)
Damn.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2023
“The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus,” Salvador Dali, 1959
Posted by JD Hull at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2023
Redux: Blawg Review #65
We live in a world that never sleeps.
Most mornings, lawyers at my firm get e-mails from people in all manner of time zones: Hanjo in Bonn, Michael in London, Giulio in Rome, Paul in Cardiff, Angel in Madrid, Claudia in Pretoria, Ed in Beijing, Christian in Taipei, Greg in Sydney and finally Eric, a DC trial lawyer. Two or three times a year, I see Eric, a partner in an international litigation boutique of 35 lawyers. But I've never seen him in the US. Ever. In the eight years I've known him, Eric has had a plate full of international arbitrations. He could be anywhere when he e-mails--just probably not in this hemisphere. His client could be German with a claim against a Dutch company at a Brussels arbitration venue applying English or American law.
Lawyers sell services--and services are increasingly sold across international borders. In fact, services generally are becoming the new game. In 2004, services, sold alone or as support features to the sale of good and products, accounted for over 65% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the US, 50% of the United Kingdom's GDP and 90% of Hong Kong's. Our clients sell both goods and services. The growing "global economy", the expansion of the services sector, the Internet and the resulting ability to partner with people and entities all over the world permit our smallest clients to do business abroad. And lawyers in all jurisdictions can act for interests outside their borders. You, me, our clients and our partners are now international players. Every day we meet new ideas, new markets, new regulatory schemes, new traders and new customs. Our new world may not be exactly "flat" yet. But it's certainly become busier and smaller very quickly.
In Blawg Review #65, we'd like to introduce you to some people we've met. All of them are listed on the left-hand side of our site if you scroll down a bit on a directory we first published on our May 26 post The Legal World Outside America: Non-US Blawgs. The blogs on your left fall into 2 overall categories: (1) legal weblogs which originate outside of the United States and (2) blogs from all over which comment on international law generally, or on a particular subject matter, jurisdiction or region of the world. You can't meet all these people in one day. But here's a few:
Hail, Britannia!
Meet first Delia Venables, a well-known consultant in East Sussex, in the southeastern corner of England. "Delia central" is Legal Resources in the UK and Ireland. Our favorite is Blogs, News Feeds, Podcasts, Video Blogs and Wikis with UK and Irish Content. Delia also offers an Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. My friend Justin Patten at Human Law, subtitled "Law, Technology and People" combines, in a novel and interesting way, IP and Employment Law. This is an active, well-written and often provocative blog by a lawyer in Hertfordshire, just north of Greater London. Justin is one of the few non-American members of Law.com's Legal Blog Watch. See his recent post "How Interactive Do You Want to Go?", musing whether blogging lawyers can help create new terms, conditions and billing policies in the legal services market by using the blogosphere to assess and scrutinize them. And Nick Holmes's Binary Law, previously "What’s New on the UK Legal Web?", is consistently excellent and alert to new developments. See Nick's post "Sincere flattery or blatant affrontery?" on copy theft. For fun, charm and wit, also see Charon QC...the Blawg, who is the product of the imagination of Mike Semple Piggot.
Brits Who Love Tech. How can you not love a people who prize eccentricity, love poetry and words and still--judging from their number of Nobel Prize winners over the past 50 years--excel at science and technology? Meet Geeklawyer, an IP lawyer who once did R&D in the US for a company in the "evil American empire" and who blogs about IP, civil liberties, the UK legal system, and "angry liberal" things. He's got a motorcycle called The Terrible and Inexorable Wrath of God, a co-writer named "Ruthie" and--well, just go his site. Words fail me--but never Geeklawyer. A wonderful combination of the substantive and the absurd. See especially his and/or "Ruthie's" recent posts "Darling we're all working class now" or "You Cannot Fucking Swear in Dover". And TechnoLlama, published by Andres Guadamuz in Edinburgh, Scotland, will be blogging this week from Australia, where Andres is attending a conference on "Unlocking IP". Department of I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke--or a Pepsi--Whatever: British blogger Jeremy Phillips, who is popular on more than one continent, turns his eye toward Atlanta and weighs in on the Great Coke Heist in last week's last news at his IPKat-fishing for IP stories for YOU. His post is It's Not The Secret, Silly!
France
France, my second favorite country, and which in my view has more in common with the US than any other nation, had a bad day yesterday at the World Cup in Berlin at the hands of Italy. We'll start by going to straight to Ca’Paxatagore, with its permanent home-page and truly spectacular view of...the Grand Canal in Venice, of all places. So beautiful though that it's got to cheer anyone up. But blog-wise, the French have lots to be happy about other than the fact that all of the French blogs we've listed to your left are beautiful to look at even though you don't read French anymore. The French still have attitude, too. They wait patiently while we Yanks and Brits either learn or re-learn our French, which is still an official United Nations language. We, for our part, wait patiently while they translate more things into English. In the meantime, we must be happy with Droit en Enfer, with another great title page, and the quote:
God Bless Law
“Law is the ultimate backstage pass. There are more students in law schools than there are lawyers walking the Earth.”
– John Milton/Satan (L’Associé du Diable)
Germany
Three German Fulbright Scholarship alums in Hamburg, Berlin and Seattle publish the Atlantic Review, a press digest on trans-Atlantic affairs which won the 2006 award for the Best German Blog in the 2nd Annual European Weblogs Awards sponsored by none other than A Fistful of Euros. AR was founded in July 2003 out of a concern for the deterioration of the US-German relationship. Note the last two posts: German-American Relations on the Eve of President Bush's Visit and What? Germans Sing Nazi Anthem in World Cup Stadium?. There are other fine German blogs, many available in English. One favorite is Transblawg, by Margaret Marks, a British solicitor and translator who lives in Bavaria. Another is the German-American Law Journal, published by a consortium of mainly German lawyer-writers. See last month's post "Forum Shopping in Germany", which in discussing "Internet torts" likens the issue to the one faced by American courts. Nanotechnology Law, by Mohamad Mova Al 'Afghani, in Goettingen, assesses "legal implications of nanoscale technologies and the emerging molecular nanotechnology". Hey, no problem.
Italy
Bellissimo! Nice going in Berlin! Italy wins the World Cup: Italy Beats France for Title on Penalty Kicks. Enough said. Harvard publishes the Harvard International Review, which for its 100th post ever brings us Why the FIFA World Cup Is and Should Be a Big Deal. It begins:
In an increasingly integrated world with few platforms for international engagement other than war, trade, tourism and sterile political unions, it is understandable that the quadrennial FIFA World Cup has become a major avenue for countries to display their national pride, project their “national character” if there is such a thing, and to unify their diverse populations around a cause.
European Union
There are several sites, some listed on your left, which cover the European Union and European law and politics generally. The TransAtlantic Assembly covers an interesting mix of European and American international and constitutional law subjects, with an emphasis on the new European constitution. Recently TAA opined a little on "Election Year Politics, American Style", which is an interesting read. Also worth visiting is ECJBlog, by Allard Knook in the Netherlands, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Utrecht who covers the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Iraq
We've tried to find Iraqi law sites--even American military justice or State Department ones. No luck. The University of Pittsburgh School of Law's Jurist Legal News and Research did post "Senior US Iraq general finds Marine commanders at fault in Haditha probe". And then there's Baghdad's Salam Pax, of The Daily Absurdity Report (previously, "Shut Up You Fat Whiner"). Salam Pax has had several blogs since 2002. See his "Democracy Day" post earlier this year on the anniversary of Iraq's first voting experience on January 31, 2005. See his latest post in early June. He says he's working on two video blogs, trying to blog about what's going on in Iraq these days. Excerpts:
A friend of mine, after seeing how desperate and frustrated I was getting trying to get someone to talk on camera, said that I should go to the Kadhimiya district. People will talk there he said. Right. I haven’t been there for ages and I had no reason to believe that it will be different there, but I was getting desperate. I decided to go there the day after a bomb exploded by a bus in that neighbourhood and killed 13 people.
In case you didn’t know Kadhimiya is a Shia district, I have a Sunni family name. The knot in my stomach was getting tighter the closer we got to the check point through which we get into the market area near the Kadhimiya Shrine. What if they ask me for my Iraqi ID? They had an explosion here yesterday and I have a Sunni family name? No this is not paranoia. I have the wrong name and I need to get myself a new forged ID with a Shia name. Anyway, I was lucky they were happy with my NUJ card (the first time I was really happy I had it on me, I usually fear that if people see it they think I’m a foreign journalist).
Once inside I had the biggest eye opener. I saw the future of Iraq, or at least Baghdad. Inside the barricade and past the checkpoint was a piece of the old Baghdad. Shops full of people, all relaxed and smiling. Everybody wants to talk and tell me how their lives are and I even got invited to have tea and accepted the invitation without thinking that this man saw my camera and he is just delaying me until the kidnappers arrive.
Just for fun, try e-mailing Salam Pax like we did and see if afterwards you get funny little clicks on your phone every time you talk to your Mom in Cincinnati.
China
Visit Seattle-based Dan Harris's China Law Blog--China Law for Business. Just do it. Dan's already an old China hand--and no one does a better job of day-in day-out reporting and commenting about business, government and culture in this incredibly powerful, important and exceedingly complex part of the world. And see Rich Kuslan's Asia Business Intelligence. The focus here is on China, but Rich covers most of Asia. For an interesting primer on multi-cultural manners and a clue why you need real experts in Asia, see Rich's post Sino-British Joint-Venture Dissolved for Rudeness? Similarly, Asia Business Law, based in San Francisco, is another fine resource, which featured on July 4 the post North Korea Intentionally Provokes USA While Iran is Waiting in the Wings--What is China's Role? and a follow-up on July 6 Prognosticating About The North Korean Missile Situation. For some time now, this blog has linked to another fine resource, Chinese Law Prof Blog, edited by GW Law professor Donald Clarke.
Singapore
We can find just one, Singapore Law Blog, but it's very nicely done. Frequent and to-the-point coverage of legal news and developments in this very old center of trade. Note the recent posts on a free trade agreement with Korea and proposed rules addressing lawyers who defraud clients.
Australia and New Zealand
Next week's Blawg Review host, David Jacobson, is an experienced Australian commercial lawyer who founded Jacobson Consulting. David now publishes David Jacobson's External Insights, which focuses on helping businesses plan and develop policies and tackle complex projects, with a special emphasis on dealing with the ever-expanding maze of government regulations with which all businesses in developed nations must deal. This is a first-rate site from a broad-gauged lawyer. He writes on everything from customer service subjects to the risk of bad publicity in litigation and venture capital models. Oikos, by David Jeffreys, an environmental lawyer, is a blog about ecology, environmental law and related economic issues. If you are interested in fossil fuels, greenhouse gases and in the global warming "hoax", do see Climate Change Litigation in Australia. On client service and relations, Liz Harris has a new blog called Allocatur. In "Are You Defaming Your Client?", she points out that's it's bad enough to have an adversary relationship with your client--and even worse when that comes out in litigation during e-discovery. Finally, Wellington, New Zealand's Geoff Sharp has a blog you'll just have to experience yourself. It's called mediator blah..blah. Great graphics, too. See Geoff's post last month "Meet the Fockers".
Canada
One of the most comprehensive resources for client service ideas and education anywhere in the world can be found at the Canadian Bar Association’s CBA Practice Link. And American-lawyer bloggers are familiar with Gerry Riskin's well-known Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices and Toronto-based technology lawyer Rob Hyndman technology. Rob has a terrific recent post entitled Now Bloggers Really Can Be Journalists. Academic blogging is also strong in Canada, too. The University of Toronto Law Faculty Blog is an active and often provocative one. Recently, three UT professors wrote three different commentaries in three different newspapers on a recent Canadian "spousal misconduct" decision you can pick up on here. And Canadian lawyers are batting around the same issues which occupy American legal debate--see "Too Much 'Truthiness' in Judicial Activism Debate". Blawg Review's precocious editors also have introduced us to Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, who focuses almost entirely on IT privacy issues, such as monitoring by ISPs of customer communications. There are quite a few substantive specialty blogs, for example, Michael Fitzgibbon's Thoughts From a Management Lawyer, David Fraser's Canadian Privacy Law Blog, Simon Fodden's popular Slaw, "a co-operative weblog about Canadian legal research and IT" and Christine Mingie's interesting Gaming Law International, a subject which has received increasing coverage at International Bar Association meetings over the past three years.
Other Resources: International Law, Economics and Policy
The American Society of International Law has publishes the "ERG", known formally as the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law. Around since 1997, ASIL's "ERG" is a fabulous site which escaped us--thanks to the Blawg Review editors for pointing it out.
United States
Independence Day in the US last week prompted the usual range of commentary from patriotic to highly critical of American policies here and abroad. On balance, we are happy with and therefore reprise here last year's highly respected July 4th Jeffersonian Blawg Review (#13), by the Editor of Blawg Review. This year, on July 5th, ex-Enron chief Ken Lay died. No shortage of commentary here either, but some of the best was in Peter Lattman's WSJ Law Blog in Lay's Death: Questions and Answers and a later collection of reactions to Lay's demise and its effect on Enron litigation. Another very fine and thoughtful post belonged to Tom Kirkendall at Houston's Clear Thinkers entitled Ken Lay and the Enron Myth. Peter Henning, at his well-respected White Collar Crime Prof Blog, explained the quite-dispositive legal effect of Lay's passing on the criminal proceedings against him in Ken Lay Dies of a Heart Attack, also referred to in Lattman's posts. Larry Ribstein, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, at Ideoblog, prompted a stir by treating Lay insightfully but somewhat sympathetically, as reflected here and here. Do crimes in the "foolish" category really support, in Lay's case, a life sentence in prison? Dave Hoffman at Concurring Opinions came to Ribstein's defense in The Academic Business Judgment Rule. And last week another interesting "event" occurred--it went unnoticed by nearly everyone but the Secrecy News from the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the US statute presumptively requiring release of public record to petitioning citizens, turned 40 on July 4. FOIA is still about as "American" as a statute can get--and it has been replicated by nations all over the globe since Lyndon Johnson signed it into law on July 4, 1966.
"International" Lawyers? Say what?
What's an international lawyer, anyway? A lawyer who knows certain aspects of international law? Or a lawyer, as one joke used to go, "who is just an international kind of person"? Well, maybe both definitions apply these days. It's changing. In America, there's still a longstanding, relatively small, elite and irreplaceable bar of "real" international lawyers. These are your partners down the hall who represent domestic and foreign interests before several US agencies and forums responsible for tariff, trade and customs laws: the Department of Commerce, the International Trade Commission, the Trade Representative's Office, the Court of International Trade, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Customs Service. You may hear them talking about antidumping and countervailing duty law, export controls and unfair trade practices. Another segment of this group does complex transactions involving treaties and laws of jurisdictions abroad. Some have always worked abroad. Others somehow mix diplomacy and business. More recently, many lobby before and/or litigate against foreign governments, and some do commercial arbitrations. Todd Weiler, historically one of the real deals, asks "Am I Still An International Trade Lawyer?" one week ago in International Law and Economic Policy Blog. Excerpt: "I run in two circles: (1) historically and academically, I know a lot of trade law types (trade remedy lawyers, WTO scholars and enthusiasts, etc.); but (2) currently I spend my time with international commercial arbitration lawyers." Todd, to answer your question, your hybrid status in the future may be the rule.
Final Notes and Blawg Review #66.
We hope Blawg Review #65 was interesting--or at least gave you an idea or two. In recent years, "international law" has become a fluid concept that changes even as we were writing this. There are lots of ways to learn more. For starters, the London-based International Bar Association's annual meeting this year will be held 17-22 September 2006 in Chicago, USA. Details are here.
At this blog, we'd like to help "expand the digital conversation" afforded by the blogosphere and keep it full, fresh, inclusive, useful and reflective of our new world. Right now, though, the conversation remains lopsided. Not enough people in the conversation. What About Clients? would love to hear about legal or "international" (you decide) weblogs you can recommend in any language from or about Latin American, eastern European, Africa and Mideastern jurisdictions, and Russia. And we claim no turf here. So start including your own favorite non-US blawgs or blogs about non-US subjects on your blogrolls. Spread the word a little.
With that important request, we conclude Blawg Review #65. We thank the editors of Blawg Review and the creative if mysterious anonymous Editor 'n' Chef for asking us to do this, even if at the last minute. It was an honor. All errors or omissions are due to this hosting blog alone. If you have a site or post you recommend, e-mail us at jdhull@hullmcguire.com and we'll attend to it as quickly as we can.
Blawg Review has information about next week's host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.
July 10, 2006
Posted by JD Hull at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2023
Indian Summer, Hudson River 1861, Albert Bierstadt
Indian Summer, Hudson River 1861, Albert Bierstadt
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Getting It Right: The Alcoholic Glories of Lowry
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
--Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784 London
Posted by JD Hull at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2023
Germans
The most civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany; in the rude institutions of those Barbarians we [received] the original principles of our present laws and manners.
--Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter IX (1782)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2023
The Landing of Columbus, 1847, by John Vanderlyn
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New York-born John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) was a student of Gilbert Stuart. However, he was trained and worked in Paris. There he worked on this canvas for ten years. It is 12 feet by 18 feet.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Fourteen
Drum roll please. As of October 5. 2023, the patrician Chicago beauty and storied Ozark scrapper pictured here in mid-1950 have fourteen (14) great-grandkids. Fourteen and counting. Fourteen.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
Heidelberg
Tramps Like Us: Heidelberg Castle.
Around 1620, Jacques Fouquières painted Germany's Heidelberg Castle, a famous structure in both German history and art, in "Hortus Palatinus" (below). Although the Castle has been in splendid ruin for most of its history, artists still flock to its foundations, gardens and terracing. Camera-toting American lawyers do, too. I've spent several hours at the Castle on each of my four trips to Heidelberg--and I am sure I'll go again. Nearly 140 years ago, Heidelberg Castle was a hit with Americans. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as writer and humorist Mark Twain, wrote about the storied castle in Appendix B to his famous "A Tramp Abroad" (1880).
Posted by JD Hull at 02:57 PM
| Comments (0)
October 08, 2023
Cummer Gallery: Rombouts's "The Concert" 1620
The Concert, c. 1620, Theodoor Rombouts (Flemish, 1597-1637)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
Fight the New Bigotry
Cancel culture kills expression, fun, satire, humor, poetry, literature, and Art itself. The progressive left and the Dem party stopped being liberal ages ago to become the New Bigotry. Get off your knees and fight cancel culture. Hardly anyone will. Do it.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2023
7 Rue de Castiglione
Hôtel Costes
“All things in excess”
Posted by JD Hull at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2023
Doing Rome.
The comparisons between Rome and the U.S. are exciting and instructive. --What About Clients?
When in Rome, do as many Romans as you possibly can. --Hugh Grant
Rome. I don't like working here--charitably put, work-life balance is totally out of balance in some regions of Italy--but I love being in Rome. You can walk in this city. You can frolic in it. You can play all day long in and paround the The Forum and Palatine Hill, where antiquities are still being found. There's a guy with a shop at the Piazza Navona--2000 years ago the Piazza was a Roman circus (i.e., track) you can still see if you try--who sells me these unique old prints, beautifully framed, that I bought for my father in Cincinnati. I go to that shop on every trip. The Tiber River is still gorgeous and, like the Seine in Paris, steeped in history, and a bit melancholy and mysterious. Lots happened here--maybe too much--and it's as if the river can remember it all.
Pannini (1743): Ruins, Chiostre, Statue of Marc-Aurèle
In the West, our strongest ideas and institutions, including what became English law, were conceived or preserved by Rome. The increasingly-made comparisons between Rome and the U.S.--no, they are certainly not new--are still exciting and instructive. The Romans were competent if grandiose empire builders who borrowed their best ideas and forms from a previously dominant Greece, while America's cultural debt is chiefly to western Europe. Like Rome, America tended to overextend itself in all spheres. Like Rome, America was globally aggressive. (Other peoples resented it.) You get the idea.
But you can't see, experience and "do" Rome on one trip--same thing with New York, London or Paris--and you shouldn't try. Our advice: do several trips, and "live in it" each and every visit, taking small bites. And spend your trip with anyone but those from the same nation and culture as your own. If you go there with Americans, break out of that bubble. Politely say goodbye--and disappear into the streets on your own.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2023
Proud Boys: Coleman and Hull nail J6 again. Alert the media, please...
Posted by JD Hull at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
2121 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C.
Cosmos Club. Since 1878.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2023
Manchester, England
Flag waving
Lowry-loving
Boundry shoving
Cottonmilled...
Bomb-rocked
Unbroken...--from Carole Houlston's 2004 poem "Manchester"
Manchester, Britain's Second City, is feistier and rawer than London. Imagine another second city, Chicago, only smaller (in population, Manchester's center city is roughly 510,000, and its urban area is 2.6 million). But also a bit tougher. Proud blue collar towns like Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Baltimore also come to mind. No nonsense and shamelessly tough and gritty, Manchester's history in the last 200 years is one of tireless industrial expansion and a hardworking populace. The city was at the center of the Industrial Revolution that started in England in 19th century. Manchester became a major manufacturer worldwide, particularly in textiles, expanding steadily for decades. Manchester even had a school of thought based on free trade and laissez faire economic principles named after it ("Manchester School"), coined by England Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. In recent years, Manchester became primarily services-based. This new economy emerged as the fastest growing one in England, as well as one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Maybe that's why no one in Manchester ever seems to yearn to move to London. Or to any other town. The City has everything--including a tradition of prospering on its own. Gritty Manchester. It's a "mean old town to live in by yourself".
Johnny Winter: Mean Town Blues
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Columbus at the Gates of Santa Maria de la Rabida with His Son Diego, Benito Mercade y Fabregas, 1858
Posted by JD Hull at 06:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2023
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Return from the Harvest, 1878
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Return from the Harvest, 1878. Cummer Art Museum, Jacksonville
Posted by JD Hull at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
Recent photo of friend of mine
Posted by JD Hull at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)
“Hi! how are u?”
Classic from 2016. When men were men and women were merely crazy....
NOTE and WARNING: So a youngish attractive person (by normal people standards) between 18 and 25 from her photo recently "friended" me on Facebook. I apparently accepted thinking she had some personal connection to me; she does not. Today she privately messaged me to chat via Facebook Messenger. We chatted while I was still at my office--I'm a youngish energetic Boomer lawyer; we're all like this, even on Friday nights--in my last half-hour at work. I unfriended her at 7:26 PM. Look, there is nothing more dangerous/ unsexy than this kind of human you meet on the Net. Okay, a bit funny to me maybe. However, if you're a regular homely and/or sexually-frustrated married guy unskilled in philandering, or a part-time or novice cad, this is NOT fun, funny or safe. Do not try this at home; you'll just screw it up, end up on a Chris Hansen NBC show. Am correcting typos/punctuation of her English prose for clarity in this post. Otherwise verbatim:
(Chat Conversation Begin 6:56PM)
HER: Hi
ME: Hi, what's up? Can I help you?
[longish pause]
HER: How are you doing?
ME: Fine. And you?
HER: I am doing well. I am looking for a good man.
ME: That would not be me. I have had 2 or maybe 3 wives and scores of girlfriends and cheated on every one of them. Besides you are way too young for me. Way.
[moderate pause]
HER: You mean you cheated on your wives and GFs?
ME: Yes. Every one of them. I think there's something wrong with me.
[No pause at all but then this non-sequitur response...]
HER: But I believe with love 2 people can overcome age and distance.
ME: Well, I don't. I'm looking for (1) Smith College, (2) brilliance, (3) wit, (4) Anglo-Gaelic breeding, (5) athleticism, (6) world-class beauty, (7) a flat in London and (8) really big trust funds. And (9) right here in DC. Must have all 9.
[another longish pause]
HER: Really?
ME: Yes. Absolutely. How did we get to be FB friends? I may be the wrong Dan Hull. There are lots of Dan Hulls and most are lazy hillbillies like me. Half of us are in jail.
[short pause]
HER: Uhhh...ok.
[Chat Conversation End 7:25pm]
Posted by JD Hull at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)