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July 26, 2008
The Senate works on Saturday; NBC gets all excited.
The U.S. Senate is still the most elite and effective legislative body the world has ever seen. And most members of Congress--even the dumber, wimpier and more clueless legislators--work very hard. Weekend sessions aren't all that unusual, but it apparently makes good copy ("rare weekend session") to slip that in there. MSNBC: "Senate approves sweeping housing-rescue bill". The House passed the bill on Wednesday, and the Senate acted today. The president still needs to sign it.
WASHINGTON (MSNBC) - The U.S. Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill Saturday, offering emergency financing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating a new regulator for the mortgage titans and setting up a $300 billion fund to help troubled homeowners.
With the U.S. housing market in its deepest slump since the Great Depression, Congress acted with unusual speed in recent days to move the election-year bill to the White House.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Happy 65th, Sir.
Thanks to Ed. and his tickler system. It's a boomer thing; if you're one of them, and you've been listening for the past 50 years, here's our choice for your entire life's soundtrack.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Correction.
Following Dan Hull's post below on the upcoming host of Blawg Review, Scott Greenfield's wife immediately submitted this alternative photograph of Scott which she prefers to the one we used. Your wife have a single sister, Scott? Because we won't be dating her.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Simply Excellent.
Listen, you creeps, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the dogs, the filth and the crap. Here is a man who stood up.
~ Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver (1976)
It's not that often that a high-powered, talented and well-known practicing trial lawyer has a wildly popular blog he operates on the side. The odds, folks, are against it. Well, here's a man who gets more clicks than any working attorney we know. A hero to many, and a thorn to some, lawyer-writer-New Yorker Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice is my comrade in various global struggles and movements. And together we seek to become the Travis Bickle of law and policy. Just saner, mainly. Scott is not just passionate, analytical, admirably credentialed, and way bad-ass. He's a bit mysterious, even ominous: the kind of man who beats fish to death with his bare hands. In two days, he hosts Blawg Review, #170. We'll stay up late to say we read it first. You talking to me?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
So John Edwards is a big dog, too?
Fox News, and the National Enquirer, say the ex-Senator's been breaking bad, maybe with a staffer's mistress, and maybe not. It's confusing to us, but at least someone is having some nasty-immoral adult fun:
A Beverly Hills hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. [more]
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2008
Brother, can you spare a quid?
In a few weeks I go to London for a quick stay on the way to points west. There, prices are as high as ever for Americans. Aside from the image of my panhandling (maybe Legal London would be a good neighborhood for begging, in my case) the price of my normal Mayfair or Marble Arch hotel room for a couple of nights, it got me thinking about a trip there 16 years ago. One of my first business trips to Europe was in September 1992, near the end of Bush I's first and last term. And Europeans, including rank-and-file white collar Londoners and Parisians, conveyed to me deep concerns about the then-faltering American economy, and the ripple effects on Europe.
Are things going to turn around?, they'd ask. What about this Clinton guy, the one from the southern state? Will it help if he's elected? What if Bush wins? Lots of questions about specific industries. I thought: Whoa, ordinary Europeans know their markets are linked to ours, and they worry about it--but do we Americans worry in reverse the same way? Well, if you think our British brethren aren't in our corner these days, think again. See at The Economist the new piece "Unhappy America", thoughtful and sympathetic, which begins: "Nations, like people, occasionally get the blues; and right now the United States, normally the world’s most self-confident place, is glum".
Brother, can you spare a quid? Yeah, other side of Hyde Park is okay. Your couch in Notting Hill? Okay, sure, I'll just slum.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Harvard on Mexico: Weather, relocation, "nutty" ideas.
The Harvard International Review has this one: "Nutty? Mexico’s noisy passion for population relocation". The idea is to "move populations away from coasts and river banks, and toward urban areas".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2008
"Segmenting" customers and clients.
Whether they sell products, services or a products-services mix, smart companies treat their best customers better. See "Customer Segmentation" at Service Untitled.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
And don't give me any lip about it, because it's someone else's fault.
Hi, I'm Justin. And I am very happy going through life as a turd. For more insights on both sides of The Slackoisie Thing, many of them quite good/funny, see this post and related links at Simple Justice by Scott Greenfield, one of the few non-PC voices in a New Age wilderness of mediocrity-coddling and accommodating-the-lame. So the "issue" gets defined a bit more. We hard-driving boomers, subtly brutalized by our Depression Era Greatest Generation parents, have helped create this new batch of semiliterate lightweights and wimps who give up at the least sign of adversity. So what do we do about it?
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
If a juror claps during closing argument, what result?
Excuse the exuberant juror, declare a mistrial, do better voir dire, or hire the applause getter? At Deliberations, see "What Is The Sound Of One Juror Clapping?" The spectacularly unpersuasive (my view) California appellate opinion which prompted Anne Reed's post is here.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2008
Clean Energy Markets for China Exporters
Our friend Dan Harris is all over China. He wants your clients and you to make money. See at his China Law Blog the link to the U.S. Department of Commerce report, Clean Energy: An Exporter's Guide to China. From the 113-page report's summary: "It offers an analysis of the existing infrastructure of clean energy technologies and identifies market opportunities through 2020, including market forecasts, market drivers, cost data, and market segment analysis".
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
David Giacalone: Debt Reduction in America.
Over at the consistently elegant f/k/a, lawyer-writer and former U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawyer David Giacalone gives us "Doubts Over Debt Negotiation Fees". This is one of the best supported and comprehensive pieces of writing you will read about lawyers on a blog--or not-on-a-blog. We stopped billing hours, serving subpoenas and gutting pension plans just to read it. Thank you, sir.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2008
Brands, Buzz and Whispers: Blawg Review #169
This week, Blawg Review, No. 169 is hosted by brand strategy consultants Whisper. It focuses on "lawyers demonstrating their brands and thereby revealing their unique genius, rather than devolving to labored explanations of relevancy." Well, you get the idea.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
The People's Republic of Helpful.
"It starts out proclaiming China to be ruled by law, but beyond that, it actually is quite helpful on the legal dos and don'ts for foreigners in China." Via Dan Harris at China Law Blog, see this English translation of mainland China's "Legal Guidelines for Foreigners" for entering, exiting and staying in China during the Olympics. A 13-page white paper of mainly true stuff. There's even short sections on how the government will deal with drunks and guns--presumably in case a U.S.-style firefight involving Texans breaks out during the Parade of Nations.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
The Business of Blogging
San Diego North Chamber of Commerce
Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 7:30--9:00 a.m.
"The Business of Blogging" is the first of a number of workshops hosted by the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce to demonstrate how technology can boost business. WAC? was one of three speakers who addressed how to (1) make a blog successful (2) to help make a business improve. Below (past disgruntled blog-dogs) is the handout we used during the presentation.
Dan Hull, Rancho Bernardo, California USA
What About Clients?
• 100 Most Informative Blogs in the World (No. 60), Carnegie Mellon (Nov. 2007)
• 2007 Best Business Blog, American Bar Association (Jan. 2008)
A. Stats (from Technorati.com)
1. About 70 million blogs worldwide
2. About 120,000 created each day (1.4 new blogs every second)
3. Japanese is the #1 blogging language; English is second.
B. 5 Rules
1. Write to match business goals.
2. Only the “right” people at your shop should blog (i.e., grownups who can write).
3. Do short posts (with compelling titles).
4. Post regularly.
5. Be provocative, and brave, ya' big wimp.
C. Seven Great Blogs
1. News/Commentary. InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds, Knoxville
2. Personal. Minor Wisdom, Ray Ward, New Orleans
3. Business. Blog Maverick, Mark Cuban, Dallas
4. Arts. Paris Parfait, Tara Bradford, Paris
5. Travel. My Marrakesh, Maryam, Morrocco
6. Business. Groovy Like a Movie, Brent Altomare, San Diego
7. Business/Law. Real Lawyers Have Blogs, Kevin O’Keefe, Seattle
D. Resources
1. Technorati: www.technorati.com
2. AllTop: www.alltop.com (Guy Kawasaki)
3. ProBlogger: www.problogger.net
4. www.blogsearch.google.com
E. Blog platforms
1. Movable Type
2. TypePad
3. WordPress
4. Blogger.com
5. Tripod
6. SquareSpace
See the full PDF version of Dan's handout here.
Posted by Brooke Powell at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Ruthie's Law does itself in.
Because "she is increasingly in demand for writing that she actually gets paid for", the much-stalked and popular Brit law bird Ruthie of Ruthie's Law is terminating her blog but promises to come back in the form of a website.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)
July 21, 2008
In case you missed it: 75 new non-U.S. blogs.
"Americans do tend to think that the rest of the world is rather far away and not terribly important." Delia Venables, UK legal IT commentator, in interview with UK's Law Society Gazette, March 2, 2006. See our May 29 post on new sites added to the Directory of Non-U.S. Blogs on your lower left. Our total is now about 300--but there are more worthy ones out here. If you have suggestions of additional sites on law or business from around the world, just forward them.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
Grits courting Brits.
The cheap dollar lured foreign investors to the U.S. last year for the biggest spree since 2000. Some American investors want that favor repaid. Last week's The Economist: "America’s Confused, and Sometimes Scared, Relationship with Foreign Investors". It begins:
Eight-five Alabamians will descend on Britain on July 13th. Despite the timing, they will not be tourists in garish shorts. This group wears pinstriped suits and includes Alabama’s governor. Their destination is the Farnborough Air Show. Their goal, in flying overseas, is to convince foreign investors to return the favour. [more]
Posted by JD Hull at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2008
Equal time: Gen Ys fight back.
Below in full is one of the several comments we received to the May 20 post "Who cares what makes Generation Y tick?".
The boomer's [sic] have systematically destroyed all that once made life bearable: marriage, traditional faith, the hope of financial security. In place of what used to be the societal superstructure, our generation has been force fed the consumer culture. We still feel empty. The money you pay is not worth it. When I pay off my loans (twenty years from now) you can kiss my ass.
And after you are dead, which unfortunately will take a while and cripple our generation financially, we can correct the gervious [sic] injuries that your generation inflicted on humanity. If the present election is any indication, boomer's [sic] are incompetent leaders who's [sic] malignant narcissism is only exceeded, at times, by their myopia. Take your second trophy wives, McMansions, and blinding self love with you when you shuffle off this mortal coil.
Dang. This guy let boomers do that to him? Here's help from a great boomer band that refused to give up.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
Dog days: Hot, with increasing Chaos later this week.
And the dogs grew mad. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and usually feel a little weird this time of year, don't worry. The 6 weeks between July 1 and mid-August were named by the Romans after Sirius the dog star, the brightest star in the sky, save the sun. "Dog days" were linked to Chaos: "the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies". Brady's Clavis Calendarium, 1813.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)